First launched in 2016, the ‘Pasticcino’ bag, by Weekend Max Mara, takes its name from the Italian word for ‘small pastry’ – its scooping design, in gathered fabric, attached with a small metal frame and ball closure, is made to be clasped in the hand as one might a cornetto on a morning commute. The style, which recalls the nostalgic glamour of clasp-fastening evening bags of the 1920s and 1930s, has been in permanent rotation ever since, reimagined in endless iterations of colour, pattern, size and material.
In 2022, the ‘Pasticcino’ embarked on a world tour, setting off from its native Milan, and travelling first to Venice. There it was reimagined in the city’s sumptuous Fortuny fabrics (which are still made in Mariano Fortuny’s century-old textile mill housed in an ancient convent on the Venetian island of Giudecca) and studded with candy-like gobstopper Murano glass clasps by Gambaro & Tagliapietra. The second stop on the tour was France, where a guipure lace exterior by Dentelles André Laude captured Paris’ synonymy with savoir-faire. Meanwhile, a faïence ceramic clasp was created by earthenware factory Manufacture des Emaux de Longwy, founded in 1789.
