Wynn Magazine - Las Vegas
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/660157
46 photography by Ilya orehov (Florence); vrabelpeter1/IStock (ponte vecchIo) ust across the river from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, is the Oltrarno, the city's traditional artisan quarter. Step off the Ponte Vecchio, a medieval bridge barnacled with tiny goldsmith shops, and you'll see a pocket-size boutique called Madova, opened in 1919 by Amedeo Donnini. Inside, surrounded by inventory stacked almost to the ceiling, Donnini's grandchildren carry on the fam- ily practice of crafting some of the finest leather gloves in the world. One pair looks like sober black dress gloves, until you move your hand and bright colors flash from swatches hidden between the fingers—elegant yet playful. This is what "Made in Italy" means in the fashion world: thorough mas- tery of a craft, including attention to the smallest details; the impression that everything is perfectly made to measure; discipline steeped in generations of cherished tradition but unafraid to be modern and fun. Thousands of miles away, Wynn guests likely recognize the same spirit of uncompromis- ing detail and luxury married to a sense of whimsy that draws the best Italian fashion designers to Wynn's locations—in Las Vegas, Macau, and soon Cotai. Because even as tiny Madova's Florentine neighbors have become titans of 20th-century fashion around the globe, the "Made in Italy" label remains as precisely defined and prized as it always has been—representing the best in craftsmanship just as Wynn represents the highest in luxury standards. As a liftboy at London's Savoy Hotel in the early 1900s, teenager Guccio Gucci admired the guests' elegant and sturdy bags. When he returned to his native Florence in 1921, he opened an English-style luggage store. Gucci's goods soon became fashionable among moneyed horsemen. This—and a family legend that the Guccis had been saddlers during the Renaissance— inspired the brand's equine symbols: the horse-bit spangle, the green-and- red-striped ribbon resembling a cinch strap. By the 1960s, Gucci bags had become stars, seen on the arms of everyone from Elizabeth Taylor and Jacqueline Kennedy to Peter Sellers and Samuel Beckett. Despite its fame and fortune, however, the Gucci firm has remained committed to its core ideals, declaring that "100 percent of its leather goods, shoes, and ready-to-wear are still produced in its Florentine workshops, J Florence, Italy, birthplace of the Renaissance and home to luxury brands such as Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Emilio Pucci. below: The Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River in Florence.