Abate Loris

Abate

Loris Abate, jewelry designer, son of a Sicilian goldsmith

Loris Abate (1928-2020). Italian jewelry maker and fashion entrepreneur. His father boasted an ancient goldsmith tradition in Sicily. He left his engineering studies in Turin and took his first steps in goldsmithing.

In 1960, Abate began a partnership with Mila Nutrizio Schön, founding the Mila Schön label, a great entrepreneurial and creative success.

In ’78 he founded Schontess, in Fino Mornasco, a company that studies and produces fine fabrics, makes ties, scarves also for third parties. In the mid-1980s he sold his share in the Maison Schön to a Japanese group.

In ’85 he was elected president of the Fashion Chamber, a position he would hold for six years, during which time he transformed the Spanish Steps of Trinità dei Monti in Rome into the catwalk of Italian fashion for worldwide evenings.

During the same period, he devoted himself to the brand that bears his name and produces ready-to-wear. He opened flagship stores in Milan and Porto Cervo, while continuing to create his own jewelry line. Vicenza, as part of the Orogemma event, dedicated a retrospective exhibition to him.

Brilliant, endowed with uncommon intelligence and great acumen

“Loris was a very important character for me,” Lupinetti tells us, “because beyond the sometimes rough character he was a person who knew how to make himself loved. Brilliant, endowed with an uncommon intelligence and great acumen, “he was ahead,” as they say in the jargon, in the sense that he could see the future.

He gave me life lessons, things that have stayed with me and for which I will always be grateful. When it came to horses, when he set up Team Baroncio, that is, a team of riders riding his horses, it was I who pointed out to him a mare in France: well he showed me so much confidence that he felt he did not have to see her in person beforehand, my judgment was enough for him.

He bought the mare we renamed Betsy del Baroncio: with her my son Gianluca won silver at the Italian junior championship, two golds at the Italian young riders championships, then she made her debut at Piazza di Siena, where Loris came every year.

He would see the competitions, take an interest in everything, including federal politics, then in the evening he would take us all to the restaurant “Il Matriciano,” where the discourse was always heated but fun, never trivial. Those were extraordinary years.

When he was in Milan he would often invite my wife and I to his home for dinner. Loris Abate was a very important person for me and my family. His passing causes me great sorrow, as if, with all due respect, one of my family members had passed away.”

Loris Abate passed away in 2020 at the age of 92.

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