Lungolivigno in your bookstore

Ten years have past, and to mark the event Lungolivigno has published Neve, Arte, Art in Ice, a volume of photographs in which Mario de Biasi gives his distinguished interpretation of snow. Everything from a blade of grass peeping through the blanket of white to the sculptures on the Livigno valley floor. It will be presented in Livigno on December 6, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary festivities, in which the great Japanese sculptor Kenjiro Azuma will take part. The 2005 contest will be a special one because it doubles as the selection process for the Italian team that will compete on the occasion of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino. For that reason, all ten participating teams will be from Italy this time, some past winners and others bringing new projects chosen by the artistic commission headed by Luca Rendina, the event's artistic director. Also special will be the event's conceptual basis, featuring works that invite the observer to look within himself. How about a snow chaise longue for comtemplating Zen or the sky, and a white Bhudda's face emerging from the snow.Just like every year for the past decade, the squads will attack their three-meter blocks of pressed snow, come sun, frost or snowstorm. Planes, chisels, barbed-wire saws and improvised tools cut, shape and lighten an inherently strange and changeable material. It is a chance to add one pleasure to another: the thrill of the season's first ski runs and the delight in witnessing the birth of ten works of art as you stroll through an open-air gallery and chat with the artists themselves.

Family affair
The village of Livigno. Grampa Mottini's emporium. And the socks, handkerchiefs and underwear sold by Aunt Giuseppina, the opening of Renna Sport with mamma Maria Domenica. The entire story of the Giacomelli family and Lungolivignofashion is told in I signori dello stile. (The lords of style. Italian shops where elegance is right at home), a photographic book that recounts the best clothing stores across the whole peninsula through the lives of people and their families. A couple dozen portraits from Sardinia to Turin, but the only real mountain town to appear is Livigno and its three shops Da Giuseppina, Renna Sport and Connaction.
And so the reader learns the story of Aunt Giuseppina, who gave her name to the family's first clothing store, formerly the village emporium and currently the symbol of high-altitude fashion. Bushels of buckwheat have given way to pullovers and twin sets, lodens and blankets made of cashmere, the finest of wool from China. The book follows the evolution of Renna Sport, now the most glamorous boutique in the central Alps, featuring a section dedicated to accessories from the great designers, those details that are instant status. The photos also bring you into the Connaction chalet, where the shoes are traditional in look but innovative in craftsmanship, trend-setting products produced by skilled artisans.