WHEN THE STORY BECOMES A FUTURE

"gLOVEme® is a trademark, but also a word that takes a picture of my life, from my roots to my human and professional formation over the years".

I realised what a leather glove was when I was about five years old when I smelt and saw the dyed skins not yet cut in a lab in with my father, who had reinvented himself a glove maker for over twenty years with genius and courage.

The workshop was held in an apartment in a palace in the historic center of Naples: every room was used as a stage of production and Salvatore - the master glove maker and father's partner - gave me a beautiful pair of red gloves lined in lapin.

The scent of skin, the bright colour - the red, always my favorite - and the softness of the lining, are a sensory reminder that is still well-impressed in my memory.

I soon became aware of the special character of the leather handmade glove.

Yet my first steps into the world of work have not been direct:I have been dedicating myself for about ten years to clothing signatures around which a new type of distribution was emerging in the early 1990s.The stock house was becoming the new opportunity and attracted the dynamism of this world, as it expressed itself in negotiating with suppliers or in dealing with customers whose desire for signed products seemed to never run out.

But what I learned with that experience was above all to learn to know and appreciate the labels, not so much as the object of the desire of millions of consumers, but, precisely, my life's strongest, also as a story of the maison and the their founders who with the simple passion for a product and an innovative look had been able to create something known and appreciated in the world.

The ingredients began to blend quickly to give birth to the dream of creating a brand to try to write a bit of the story of accessories so deeply familiar to me. That has given me my own vision that would make me perceive it in a new way.

And give it a name.

I began to inform and think that a trademark may be an acronym, may indicate the name of the founder or may refer to the product it represents.But which one was supposed to be mine?

I live in a geographically extreme province whose beauty has always attracted illustrious characters and still hosts special people. For my project I turned to Simona, a professional graphics designer with a base also in Turin that cares for the image of prestige brands. In a couple of meetings at his home, in a convivial atmosphere and to which other friends were present, I exposed my project: a rigorous Neapolitan handicraft shop, presented in a different way, a colorful place where the product appeared not just as something classic, but was noticed in all its modern splendour.

Attempts during those meetings to name a project were the most disparate, but a few days after Simona invited me to a bar for an aperitif, she had an idea she thought she might like.

I must admit that skepticism was high, because I could not imagine anything that could satisfy all of my expectations. But sitting at the bar table, Simona takes a napkin from the dispenser, pulls out a pen from her purse and writes. 

First one « g », just so, in small letters. Then adds LOVE in uppercase and finally a « me ». You read it, gloveme. And it translates, too, glove me.

It took me a few seconds before I felt foolish, because that word, glove, had been ,all my life, in front of my eyes and I never thought It could be used it such original manor.

And then to be happy because that word already belonged to me and I wanted it to become the brand of my dream.»