Luisa Beccaria’s spring collection was presented with a short movie, shot during lockdown by artist and filmmaker Lola Montes Schnabel at Feudo del Castelluccio, Beccaria’s family estate in Sicily. Called Know Thyself, it’s a celebration of the designer’s IRL lifestyle, which could actually inspire a remake of The Leopard, Luchino Visconti’s 1963 movie, a dramatic yet visually exquisite portrait of the aristocratic milieu in mid-19th-century Sicily. Even if not exactly Viscontian, Schnabel captured the romance and decadent charm of Beccaria’s country life, which she shares with a stylish bohemian tribe of children, relatives, and friends.
The collection’s look book was shot during the filming of Schnabel’s short movie, depicting in a series of vignettes of what actually happened in a pastoral yet intensely social summer season at Castelluccio. Swathed in Beccaria’s flimsy floral concoctions, her daughters are seen going about their daily chores: baking bread, making almond milk from the organic almonds grown on the estate, and cooking with the olive oil produced by Luisa’s husband, Don Lucio Bonaccorsi. Even the designer’s 90-year-old mother makes a cameo, presiding over elegant candlelit gatherings and reciting poignant poems by Emily Dickinson. As the saying goes, the family that eats together stays together.
“What we wanted to express through these images is how much family values are important to us,” said Luisa, with her daughter and collaborator Lucilla by her side, at a showroom appointment. “And the respect we feel for the earth, for what nature gives us so generously. How much we cherish a life of simple pleasures and beauty.”
Beccaria’s style has a consistent timeless quality: “We don’t do ‘new’ for the sake of it,” she said. Indeed, her dresses don’t really go out of style, as they’re quintessentially feminine in their flattering yet rather simple design. Her mother looked ravishing in one of the long, loose-fitting white poplin dresses with scalloped florals embroidered in delicate colors. And her young nieces are just as lovely in practical striped cotton dresses and flowing, almost immaterial chiffon numbers the color of liquid Sicilian skies.
In the look book, pieces from different collections and seasons are mixed together freely. “Our repertoire is ageless, seasonless, timeless,” said Lucilla. “Knowing thyself means being aware of your uniqueness,” chimed Luisa. True. Style is nothing without substance.
