'Picnic' by Salvatore Ferragamo

Salvatore Ferragamo presents 'Picnic', the new range of sunglasses produced and distributed by Luxottica, for the 2004 Spring Summer season. The name, that the company registered in the late fifties, brings to mind a vacation in ltaly; carefree luncheons on the grass, or by a shady riverbank.

The real novelty in these new sunglasses is the shaft in hand-embroidered polychrome raffia, one of the oldest traditional craft products Tuscany has to offer. Woven, braided, embroidered, raffia is a shiny fibre obtained from the young leaves of a palm that grows in East Africa. ft has been a Ferragamo classic staple material ever since 1927 when Salvatore Ferragamo returned to ltaly, after his American triumph, and settled in Florence to create extraordinary shoes using every type of material imaginable. For the beach or luxurious cruises the raffia sandals and ballerina shoes became a constant motif in Ferragamo collections proving that skillful crafting and creativity can make even the humblest material into a true fashion exclusive.

And it is a historic shoe, a raffia sandal created by Salvatore Ferragamo in 1938 that is now conserved in the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum in Florence, that provided the inspiration for 'Picnic'. Both the material and the polychrome cornflowers that decorate the shaft are based on the design of that famous sandal, and they are made with the saure, traditional technique that there is absolutely no way to industrialize.

The sunglasses are made of acetate and come in six colours, black, light horn, white, shocking pink, tortoiseshell, and dark purple, and are available with an oval or rectangular front that can be fitted with prescription lenses.

If the sunglasses can be considered little masterpieces, the saure can be said for the oval cases. The raffia-look fabric is embroidered with the saure cornflower pattern bringing a breath of springtime freshness and colour after the winter cold.