According to an article in the December 2012 Wall Street Journal Magazine (“Preservation, Italian Style”, by Christina Binkley), Italian luxury fashion brands have seen that the sponsorship of the preservation of the cultural heritage is a good business move as “high-culture deeds burnish the luxury brand”. Ilaria Borletti, Chair of the Italian national trust (the Fondo Ambiente Italiano) is working hard to get new companies on board. While an American luxury brand has occasionally underwritten a preservation project—Ralph Lauren’s sponsorship of the conservation of the “Star Spangled Banner” comes to mind— in the United States, such relationships are not as common or as not as publicized if they do exist. Perhaps an article like this will encourage some American brands to follow the Italians.
Why don’t we follow the Italians on this?
