About L'Officina General Store

Why did we decide to open L'Officina General Store ?

Having worked in the fashion and home furniture retail industries for more than 10 years, we found ourselves in growing contradiction with its true lack of sustainability (production speed, throw away logic, working conditions and waste). From a fast fashion to a high end angle. We have decided to pen l’Officina to:  

Align our passion to our Core Beliefs:

As fashion and Interior buyers we are product lovers but also industry specialists. We decided to live and start making a change in the way we consume by challenging ourselves to live by our main 2 beliefs. We know that there is another way and that it is our responsibility to make the change happen. 

1. ‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be beautiful or believe to be useful' - by William Morris. We believe this quote to be transferable to fashion too. If an object, piece of clothing or accessory is not you, it will then spend years unloved in a wardrobe or hidden in a cupboard. 
2. Challenging our business to bring a different consumerism by: 
1. Rethinking: on how we assess pre-loved product quality, packaging and define luxury;
2. Reducing: Our core principle is to buy well, buy once and buy for life.
3. Repairing: Any purchased item should be taken care of and stored properly for a longer life.
4. Reusing: Make sure that our purchases are versatile and serve many purposes where possible. We love having objects such as glasses that can also be used as vases or candle holders. 
5. Reselling: You have something that is no longer you? Your tastes, body changed? Need an interior or wardrobe refresh.  Do not let it sit on a shelf for years but pass it on. 
6. Repurposing: Where possible, repurpose beautiful objects. Where society might change some objects might need to find different finalities. Beautiful natural linen sheets into cushion covers or crysta ashtrays into catchalls. 

Pass on the Story of an Object and create heirlooms for future generations:  We love items with a story, some embody the soul of an era or some have been passed on from a generation to another. We aim at sourcing heirlooms that will be lovingly kept, memories created and  passed on.

Simplify Pre-Loved shopping experience: We have been shopping preloved products for years but often find ourselves disappointed by the item quality (details not shown, hidden damages) and the packaging in which they arrive (plastic garbage bags, not protective enough, breakages) and decided to simplify it by: 

• Assessing Products: Creating 4 clear categories for Pre-Loved items classification: As New, Very good, Good and Fair. If an item is no longer usable or broken it will not be listed. 
• Cleaning Products: Make sure all items have been cleant and are ready for use. 
• Packaging Products: Packaged properly and safely to arrive at its destination transit with using biodegradable materials. 

Simplifying the purchase journey and be a trustworthy partner:

Keep it Transparent. Our aim is to eliminate all the complicated and lengthy questions such as provenance, new plastic creation, working conditions, manufacturing location and logistic environmental impact. When purchasing from L'Officina we guarantee that no plastic has been used during manufacturing , packaging and harmful chemicals being used. 

We have given ourselves a 2,500km maximum radius from Lucca in Tuscany to source brands and products.