History

Pelletteria Artigiana Viviani over the years

In the 1920s, Renato Viviani was a leather goods apprentice in Guccio Gucci’s first workshop, founder of the famous brand. Subsequently Viviani, who emigrated to Argentina before the Second World War, continued his work as a leather craftsman in Buenos Aires, focusing on the design and production of luxury leather accessories.

Renato Viviani worked in Buenos Aires. In his workshop on Calle General Escalada, he exhibited his luxury leather goods which were purchased by all of the most important boutiques in the Argentine capital. In the same years Renato became a master leather craftsman, he met Delia, who would later become his wife and follow him from that moment on throughout his working career.

Together with his daughter Viviana, Renato returned to Italy in the early 1960s, and, within a few years, his esteemed work in the city allowed him to open his own workshop with an adjacent shop. Pelletteria Artigiana Viviani was inaugurated on November 16, 1965. The shop and the laboratory are located in a historic building in the city, the former studio of architect Giuseppe Poggi who oversaw the works in Firenze Capitale and designed the famous Piazzale Michelangelo. The shop was only a year old when the city of Florence was literally overwhelmed by the terrible Arno flood of November 4, 1966. The leather goods shop did not come out unscathed. The spirit of recouping losses of the Florentines also belonged to Viviani who, for the umpteenth time, found himself having to start from scratch. His tenacity and determination are proven by the fact that his shop still lives today, right where he thought it was supposed to be.

At the end of the 70s, Viviana, the daughter of Renato and Delia, began to work with her parents. Her father passed on the art and secrets of the trade to her. She too became a Master Leather Craftswoman, capable of continuing the tradition and knowledge of her father.
In 1995 Viviana was ready to become the new designer and president of the Pelletteria Artigiana.
In 1999, the first version of the company website www.pelletteriaartigiana.com was inaugurated. Over time and through various revisions became its current e-commerce website.

Today

The Pelletteria is now run by Viviana and her son Leonardo, who work with pride and respect of a tradition that has its roots in the past. Three generations have handed down and enhanced unique craftsmanship, in the name of beauty and practicality.

In 2012 Pelletteria Artigiana Viviani joined the OMA (Osservatorio Mestieri d’Arte – Art Professions Observatory). Since 2013, Pelletteria has established several international partnerships with traditional boutiques and e-commerces around the world.

The products of “Pelletteria Artigiana Viviani” are currently sold in the USA, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Belgium, Sweden, Japan, China and South Korea.

Pelletteria Artigiana Viviani has become part of the group of artisans who export Made in Italy products all over the world, bringing prestige to our country, without straying from their origins as a family craft workshop.

A detailed look at the quality of the leathers (exclusively from Tuscan tanneries) and accessories (rigorously made in Italy), the attention to fashion and design of the times, manual work and incorporating new technologies are the elements that make up the history of Pelletteria Artigiana Viviani.

In 2015, at the end of its fiftieth year of activity, Pelletteria Artigiana became a Esercizio Storico Fiorentino, a Florentine Historical Shop, an honor reserved by the Municipality of Florence for businesses that have distinguished themselves over time for quality, competence and historicity within the city.

In May 2017, the Pelletteria became part of the elite laboratories and merchants belonging to the Associazione Esercizi Storici e Tipici Fiorentini, the Association of Historic and Typical Florentine Shops.
In 2018, due to the considerable importance of the work carried out by Pelletteria in perpetuating the Florentine artisan tradition, the historicity of the building that houses it, the refinement of the furnishings and its wonderful architectural structure, Pelletteria Artigiana Viviani is included in the list of Esercizi Storici Vincolati, Historical Listed Shops of the City of Florence.

HISTORY THROUGH IMAGES