The cross-pollination between fashion, food and hospitality has reached fever pitch, with luxury companies rushing to install cafés and fine dining in their retail spaces; planning a packed schedule of hotel pop-ups and beach clubs’ takeovers, or launching collaborations targeted at generating hype among fashion lovers and foodies alike.
Case in point: the buzz around the restaurant and café housed in the Louis Vuitton flagship hasn’t wound down since the space opened in Milan’s tony Via Montenapoleone in April. Both culinary experiences have been developed in partnership with Da Vittorio, the Cerea family’s three-Michelin star restaurant and catering establishment.
Rosella Cerra
Allie Joseph/WWD
“The fashion world has always been attentive to customer service, even more so in recent years because it has brought the [food] industry closer to its consumers and those approaching fashion,” said Da Vittorio’s head of hospitality, training and innovation Rossella Cerea in a panel moderated by WWD Milan bureau chief Luisa Zargani. “And in doing so it has created a significant bond, because there’s nothing more beautiful than sitting at a table and sharing a moment that you’ll carry with you for a long time.”
The panel was part of the third edition of the Fashion Loves Food gala hosted by WWD with The Style Gate and Galateo and Friends.
As fashion brands looked to prime food and beverage players to heighten their engagement with the audience, these ventures also looked back to fashion to find inspiration in rewriting their playbook.
Take Quintosapore, the pioneering farming project in Italy’s Umbria founded by Livia Giuggioli with her twin brothers Alessandro and Nicola in 2019. Parallels could be drawn between the couture approach to fashion and its research in championing biomimicry, biodiversity, quantum-based farming and regenerative practices.
“Having worked in fashion for so many years has certainly helped,” said Livia Giuggioli, who piled experiences in the field with her Eco-Age consultancy, which was targeted by criminals and forced to close in 2024 after 17 years in business.
“Especially in couture, the story of the hands that make the clothes is very important: If you can tell the story of the fiber, where it was made or of the seamstress that sews it, you wear that dress differently,” she said. “When we began this agricultural adventure, we thought: could the same principle be applied here? What we eat and experience is the story of the seed, the soil, the person who grew it, who harvested it and overall of nature.”
Livia Giuggioli
Allie Joseph/WWD
Her brother Nicola recalled how having no agricultural knowledge was actually beneficial to the venture’s success.
Hence, the siblings came up with a new approach, leveraging for example biomimicry to have products that “taste better, are more nutritious, more environmentally friendly and more beneficial to people.” Giuggioli claimed that university studies showed Quintosapore’s products are between 600 percent and 1,200 percent more nutritious than those billed as bio in the mass market.
Just like in fashion, there is a risk of getting tangled into trend cycles and copycats. The solution is shared across industries as well: betting big on quality.
“In any field, the most important thing is aiming at the highest quality… That always comes first, you can’t barter or negotiate quality,” said Cerea. “Then if your product becomes a trend, why not [embrace] it? Just don’t trivialize it,” she continued, pointing to the example of Da Vittorio’s famed paccheri pasta, “a dish that now has become trendy and can be found everywhere, from New York to Asia.”
Nicola Giuggioli
Allie Joseph/WWD
Another non-negotiable asset is engagement, that is, “making customers feel part of the moment in order to establish a synergy and create a memory they will carry,” said Cerea.
“We have so many guests coming to Quintosapore now, and they all come for the sensory experience,” confirmed Livia Giuggioli, underscoring how the hospitality side of the business has become as important as its product offering.
With the same spirit, the firm launched the Quintasaporean Club, where through personal orders customers can receive a box of the company’s fresh produce and goods once a week and learn about their history and harvesting process. “In a way, that’s what true luxury is for us: not what money can buy, but [getting] what they can’t,” said Nicola Giuggioli.
