D'Orica: Uniqueness as a Winning Factor
From Nove, near Vicenza, to conquering the rest of the world. Thanks to creativity, technology and an exclusive combination of gold and silk. Made entirely by D’orica
Giampietro Zonta certainly loves to take unusual, alternative paths. In the thirty years since D’orica was founded in 1989 with his wife, Daniela Raccanello—the company’s creative director—you could say that he’s never left Italy, however, there is no company more international than his. «For more than 20 years, we have participated only in Italian trade shows, VICENZAORO and Oroarezzo, and only a few times in foreign shows but more for curiosity than necessity. Yet, 95% of what we make is for export, in more than 20 countries, including the U.S. UAE, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia... For us, segmenting the market isn’t a problem. Actually, it’s an economic model we wanted, in order to reduce the risk of being in only a single market. We can do this because we are very flexible, managing to satisfy all kinds of requests and tastes, even for a single piece. We can say that they seek us out from all over the world when they want a product like ours, which, unfortunately, is much imitated, they ask for D’orica. This is why we are proud to say that our facilities in Nove manufacture 100% ‘Made in Italy’ products. We don’t have suppliers. We literally make everything in house like tailors, but for gold. This is a perfect combination of great craftsmanship and unique creativity». As unique as the Treesure line, which, for four years now has gone from being something fun for the Zontas that came out of a summer afternoon to almost a ‘reason for being,’ and it is probably the future of the company. «In this edition of VICENZAORO, in addition to our usual stand in pavilion 4 n° 434, there will be a second space on Pag. 7 n° 571, for the debut of the first Treesure collection in silk and gold, with about 100 models in silk in different colors, decorated with gold details and finishings. This is a refined combination that has never been seen before, the result of four years of study and dedication. We had to recreate the supply chain from zero because, in Italy, silk production has been dormant for more than 50 years. We didn’t want to resort to having to go abroad to buy something that for centuries was an icon of Italian creativity and savoir-faire. Thanks to the collaboration with various farm cooperatives that work with sericulture and the purchase of a spinner from the nineteen-sixties, we were able to obtain a constant ‘title’ (thickness) of silk thread, 20/22 deniers. And by following this path that initially seemed like pure madness, D’orica has become even more international. More than 100 foreign and Italian publications have written about us, and we also were recognized by the European Union as having one of the most outstanding business projects of 2015, as well as being awarded and studied by the Veneto Region in 2017/2018 with a research grant concerning the themes of corporate social responsibility. But what makes me the proudest is that this projects pays homage to the glorious past of our country. Those who commissioned the wonderful Palladian villas were rich merchants from Vicenza and Venice who owed their massive fortunes to one product especially—silk. Having brought this back is something of great historical importance for us». He adds that «26 collaborators» come and go at different times, with 17 different schedules, to give them the flexibility they need in their personal lives. And this completes the picture of a company that is on the cutting edge even when it comes to the welfare of its workers.
