...welcome back to Florence!!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!!

The month of September is all about the "Rientro" (the italian version for the Homecoming); it’s when Italians reluctantly relinquish the beach to come back to the city and return to their daily winter routines.

Personally, I love the energy of getting back to the design table as ideas fly creatively around in the air.

All the projects in US are up and running: the Hamptons Atelier will stay open thru Fall while the Atelier in Palm Beach is completing its light make over. In New York everything will be ready for my annual  show at The Surrey. I am also choosing the location for the next Holiday' Atelier...stay tuned!

Florence is always busy, but in September there’s a vibrancy and verve like no other month. In the Oltrarno, jazz sets the neighborhood buzzing as the Firenze Jazz Festival brings international acts to local piazzas from September 11 to 15, while the much-loved Settembre in Piazza della Passera (September 10-13) transforms the little square into a place of performance and poetry.

For family fun, Cirk Fantastik is tried and tested and forever fabulous. From 12 to 22 September, Florence’s main park, the Cascine, comes alive with clowning, juggling and acrobatics like you’ve never seen before. It’s contemporary circus of the highest skill and spectacle. It’s one of those shows that adults love as much as children do: the perfect combo!

This month’s a time to take stock and consider our actions. Fashion continues to focus on sustainability, a pressing issue turned into an exhibition over the bridge at Salvatore Ferragamo’s ongoing Sustainable Thinking show at the brand’s fabulous little museum.

Botanical brilliance shines through at Santa Maria Novella as the basilica’s museum takes centre stage this fall with the opening of The Botany of Leonardo exhibition on September 13 and running through December 15. One of the super fun aspects of this innovative show is the geometric shapes that have been installed all over the city as a marketing method: check out the dodecahedron and the mulberry tree in piazza della Signoria!

Additional green action ensues at Florence’s hippest new hangout, Manifattura Tabacchi. In the second week of September, the city’s former (and vast!) tobacco factory will be welcoming guest speakers and showing films with a green focus for the God is Green festival, followed by top DJ sets and fabulous bites and cocktails.

It’s that time of the year when wine springs to mind. Tuscany’s growers are already hand harvesting the white grapes to make salty Vermentino along the coast and savoury Vernaccia di San Gimignano near Siena.

Soon the red berries will take precedence as future Chianti and Super Tuscans take shape! It’s such an exciting season as the harvest approaches. Head out to Panzano in Chianti from 12 to 15 September 2019 for the annual Vino al Vino village festival to celebrate the local red stuff or check out Pontassieve’s Cookstock food and wine extravaganza on 6, 7 and 8 September as Florence’s top chefs cook up a storm on the town’s historic Medici bridge. It’s a sight worth seeing!

Have you had enough of this? Well remember to stop in Piazza Pitti and say hello to Olga, Carmen, Sabine, Marcida and the homecomers from the Hamptons: our Summer dream team...Seonaid, Stella and Laura!

New collection has just arrived, just in time for you to see it and for me to pack it for the upcoming shows...another vibrant Fall will magically happens once more.

Enjoy Labor Day ... see you soon in Florence!

Yours,

Jennifer