Giuliva Heritage Offers Accessories, and History Lessons
LONDON — Lockdown hasn’t stopped Gerardo Cavaliere and Margherita Cardelli, the husband-and-wife founders of Giuliva Heritage, from building their niche, tailoring-led business with new categories.
Last year they added men’s ready-to-wear to the women’s tailoring mix, and this month they’re unveiling accessories collections for men and women, with classic shapes and a genteel, retro edge.
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For women, there are bags, belts, footwear, and gloves made from leather and the home interiors fabrics for which the brand is known. For men, there are gloves and belts.
The prices are designer-level, with the bags retailing for up to 1,600 euros, and flats ranging from 360 euros to 400 euros.
Cardelli said they’d been thinking about accessories for the past two years, and buyers had also floated the idea. She added that during lockdown, she and her husband finally found the time to design the collection and sort out the manufacturing, too.
“We didn’t do pre-spring last year, so we had more time and space to design a proper collection. It’s a completely different approach from rtw, and it also took us time to get the production right,” said Cardelli. “We believe so much in what we do, and we really wanted to get it right. We see this collection as another way of educating our clients about the brand.”
The bags and belts are made in Florence, Italy, while the gloves and shoes are done in Naples.
Cavaliere designed all of the buckles and belt attachments, and certainly knows his stuff: Cavaliere’s origins are in made-to-measure men’s wear with his business, Sartoria Giuliva.
The materials — leather, herringbone wool, tapestry weaves and traditional home interiors fabrics — mirror those in the brand’s fall 2021 rtw collection.
The red and white diamond weave fabric that appears across items such as gloves, bags and ballerina flats is exclusive to Giuliva. The hand-loomed fabric resembles the one that women from Italy’s central Abruzzo region use to cover their tables and beds, according to Cardelli.
As with the rtw collection, the accessories are distinctive, not only for their lavish, meaty fabrics.
The women’s shoes have a 1920s feel, with their T-straps and almond-shaped toes, while the leather buckle-front riding boots are something a dapper Italian aristocrat, or a suspect from “Murder on the Orient Express,” might have worn in the early part of the 20th century.
Cardelli said the bag shapes are classics, while the weekend tote was inspired by Mary Poppins’ bag. She said the couple have been watching the film on repeat with their two-year-old daughter, and loved the idea of a roomy, if not bottomless, style that could double as an overnight bag.
Cardelli said the couple took a practical approach to the other bags, too. They’ve created many shapes — shopper, overnight and briefcase styles, bucket and tote bags, which Cardelli said can work together even as a travel set. She said that in the coming seasons, they will launch a small travel capsule set, too.
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