Finer things

After walking around this year’s Homo Faber, the Venice biennial dedicated to craftsmanship that took place in the grounds of a former monastery on the San Giorgio Maggiore island, visitors were invited to step into a quiet refuge tucked away next to the lagoon. This was the home of the event’s bookshop but also the first physical manifestation of something more ambitious: Via Arno, a new start-up from luxury behemoth Richemont. It made its debut this autumn. Its mission: to promote the “beauty and spirit of human making”.

Richemont, which owns jewellery and watch houses from Van Cleef & Arpels to Cartier, has long relied on craft to create best-in-class pieces. With Via Arno, the group is paying it forward by giving artisans a new global platform, connecting them with buyers and helping to safeguard their vocations.

Stepping inside Via Arno’s Venice pop-up feels like entering an impeccably decorated living room or, perhaps, given the corner bar and piano, the lobby of a hotel. A wall mural by Mayeul Gauvin is flanked by multiple mirrors; soft rugs and a host of other design objects are scattered throughout the space. At the centre of it all, Annia Spiliopoulos, ceo and co-founder of Via Arno, sweeps in to greet monocle in a flowing red dress. A trained classical ballet dancer from Greece who went on to work in film and music, she is a long-time resident of London, where Via Arno is headquartered.

Spiliopoulos is clear about what Via Arno is and is not. “This is human-made craft,” she says. “Design comes into it but it’s not design. It’s the woodworker applying their skills, or a marquetry maker or candle maker.” In short, Via Arno aims to provide a commercial platform for artisans from around the globe to sell often bespoke or custom-made goods.

Spiliopoulos admits that she is still fine-tuning the details with her team but she envisions the bulk of Via Arno’s business being b2b. It will work with companies and architects that need to furnish homes or offices with unique pieces. Potential customers will be able to browse and shop on Via Arno’s soon-to-launch website. The platform will tell the stories of the 800 or so people it works with – a number set to grow as the company expands. The artisans, in turn, pay a service fee for each transaction.

The fledgling business doesn’t have plans for a permanent showroom for now, relying on select events such as Venice’s Homo Faber and online retail channels. When it comes to the latter, Spiliopoulos is keen to point out that Via Arno isn’t striving to be the next Amazon or Etsy. For one, people need to be happy to wait for what they’ve ordered; the artisans, each selected for their expertise, work at their own pace. “If you want to hit a certain level of excellence, it’s a smaller crowd,” she adds.

At first glance, the objects on display at the Homo Faber salon – from an espresso cup from Kihara in Japan to a stool from Brazil’s Fernando Mendes – may seem different to the rest of the Richemont portfolio. Founded by South African magnate Johann Rupert and based in Bellevue, Richemont has become an authority in jewellery and watches (Montblanc, A Lange & Söhne and Vacheron Constantin are also part of its portfolio) and has planted its foot in fashion with the likes of Dunhill and Chloé. But just as luxury conglomerates such as Chanel and lvmh have looked to safeguard craft by acquiring artisanal workshops and spearheading Métiers d’Art programmes, Richemont is equally committed to the idea. “Richemont has a tradition of long-term investing in craft,” says Spiliopoulos. “It’s a sensibility that cuts through the whole group.”

Richemont runs an annual craftsmanship programme that hunts for new talent in timepiece and jewellery making, while Rupert is also the co-founder of the non-profit Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship (which sponsors Homo Faber). Clearly, his connections in the craft world are helping to lay the foundations for Via Arno and will prove invaluable when the business looks to scale.

Like other Métiers d’Arts programmes looking to protect specific skills and traditions, there’s an existential element to Via Arno. Spiliopoulos and her team are aware of the ways in which machines have been eliminating craft jobs – a pattern bound to accelerate with the rise of artificial intelligence. Via Arno’s artisans are offered as the resistance to this shape-shifting world. “With the onset of rapid developments in technology, what is left of the human element in anything that we do?” says Spiliopoulos. Via Arno is a celebration of what its ceo calls “human faculties” and our ability to create beautiful objects that are the product of hours of toil and patience.

It’s an ambitious undertaking with a vast scope, spanning what Spiliopoulos broadly defines as “lifestyle”. While there are prerequisites – artisans must operate independently and be transparent about the provenance of the materials they use – a Via Arno item could be anything from a pair of earrings to a set of golf clubs or even a boat. In fact, an example of the latter is bobbing on the water a short walk from the Homo Faber site. A pristine vessel with distinctly mid-century aesthetics from Swedish builder J Craft, it comes in at more than €1m. Just like Spiliopoulos, who says that Via Arno works with artisans with at least a decade of experience, the craftspeople behind J Craft take time to mature. “I employed two people a few years ago with 20 years of experience in leisure boats,” says chief technical officer Johan Hallen. “I consider them boat builders but not ready to build a J Craft.”

As Via Arno navigates its own waters, it will have to question everything about the luxury landscape, even the definition of craft itself – a word so frequently used by brands that it has started to lose its meaning. How will Via Arno renew it? “Here [at Homo Faber] you’re starting to get a taste of what Via Arno stands for – and that’s the only way,” says Spiliopoulos. “I invite you to find something in here that, whether it’s to your taste or not, is not beautiful and made with love.” — L