Cantele and Accademia Sitam Lecce announce a celebration of style and elegance: a new joint-project devoted to the marriage of wine and fashion. The never-ending quest to define beauty and elegance is something that takes shape every day at the Cantele winery, where art and winemaking go hand in hand. Similarly, the young, brilliant designers at the Sitam Fashion Academy, driven by their endless creativity, work every day to give form to their fabrics. It couldn’t be a better fit or a better match.
Color can express a mood. It can be associated with a purpose and with the refinement of living and working together. It occurred to us: Why don’t we tell this story? And this was how the beautiful lines and colors of our labels, created by designer Elisa Costa, became a source of inspiration for the stylists who fashioned these extraordinary designs. Their creations were, in turn, worn by beautiful models for a photo session by photographer Silvio Bursomanno, who took a minimalist approach to the shoot, delivering a robust sense of color and clarity in his images.
The “Colors of Elegance” project was borne out of a desire to feature the beauty of our bottles and labels. We chose the six bottles from our “Classica” line that became the muses and inspiration for the talented team at the Sitam Academy. The coming together of these completely different worlds gave birth to a narrative based in the identity of our land and our love for it: Salento. And we created a tag line especially for the project: “We speak elegance” (“Decliniamo l’eleganza” for the italian market). It’s meant to give voice to our shared desire to explore the elements that bring wine and fashion together, each of us using our own approach. It’s an artistic marriage intended to celebrate style in all of its forms.
With their matching colors, the elegant designs are like mirror images of the labels wrapped around our classic wines, like its Chardonnay, Verdeca, Primitivo, and Negroamaro (the latter in red IGT, rosé, and Salice Salentino Riserva versions). These days, wine is itself a fashion event and the quality of wine in general has grown all over the world. Fashion is a personal statement that we all make every day. And our labels reflect our wines in the same manner. Elegant, balanced wines that express our deep connection to our land, mirrored by designs that touch your soul with their elegance.
Salento is a land that loves its children and their passions. And that’s the reason that we decided to ask a group of 20-somethings to help create it. Like the roots of the vines, they, too, were born and belong here. Our thanks goes out to Stefania Cardellicchio, the school’s director of education, and her designers. From the choice of fabrics (pure silk organza with colors reminiscent of the six labels) to the interpretation of the desire mood (romantic femininity), expressed through soft lines and shapes typical of a quasi-fairy elegance, the students crafted the ruffles and frills for these designs, which were all created by hand.
And, of course, we were pleased to show off the work by Maria Teresa Laviola, Serena Panunzio, Federica Maggio, Grazia Barnaba, Andrea Franchini, Antonella Loparco, Emanuela Monti, Sara Contaldo, Nicoletta Diterlizzi, Debora Bardoscia, Roberta Conte, Carmen Russo, and Barbara Martucci.
