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By Laura Itzkowitz
Marie-Louise Sci.
When it comes to high-quality furniture and crafts, Italy is ashamed of wealth. And while finding the most productive hand-painted ceramic tiles, the most productive sheets or charming rustic baskets you dream of can be exciting, it’s also a time-taking business. Not to mention the fact that with restrictions related to COVID-19, you may not be able to take a holiday of origin in Italy for a while.
Enter Issimo, the new e-commerce and lifestyle site created through Marie-Louise Scio, from the well-known Scio family circle in Italy. Growing up at the sublime Il Pellicano hotel in Porto Ercole, Tuscany, he knows a thing or two about Italian taste. “I think the Italian flavor is innate,” he told AD PRO, explaining that when one grows up surrounded by beauty, he tends to naturally expand the sense of taste.
He honed his design skills at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture before returning to Italy. The Italian adult Eloise is, in a way, the general director and artistic director of Pellicano Hotels, which also includes La Posta Vecchia (the former property of John Paul Getty at sea near Rome) and the Mezzatorre Hotel – Thermal Spa on the island of Ischia (which won the inaugural ad hotel award).
The mezzanine pool.
Issimo had two years of paintings and, however, he presented himself this spring, after the lifting of the Italian national blockade. “It was a love for Italy,” Scio says of his entrepreneurial motivation. He also sought to create an exclusive destination for “the sensory pleasures you enjoy at the hotel [and] put that kind of taste and philosophy online.” Finally, Scio adds that it was vital to build “a platform that speaks only to Italy, because there are not many places to locate souvenirs of hotels, crafts and also culture”.
One of the collaborations of issimo and Lisa Corti.
Named by the superlative suffix “-issimo”, which Italians add at the end of the adjectives to emphasize, the e-commerce segment of the site presents categories such as “bellissimo” for interior decoration, “buonissimo” for food and drink and “chicissimo”. “for fashion. Throughout, scio organizes coveted pieces with an emphasis on Italian artisans and collaborates with designers such as Milanese textile designers Dedar and Lisa Corti, German ceramic manufacturer Villeroy-Boch and Catalan artist Ignasi Monreal. There are silky sheets, porcelain plates printed with bougainvillea, wallpaper made with a portrait of the Gulf of Naples and, yes, hand-painted ceramic tiles.
When asked how he selected the articles presented in Issimo, he replied: “It is based solely on the uniqueness and good looks of the product.” Plan to load more items, slowly but actually expanding Issimo’s offerings. And for those looking for a more practical approach, or maybe someone who is their eyes and ears on the ground when they can’t be in Italy, Scio runs a parallel consultant. Services include artistic direction, interior design, visual identity, concept and strategy progression, logo progression and strategic marketing. The world, it seems, is your well-designed oyster.
More Lisa Corti.