Vaso di Pandora – or as it is sometimes known in English, “Pandora’s box” was opened up in Barga Vecchia this morning. For anybody with a knowledge of Greek mythology, the opening might have been somewhat problematical as once Pandora had opened her vase, releasing all the evils of mankind by the time she closed it again the only thing still remaining inside was Hope.
Hopefully we are referring to another interpretation of the Pandora story where her ancient Greek name , Πανδώρα, derived from πᾶν “all” and δῶρον “gift”, thus “all-gifted” or maybe even, “all-endowed” ?
What we are actually talking about here is the opening of a new shop here in Piazza Angelio, Barga Vecchia by Vaina Continuati, Alessandro Stefani and Laura Discini and with a completely new idea for this area. Click on the link below to hear in their own words (in Italian) just how the owners of the shop describe their new venture but it could probably be best described as a concept store or to put it another way, a mood shop.
Vaso di Pandora è un concept store nel quale trovare arredi e oggettistica dimenticati da tempo. Ne abbiamo curato la rieducazione mantenendo però il gusto originale. L’abbigliamento vintage avrà sempre più un ruolo fondamentale perché mescolare il vecchio con il nuovo crea un’unicità inimitabile in questo mondo omologato.
Ci interessava aprire uno spazio che fosse diverso da tutti gli altri, dove esporre moda ma anche arte e design. Tra gli oggetti presenti, sgabelli ricavati dai barili della Volvo, Shell… Borse confezionate dalle carcerate di Beirut, altre realizzate riciclando i tessuti delle vecchi sdraio del mare.
E ancora: gioielli artigianali di diverso tipo e accessori in genere; profumi ed essenze con fragranze particolari e dall’aspetto retrò. Una sorta di vetrina – laboratorio in cui nascono progetti e idee da condividere; un vero e proprio contenitore polifunzionale, dinamico e inclusivo, impegnato in molte attività.Per questo motivo abbiamo chiesto ad artisti e fotografi di realizzarvi mostre e performance artistiche. Aspiriamo… alla fantascienza!
Vaina taking advantage of all her experience in the fashion world in Milan and around the world as one of Giorgio Armani’s models finally get the chance to choose objects, clothes, jewellery and gadgets that have caught her eye and put them all in one place right here in Barga.
Alessandro with his love of mixing and matching old and new, technologies and objects long forgotten and gathering dust with new digital technology and all that the Internet can provide will be using the premises in Piazza Angelio as a window for a web-based Vaso di Pandora shop which will be open to the public and later on this month.
Vaina Continuati and Alessandro Stefani
Vaina has appeared on giornaledibarganews many times over the past decade ( image of Vaina from 2000 here ) Barga born and bred but has spent most of her working life working in the fashion industry far way from the city she loves. She was Giorgio Armani’s favourite model for many years. Alessandro’s video work has also appeared a number of times on these pages and is a regular correspondent on the site as part of the Inspired by Barga group ( articles here)
The pair were married front of a large crowd in the Duomo during the summer of last year (the article here)
Καλὴ τύχη!