Luisa Beccaria: fashion designer, entrepreneur, and Sicilian dreamer

Luisa Beccaria is an eccentric fashion designer and entrepreneur who debuted in the late 1980s and was accepted to show on Parisian Couture runways in 1991. She comes from a prominent Milanese family and married into an equally important Sicilian family. In Sicily, she discovered the Feudo del Castelluccio, a magical estate of almond and olive groves at the southern tip of the island's eastern coast, which she restored and now spends months each year. Beccaria dislikes terms like "fashion" and "trend," preferring "lifestyle" as a broader concept. Her Milan boutiques attract young women preparing for grand weddings and debutante balls, and her dresses reach it-girls and celebrities worldwide. She recently expanded into a Luxury Home Collection and even food and wine, opening LùBar in Milan's Galleria d'Arte Moderna courtyard, which became a hotspot for the city's golden youth before the pandemic. LùBar means "the bar" in Sicilian dialect and also nods to the Bonaccorsi family names (Lucrezia, Lucilla, Ludovico, Luna, Luchino, Lucio, Luisa). Reflecting on the post-COVID era, she advocates producing less and better, with fewer collections and more online sales, all managed internally through a family model that defies globalization.