One in every of my favorite retailers in Milan was once just a little gap within the wall on By way of Montenapoleone. Squeezed between huge luxurious boutiques, it was an actual jewel of a spot, tiny however good, promoting equally tiny however good equipment – knives, cutlery, shaving paraphernalia, plus stuff you by no means knew you wanted, like scissors designed to distribute a bunch of grapes.
G Lorenzi was a hangover from a distinct age. It had been in the identical location since 1929, when Giovanni Lorenzi (above) based it as a specialist cutler and grinder. In these days the Italian aristocracy lived on the road and shopped for on a regular basis gadgets – there was a greengrocer on the road till 1970.
Within the seventies, Italian trend turned huge and types began to open there – Gianfranco Ferre, Armani and Versace had been the primary. Then issues modified within the new millennium, when worldwide trend manufacturers all determined they wanted a department in Milan’s now-famous Quadrilatero della Moda.
Once I visited within the mid-noughties, G Lorenzi was a stunning outlier: top quality, household owned, and though it did promote into some shops, with a novel expertise. You’d stroll in for a browse and end up deciding on between 50 several types of nail scissor, starting from €10 to €1000. Very like Santa Maria Novella in Florence, it was a spot you all the time made time for.
Sadly G Lorenzi closed in 2014, and though I noticed some mentions of it on-line, I largely misplaced contact. It was solely not too long ago after we had been in Milan for Unica that I stumbled throughout the brand new, greater retailer.
I didn’t realise that the largest change, although, was a hidden one: Lorenzo now makes virtually all the pieces itself, and earlier than made nothing in any respect.
“We was once a commerce enterprise – my father and my uncle had been great at that,” says Mauro Lorenzi (under), who has led the relaunch. “They travelled the world, they sought the best issues, after which they offered the to the locals. It was an awesome store and I labored there for a few years.” (Mauro is within the prime picture, alongside his grandfather Giovanni.)
“However the world was altering. The web meant everybody might now see all the pieces on the click on of a button, for much less cash than we might cost, and delivered in a day or two. The one manner we might survive was to turn into a model – and being a model for me means making your personal issues.”
Mauro’s father and uncle disagreed, and closed the store on Montenapoleone. Mauro had been working his personal manufacturing facet to the enterprise since 2010 (referred to as CEDES) nonetheless, and now began to develop this – making all the pieces in Milan, solely utilizing pure supplies, and at first promoting to shops. This had all the time been his ardour – he was all the time extra prone to be behind the store, making alongside a associate, moderately than out entrance.
Quickly there was e-commerce, CEDES turned Lorenzi, and in 2019 the brand new model of the household store was opened, on Piazza Filippo Medea. “The environment in there ought to have loads in frequent with the outdated store,” Mauro says. “The angle is identical and lots of the merchandise are the identical. But it surely’s wanting in the direction of the long run, moderately than what we did up to now.”
Once I interview Mauro, he’s clearly happy that this was the precise feeling I received. I recognised the identify of the store, it felt acquainted once I went in, but it was additionally clearly totally different. The lower-priced gadgets, so simply undercut on-line, had been gone, and the choice was extra unique and opulent. However the service was glorious – everybody knew the merchandise inside out and the household had been clearly intently concerned. It felt close-knit.
“We now make 80% of all the pieces we promote,” says Mauro. “There are some issues we will’t make – we will’t forge knives for instance. However even after we make these with another person, we expect we enhance it. Not simply altering the deal with or embellishing it, however enhancing little factors of manufacturing.” That is the workshop pictured above.
My drawback with shops like that is that all the pieces is beautiful, however I would like to search out one thing I’ll use. I’ve spent so a few years giving in to the attract of lovely eccentricities like shagreen capsule containers, just for them to simply sit on my desk, taking a look at me.
Thankfully I don’t actually have shaving equipment – a razor deal with, a badger-hair brush – and so I spent half hour in Lorenzi taking a look at antler and bamboo choices. Thankfully for my pockets, the mix I needed wasn’t accessible, nevertheless it’s positively what I might look to sooner or later.
If anybody needs extra data on the unique supplies, by the way in which, there’s a piece on the Lorenzi web site setting out their coverage, and one thing on every of the product pages with barely extra specifics, eg right here on horn.
Lorenzi is much more broadly offered that it was once. It’s offered on Mr Porter, on Far Fetch, and does collaborations with varied designer manufacturers. I wouldn’t say the store in Milan is sort of the quirky vacation spot retailer it was once both.
However it’s nonetheless value a go to, and it have to be highlighted how uncommon it’s to be making this degree of product in-house, in someplace like Milan. We’ll positively be visiting the workshop subsequent time we’re within the space.
Within the meantime, you can even store on-line after all, in these multibrand shops or the Lorenzi web site, and I do know Saman Amel is an enormous fan, so there’s a small assortment on show in their new London showroom.
Piazza F Meda 3, Milan
