The Journal

Ca’Øriginale · Italy · 2026

The Øriginal Journal

People, ideas and places that open a window onto a more Øriginal way of living.

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A brown leather handbag standing upright, showing its handles, seams and zipper.

01 · ØMastery

How do I recognise a well-made leather bag?

Guide

The easiest answer would be: look at the leather. But that is only part of the story.

“Natural variation is not automatically a defect. Sometimes it is evidence that you are actually looking at the surface of the hide rather than a perfectly manufactured pattern.”

Lu · 6 min read

Read the story →

“This is one of the quickest places to spot care. Where the leather has been cut, the edges should look clean and intentionally finished. They may be painted, burnished or folded.”

A model wearing a fine beige Panicale Cashmere V-neck sweater.

02 · ØMastery

How can you tell if cashmere is actually good quality from an e-commerce page?

The easiest answer would be: touch it. But that is exactly where buying cashmere online gets tricky.

“Loro Piana is another major reference because it controls an unusually large part of the chain, from sourcing the fibre to spinning yarn and producing finished garments.”

Lu · 5 min read

A warmly lit table in the Terracotta Cooking Lab kitchen in Florence.

03 · ØPlaces

More than a cooking class: a true Italian table experience

I thought I knew what the evening would be. Then we sat down together.

“But sometimes the difference between a dish that is good and one you remember is already there before anyone starts cooking.”

Lu · 5 min read

A man in a burgundy Rubinacci jacket and dark hat against a warm stone wall.

Story·ØMastery

What’s the difference between British and Italian tailoring?

A question that begins at the shoulder and travels from London to four Italian answers.

“It starts with an unexpected detail: one of Naples’ best-known tailoring houses was once called London House.”

Lu · 5 min read

Blue-patterned linen draped across a wooden loom beside a cream knit. Conceptual editorial image.

Story·ØMastery

The hands behind Umbria’s €821 million textile export story

The number tells us how valuable Perugia’s knitwear and clothing economy is, but not how the territory got this far.

Lu · 6 min read

The Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi beneath a pale sky.

Place·ØPlaces

800 years of Saint Francis, through the places that still carry his story

In Assisi, the anniversary unfolds across a landscape that still holds traces of his life.

Ca’Øriginale · 2 min read

Paper paths, mineral samples and a terracotta thread gather from many possibilities into one direction.

Story·ØBusiness

How to get unstuck when you’re starting a business or struggling to connect with your audience

The advice is usually to narrow down. But what if the problem began before that?

Lu · 6 min read

Sabrina Carpenter and Jonathan Anderson wearing Dior x A24 T-shirts for the partnership campaign.

Story·ØBusiness

DIOR x A24: Why Jonathan Anderson?

The plot twist you were not expecting.

Lu · 6 min read

Miuccia Prada and Alessandro Michele watching Vogue World Milano from the front row.

Story·ØBusiness

What Is the Role of the Human When Robots Become the Norm?

Vogue World has opened a conversation that will eventually include us all.

“Everyone seems to be talking about Miuccia Prada and Alessandro Michele’s reactions to the robots at Vogue World yesterday.”

Lu · 4 min read

The Prada storefront beneath the illuminated arches of Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.

Story·ØBusiness

What happens when a store goes further?

Prada Galleria turns eight floors in Milan into a way of seeing how a product becomes part of a recognisable world.

Lu · 5 min read

An Hermès saddler working on a leather saddle at a demonstration bench.

Story·ØBusiness

Something interesting is happening in the luxury crisis

The numbers tell a story of slowdown. Look closer, and they may also reveal an opening for exceptional independent craft.

Lu · 6 min read

An ochre hooded coat and leather bags against an open blue sky.

Story·ØLifestyle

Is Louis Vuitton an Old-Money Brand?

What logos, quiet luxury and the codes of recognition say about who we are.

Lu · 3 min read

Two hands holding an iPhone Duo open and closed.

Story·ØBusiness

How to Raise Prices and Keep Desire Alive

The Apple strategy every craft brand should leverage

Lu · 3 min read

El Anatsui’s XOHANAMI filling the Vienna State Opera stage opening.

Story·ØBusiness

From Unwanted to Cool: How to Creatively Break Marketing’s Rules

The Vienna State Opera, Hermès and the difference between making something visible and making it noisy.

“We tend to resist the words *marketing* and *sales* because we have learned to associate them with pressure:”

Lu · 7 min read

Light, vessels and reflections at Homo Faber.

Story·ØPlaces

The most Øriginal way to experience Homo Faber is through JOMO

At Homo Faber, the joy of missing out can become a method of seeing.

Lu · 4 min read

Spectators lifting phones and cameras beside a tennis court at Wimbledon.

Story·ØLifestyle

Wimbledon “banned influencers”. But what was it really protecting?

The question is not who deserves to enter. It is what entering asks of us.

Lu · 5 min read

Story·ØLifestyle

Were objects ever meant to be disposable?

What my father taught me about price, memory and the things we choose to live with.

Lu · 5 min read

Terracotta rooftops and stone houses layered across the historic centre of Perugia.

Story·ØLifestyle

Can a city grow without losing what makes it unmistakably itself?

What Milan, Perugia and a Sardinian film reveal about prosperity, identity and the right to grow on different terms.

Lu · 7 min read

Story·ØLifestyle

Convivialità: the Italian word for staying at the table

A word that does not quite translate, and the Florentine kitchen built around it.

“In a world where almost everything is consumed in a hurry, convivialità is something close to a small act of resistance. And it may be one of the most beautiful things you can live while traveling in Italy.”

Lu · 3 min read

Story·ØMastery

What if Øriginality has never been about being new?

A meditation on devotion, identity, and the quiet Øriginality of things that never stopped being true to themselves.

Lu · 4 min read

Story·ØMastery

The basket of leaves behind Ca’Øriginale

The origin story, a basket woven from leaves in the interior of Brazil, and the question that became Ca’Øriginale.

Lu · 3 min read