The Collection "La Bruma e i Fossi" of lessico familiare

We are not together at the moment, but Riccardo, between a sip of cappuccino and a voice note, updates me from Paris. While he presents his collection, I follow him remotely: gray and dense fog, ditches, rows of white poplars, the dark and slow river—a constant reminder of mortality—plastic chairs, shops with rough fabric curtains, pale yellow sweets as soft as polenta, Marlboro Lights smoked in the train bathroom on our way to school, tears, and coats. These fragments paint a portrait of familiar memories collected during adolescence in the plains stretching from Turin to Venice: the Po Valley. *La Bruma e I Fossi* stems from the desire to revisit a psychogeography of dreams and rough love, a search for something akin to twilight. Among its main inspirations is L’Albero degli Zoccoli, Ermanno Olmi’s film set in the 19th-century Bergamasque countryside. This masterpiece recounts the daily life of the farmers of a Lombard farmhouse and won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1978. Olmi described his work as a tribute to the land, saying: “At a time when our existence is at risk, respecting the land means looking at it as a mother who protects us.”

Dover Street Market Paris is transformed, for the occasion, into an imaginary farmhouse, a space capable of embracing the sweet and bitter memories evoked by the collection. The spaces are divided into evocative sections: le coin magique, la maison, la place, nature, and hay. The garments presented explore cocoon-like shapes where sleeves lose their original function, deconstructed and almost erased. They are not cages that limit movement but rather enveloping shells under which to rest. A nod to the festive days of farmers in the Po Valley, when, for a few hours, arms could relax, reaching out to a bowl of polenta or a glass of Lambrusco. The collection includes coats, shearling pieces, leather cloaks, shirts, and nightgowns. Each piece is unique. A special series of hats was created in collaboration with Bergamasque artist Patrizia Benedetta Fratus, daughter of the protagonist of the film L’Albero degli Zoccoli.

The exhibition includes works by artists from the Po Valley region, such as Stefano De Paolis (Bergamo, 1992) and Jacopo Valentini (Modena, 1990), alongside contemporary contributions like Florence Carr (UK, 1997) and historical masters like Enrico Erba (Cremona, 1895–1979). Riccardo tells us: “This collection represents a turning point for us. We are now communicating that we exist, literally, in the market. For now, in just one location, but we exist. Dover Street Market Paris has welcomed us, and that, for us, is already an achievement.” “The collaboration was born from conversations with Carla and Adrien in our 15-square-meter studio. Carla kept saying: ‘Let’s do something together!’ So we decided to draw inspiration from December folklore—coats, chestnuts, rustic countryside rigor. The garments convey a poetic simplicity we never want to lose, not even in retail.” The collection is produced by the Venetian studio Mare Karina. Special thanks go to Marta Barina, Beatrice Tafuro, and Tabatha Mazzabò, who helped make this project possible.