Fashion Legacies of a Different Kind

Italian luxury brands are typically associated with style, quality and understated elegance. But increasingly, some fashion leaders also want to be known for legacies of a different kind.

 Many are giving back — in the form of financial aid and sponsorships at a time when their country needs them, as well as with assistance for projects in developing countries. And while the efforts enhance the reputations of the brands, the leaders of the companies also talk about genuinely altruistic intentions.

It was natural for Tod’s to choose to restore a monument that is arguably the best-known symbol of Italy in the world, said Diego Della Valle, chief executive of the fashion group that is financing a €25 million, or $31.7 million, renovation of the Colosseum in Rome. “We represent an Italian company that creates products that contain the DNA of Italian lifestyle, culture, beautiful things.”

And as the global economic downturn forces the Italian government to drastically cut spending — especially, some critics say, for culture — “it’s the duty of successful Italian companies to help out their country,” said Mr. Della Valle, who also supports the storied La Scala opera house in Milan.

Since he announced the Colosseum project, which is scheduled to begin in December, Mr. Della Valle has been an outspoken advocate for corporate largess, encouraging his counterparts in the business world to act similarly. “We need to give the message that we are close to a country that needs signs, both of form and of substance,” he said.

In addition to Tod’s, Rome’s historic fabric has attracted patronage from other fashion brands, like Valentino and Yagi Tsusho, the Japanese fashion company that is helping to restore the only remaining pyramid in Rome, near the cemetery with the tombs of Shelley and Keats.

“Until now, the most concrete response has come from the world of fashion designers, which has shown itself to be particularly sensitive to the needs and the improvement of Rome’s archeological patrimony,” said Mariarosaria Barbera, the Ministry of Culture official who oversees Rome’s ancient artifacts.

“This allows us to hope that other people may follow suit, given that people who are able to influence the tastes of so many individuals throughout the world have chosen to express their support and solidarity by restoring archeological monuments,” she added.

Laura Biagiotti said that she was proud to give back to the city that has lent its name to some of her famous perfumes, including her best-selling “Roma” for women.

The restoration of the twin Baroque fountains in the Piazza Farnese was an expression of an intervention that “solders the ancient to modernity,” much like fashion is intertwined with culture, Ms. Biagiotti said.

She also supported the restoration of Michelangelo’s grand staircase leading to Campidoglio Square, where the city hall squares off with the Capitoline Museums. Contributing to these projects “has been a great source of personal enrichment,” she said in an e-mailed statement.

Some Italian fashion figures have reached beyond their home country. Giorgio Armani worked with Red, a charity backed by Bono, the lead singer of U2, and is now focusing on “Acqua for Life,” a Unicef clean water project. Salvatore Ferragamo worked with the Louvre on the restoration of Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece “The Virgin and Child With Saint Anne.”

The chief executive of Diesel, Renzo Rosso, began the Only The Brave Foundation in 2008, and says he was following the advice of the Dalai Lama: “He told me to go public with my approach to solidarity, and put my name out there. He said more people would follow.”

The businessman, who has built his fortune on jeans, said the nonprofit organization mainly works in Africa, which he describes as “a young continent with a young population,” and as having a lot of untapped potential.

The foundation runs several projects, most notably in Dioro, Mali, a village that Mr. Rosso began sponsoring after Bono put him in touch with Jeffrey D. Sachs, the U.N. special adviser on Millennium Development Goals, which includes fighting extreme poverty.

“This village is where we could intervene directly,” Mr. Rosso said of the foundation’s multifaceted project, which touches on all aspects of daily life in the small village. “I’d like to show that you can help so much with so very little,” he added.

The foundation does, however, set aside 10 percent of its aid for Italy, and is sponsoring a microcredit project for companies affected by the earthquake that hit the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna in May.

Through her foundation, Carla Fendi, another Rome fashion icon, has embarked on a multiyear restoration of a 19th-century theater in Spoleto, the Umbrian town that is home to the Festival of Two Worlds , which she also sponsors. “It’s being restored a bit at a time, first the foyer, then the curtain,” said Ms. Fendi of the “neglected jewel” of a theater, the Caio Melisso Spazio Carla Fendi. The restoration is expected to take five years

Ms. Fendi said she had long admired American patrons of the arts, whose support has been essential to culture — a tradition that has struggled to take root in Italy. That is in part, critics say, because the state offers few incentives to private donors.

“What I hope, is that examples like mine can be a sort of invitation to others to do as much as they can for our patrimony,” she said.

Ministry of Culture officials in Italy are plainly relieved to receive support at a time of shrinking budgets.

“The presence of private sponsors is fundamental,” as they permit museums to offer high-quality programming, Antonia Pasqua Recchia, a top official at the ministry, said at a news conference in October for the beleaguered contemporary art museum called Maxxi. The Rome institution has been infused with new life thanks to sponsors like Ermenegildo Zegna, which co-produced a show this year, and the Fendi brand, which is the main backer of a coming Jeff Koons exhibit of four sculptures.

And while art has always mixed with fashion, Dolce & Gabbana recently approached the idea in a different way: financing the restoration of Federico Fellini’s 1969 film “Satyricon.” The brand’s gift of an undisclosed amount allowed the debut of the revitalized film at the New York Film Festival in October.