Form and substance of fashion

"The context is key to any business. And if you choose fashion, and want to focus on elegance and class, open a store in an area like that of the roman Tridente is the best. Especially for someone like me, who in this area is born and raised. Nicola Benedetti smiles as he speaks of himself, and his idea of work and life. He is the son of Trident, indeed grandson, great-grandson. He traveled a lot, but eventually went back where he started putting his talents (yes, plural) at stake for a bet: the first brand store of fashion designer Gaetano Navarra, who for three months has opened its doors on a Bocca di Leone, a few steps from Palazzo Torlonia.


"This shop is not just a commercial, but a project I had in mind for some time - says Benedetti - For years I had available in Via Bocca di Leone a room that once contained a workshop for high roman fashion, all mirrors and black carpet, but was waiting for the chance to decide how to use it. When I met Gaetano Navarra I understand that his style is entirely in keeping with what I do. A classical style but with modern elements, attention and care for details, however, new lines that blend with a performance worthy of the best traditional Italian tailoring.


Form and substance. Is there something that displaces this thirty shy boy but, at the same time, sincere, sensitive and extremely rigorous. A profile that reflects an eclectic training though, as he calls himself, "iperaccademica. "I have always loved art since childhood. As a child I always had a crayon in my hand, and it seems that what I drew was not that bad. So at 5 years I was entered into the atelier of Alessandra Porfidia, a roman talented sculptor and painter , with whom I have formed over the next 10 years, then I attended art school after enrolling at the Academy of Fine Arts and then to architecture, where I graduated. " In fact, the architectural concept of the shop is his creation: style linear, modular components and neutral colors that are pendant with the collection of Navarra, perfectly at ease in his own "context."


Everything about the work of Nicola, who has "painted" his room so that harmonizes with the neighborhood seventeenth century, soundtrack harpsichord based included. "I feel Roman,  scandalously Roman. And I realized it only after being abroad for many years. My spiritual roots and family are here in these streets, where I have a visceral love. Not only because they are part me, but mainly because the area itself has an identity unique, unique in the world and create a priceless and unobtainable. Not even Paris, where I lived two years, the comparison holds for me, although I love it. If the design of the flagship stores should have happened, surely the next one will open right there. " And the career? "It would parallel lives to pursue everything I do. But I'm thinking about a project with my friend Lucia Monachesi, I hope to soon put in the yard. Of course, in Rome's Tridente." Noblesse oblige.