The Rivista: Who Are The Biscioni?
Ciao from Torino,
This is a very special edition of The Rivista. There are a lot of exciting things on the way for Del Toro that we wanted to keep you in the loop on. A new campaign featuring some of our friends from Torino, an upcoming show on Barstool Sports, and some secret collaborations that will only be available to the DT faithful.
This week, we meet The Biscioni, a group of Italian gentleman very special to Del Toro. You'll start to see these guys pop up in various campaigns and creative very soon.
So here goes the first installment...
Part I: Who Are The Biscioni?
Candidly, I struggled to write this. Not because I had writer's block or anything. But because the answer to 'Who are The Biscioni' is a complicated one. Or maybe yet, it's because it's the wrong question to even ask. A better question may be 'What is The Biscioni?'. I'll do my best at answering both.
The easy one is Who? It's a group of '70's-inspired well-dressed guys with a sincere dedication to fine Italian auto craft and an even more pronounced dedication to an authentic Italian lifestyle. This is, without exaggeration, the entire reason why you see so many vintage cars in our creative. It's because of them. More on this later.
Biscioni literally translates to 'the serpent'. A snake. Peep the Alfa Romeo logo:
There it is, in all her glory. The Serpent.
I'm not going to speak too much about Alfa Romeo the brand, as it is less relevant to this particular conversation. As you may know, Del Toro's roots are in Torino, Italy (or Turin as we say in English). A city of ~900,000, Torino happens to be the auto capital of Italy, and at one time, all of Europe. To this day it remains a major global auto hub. And these guys grew up driving Alfas. As did their fathers and grandfathers. It's generational.
There's a very important word in what I just wrote - drive. The Biscioni do not collect cars. They drive cars. As they once told us, "Drive what is meant to be driven." I love that quote. This is authentic. It's not for show. Some of these guys have a dozen of these things, and they drive them every single day.
It's the real deal. They don't mess around. Check these out:
It reminds me of our philosophy at DT. Don't collect shoes and garments. Wear them. Wear what is meant to be worn.
But one of my favorite quotes from the guys about our mutual municipal connection is "Without Torino, Italy is not Italy. Without Italy, Torino is Torino." It's a special place, and I highly encourage a visit. As the very first capitol city of Italy, it's historic, yet modern. It's refined, yet gritty. It's elegant, yet edgy. If James Bond were an Italian city, I think he would be Torino.
So how did we get to know these guys? Candidly, I personally don't have much of a reason to know a group of suave, well-dressed, auto-obsessed Italian gentleman. Well, maybe I have a small reason, but I certainly would not have come across this fine crew on my own.
The answer is Alberto Chimenti, or 'Kime' as his friends call him. Kime has been shooting for Del Toro for years. YEARS. And he's not just a little good - he's the best. His portfolio includes a long list of brands - fashion, auto, and otherwise. He has become a dear friend of mine personally, and will forever be a friend of the brand. He's a true Italian gentleman in every sense of the word. With some edge. And enough creativity, kindness, and humor to make him dangerously fun to be around.
He reached out a handful of years ago after seeing one of our newsletters. We had a stock image of a car as the header. He cold emailed us asking if he could shoot something, briefly mentioning he had experience with this sorta thing. We sent him a couple pairs of shoes to shoot and we haven't looked back since. We were floored. (Sidenote: we recently had an ad running that showed a closeup of some old beat up Milanos pressing the gas on a vintage Alfa. The copy read 'Floor it.' That was a quiet nod to Kime and I think of him every time that pops up on my feed.)
Here's the man himself:
Kime himself runs (drives?) with The Biscioni. That's the tie-in. He's part of the next generation that will carry on the group's traditions. And he's well-suited and well-equipped for the responsibility. Garments and cameras in tow to simultaneously live and capture the Biscioni lifestyle.
Here's why I love working with Kime: it is of paramount importance to him that, whatever it is we are working on, I fundamentally understand and appreciate the culture and backstory of the subject matter. If I fail him at this particular step of the process, I will have put a serious wrench in the project and really inhibit its potential. I've learned this lesson the hard way. So he has generously gone out of his way to make sure we get as engrained in this stuff as possible.
This is where it all starts to fall into place. An aperitivo with the guys leads to a dinner which leads to some hangs which leads to blossoming international friendships. Creative sparks are always flying, glasses are always full...and the tachometer is always pushing red.
This is where I am gonna call it - statistically speaking, you aren't likely going to read much more. If you've made it this far, you're a real one. Because this is about as DT as it gets.
Stay tuned for Part II this week - What is The Biscioni?
And a special Part III - a look inside the new Barstool Sports show Pants Unknown with John Feitelberg, Mikey Pavs, and myself.
So buckle up, here we go.
Ciao for now,
-Brady
