Canada meets Italy with Fate Luxury Goods

We’re in a moment of transition for a lot of family-run artisinal companies in Italy. The older generation is retiring and the new generation is faced with either re-inventing a system entrenched in mid-20th century thinking, or just scrapping the whole thing altogether. With the pressure of overseas production, many small workshops choose the latter. Marco Vaccari and Angela Nardiello arrived at that crossroads recently and decided, however, to do the former.

Marco’s family had run a successful workshop outside of Bologna, producing high-end calf and excotic leather belts for the likes of Ralph Lauren and Kiton. Just over a decade ago, Torontonian-Italian Angela arrived at the company to work on marketing. She ended up marrying Marco just as things started to shift in the industry. More and more work was (and is) outsourced to less expensive production in Asia. Plus, Marco’s parents were ready to retire. So the newlyweds hit upon the idea of starting their own brand, as other former private label makers have done. Fate Luxury Goods is based in Canada with all production done, by Marco, in Italy. “Fate,” Angela tells me, because she feels it is both a play on the Italian word “fatto” (as in “fatto a mano” or “made by hand”) as well as her belief that this was meant to happen.

Their hope is to keep alive a tradition of leatherwork that stretches back three generations. Not to mention they still have a healthy collection of unused leathers, some of which is decades old.

However, Angela and Marco feel they can’t make a go of it just selling belts direct to customers. So they came up with the idea of leather suspenders. Something that would get people’s attention and set them apart from other leatherwords companies.

At first, I have to admit, this put me off. I wear suspenders, but lightweight ones that are almost never seen (I still think of them as underwear). But after meeting Angela and Marco and seeing the exeptional quality of their leatherwork in person, I agreed to try a pair for a few days.

Again, I cannot fault their craftsmanship. But the suspenders are just not for me. I find them bulky and heavy and the workwear style is not for me. So Angela was kind enough to offer me one of their belts, in a mid-brown calf leather. It is an exceptional belt, easily the best in my wardrobe. The leather is buttery soft with edges that are impossibly smooth. And the buckle is elegantly shapped and rounded.

Angela and Marco’s plans for the future are thoroughly modern, not falling back on the strategies of the past. They are forgoing traditional retail and building their own ecommerce site. More interestingly, they are building partnerships around the world where tailoring customers will be able to order FLG products directly, including customizations. Angela and Marco have already started working with Toronto’s Viapiana Custom Denim and American tailor Denis Frison. There are also plans to work with tailoring houses in Italy.

So, why am I writing about a company who’s main product doesn’t interest me? First of all, their craftsmanship is second to none. And so even though the suspenders are not my thing, I heartily recommend their belts. But most of all, their story interests me: how two countries and two cultures are trying to work together to revive and maintain a craft tradition. I hope they figure out a way to make it succeed.

All photos courtesy Fate Luxury Goods.