Are we in the age of the brand panettone?

As much as the world is dedicated to exclusivity, luxury also feeds on much more accessible offerings. For example, fashion brands may draw on imagery seemingly far removed from catwalks and limited editions, such as food. By using the heritage of Italian gastronomy as a semantic reservoir, brands have turned the food into a narrative tool to open up to communities and audiences that are otherwise difficult to reach. Catering - here an honorable mention must go to the Armani Group, which was a pioneer in the field of hospitality and dining and had already collaborated with Venchi in 2010 - where Alessandro Michele's aesthetic vision found its own dimension in the Ostaria project. Just like at Fendi, the invitation for the SS21 collection show was a Rummo pasta box with squares in the shape of the logo. A scenario into which the case of Bottega for Bottegas falls, a project focused on celebrating Italian craftsmanship.

If we limit our view to the Christmas holidays, we can see that more than one brand has decided to focus on sweets, food, and drinks. This is the case of Dolce & Gabbana, a brand that has always been dedicated to telling a pure Italian heritage bordering on the cliché of dolce vita, and which has wrapped the typical panettone cakes of the Sicilian tradition in deliberately kitschy and hyper-pigmented packaging. This year, the packaging of Baci Perugina, the historic Gianduia chocolates from Umbria, has also been redesigned, in this case, wrapped in white chocolate and decorated with lemon granules. To emphasize the brand's DNA, the selection features 35 sayings by designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana that accompany each praline. Msgm, together with the Milanese confectioner Cucchi, founded in 1936, has put its stamp on the Panettone, the Christmas leitmotif par excellence. The double logo has been placed on limited edition panettone cakes and a clothing line specially designed for Christmas.
The celebration of the wider holiday season was a narrative thread that OTB Group picked up on, choosing Marni as the ideal testimonial for a Christmas charity project. Throughout December, in some of the Italian brand's shops, for a minimum donation of 35 euros, it will be possible to receive Marni's Solidarity Panettone, which will be kept in a personalized and reusable tin box. In the same vein, Pinko is launching quarterly collaborations with historic Milanese institutions after opening a new shop in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. Pinko has launched a panettone with Pasticceria San Carlo, with packaging designed to match this collaboration. Finishing off the food initiatives is the Armani Group: with a selection of typical Lombard desserts and the use of high-quality materials, Armani/Dolci offers a sensory journey that enhances the regional confectionery tradition If you have friends or relatives who are not only passionate about food but also about fashion, now you know what to give them under the tree..