Located in Pudong, devoted to fashion and luxury, Florentia Village is the first Italian complex to be opened in Shanghai in order to offer Chinese consumers the opportunity to discover the collections of some 200 European, American and Asian brands. On June 20th, Florentia Village awarded a one-year scholarship and a flight ticket to Paris to an IFA Paris student following their graduation fashion show in Shanghai. This is our rnterview with its’ commercial director, Luca Carpinelli.
M.T.: Florentia Village was a key partner in this colourful fashion show that marked the graduation of young IFA Paris’ graduates in fashion design. How would you assess this? What is your feeling?
Luca Carpinelli: This is the second time that Florentia Village has participated in the fashion show and graduation ceremony for IFA Paris students in Shanghai and I must say that it is always amazing to see the level of preparation and to see how these students, after three or four years of study, reach such a level of maturity. This fashion show was beautiful. These students are clearly ready for the catwalks of the best fashion scenes in the world! They are ready to thrive in their professional development and in this industry.
M.T.: Your first collaboration with IFA Paris goes back to spring 2018, on the occasion of a fashion show organized on the very site of Florentia Village in Pudong….
Luca Carpinelli: Yes, and the first time was just as interesting. Collaborating with IFA Paris is one way for us to offer more opportunities to talented students and also to broaden their vision and knowledge, from the classroom to the market. It is a way for us to give them this gateway to the market and to the real world of business!
M.T.: How did things start with IFA Paris?
Luca Carpinelli: Thanks to my encounter with Adile Cretallaz and Patrick Kouzmine-Karavaieff. They have been cooperative from the beginning and the success of a collaboration is also when we get on well and the feeling is good! We are Italians. Our project is Italian and comes from Florence – we develop luxury outlets in the village inspired by classic Italian architecture. But in the end, we are very happy to collaborate with an international school like IFA Paris, whose students come from all over the world! We love the educational project of IFA Paris and have decided to associate ourselves with it wholeheartedly.
M.T.: A demonstration of this is the 85,000 RMB (equivalent to 16,000 Euros) scholarship you have just offered to the designer and recent graduate of IFA Paris: Desmond Ang!
Luca Carpinelli: We are happy to collaborate with an international school like IFA Paris and support its’ young talents. It is an honour for us to offer this opportunity and perhaps, in the future, to see that the student to whom we have offered this scholarship will have become a renowned fashion designer. We can be proud to have played a role, no matter how minor it might be, in the achievement of his goals and success. It’s very exciting and we do it with a lot of pleasure. We appreciate what IFA Paris is doing in China to develop fashion culture. IFA Paris is also a European school and working together helps to better connect European and Chinese cultures. What we do at Florentia Village – where one travels to Italy while staying in Shanghai and without a passport – takes time. This requires enormous effort and patience. And this is what we also see in IFA Paris. We share these common values of effort and patience. There will undoubtedly be opportunities with IFA Paris and we remain open to other collaborations!
For more information on this program in Shanghai, please visit Bachelor in Fashion Design & Technology