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Livia Giuggioli (Firth)
- Thread starter alicia753
- Start date
telegraph.co.uk
Livia Firth's travelling life
The green entrepreneur Livia Firth reflects on her love of simple safaris and romantic escapes with husband Colin.
Livia Firth is the creative director of Eco Age , a business that helps people live a more energy-efficient life, and the director of Brightwide.com , an online film festival that streams social and political cinema. A Doctor of Humanities, she lives in London with her husband (the actor Colin Firth) and two children.
How often do you travel?
Every school holidays, so probably five times a year, mostly to my house in Umbria. I love everything there, from the landscape to the food. It’s simple, calm and relaxing – a contrast to our life in London, where we’re always on the run.
Where in the world would you return?
A Kenyan camp called Rekero in the Masai Mara, where we went with our friend and guide, Tim Melesi.
Do you like adventure holidays?
I like nature, but I hate posh safari camps, where it’s rough and wild outside but luxurious and separate from local life inside. We like travelling with Tim partly because it is just us and his Jeep. You feel you’re the only people who have ever seen that giraffe. Once we spent all day watching a leopard that had killed a wildebeest and taken it up a tree; the kids were mesmerised. We have what they call in Italy mal d’Africa – when you are away from it, you long to go back.
Where would you like to go next?
Vietnam and Cambodia. I’ve seen both countries in movies, and spotted a hotel in Mr and Mrs Smith – a guide we like – that looks incredible.
Are you a lover of luxury or simplicity?
Luxury when I work; when you are busy, it’s nice to be somewhere efficient and comfortable. On holiday I’m drawn to simple things, not fuss.
Any luxurious places you’d go back to?
Palazzina Grassi. Venice is a very intense city, complicated and crowded, and most hotels there are old and chic. Palazzina Grassi is modern and glam; for the Venice Film Festival, we had a room, overlooking the Grand Canal, which was soft, white and full of mirrors: very romantic.
Lovely spots to visit in Venice?
Burano, the isolated fishermen’s island where the houses are painted different colours and the only way there is by small boat. You get the most spectacular fish you’ll ever eat at a restaurant called Gatto Nero.
The most glamorous hotel you know?
Hotel du Cap, which has somehow hung on to the glamour that the Cannes Film Festival used to have. These days, the festival is jammed and chaotic. But back at the hotel, you suddenly feel like Grace Kelly.
The most remote places you have been?
Villages in Bangladesh, Zambia and Kenya, on trips with Oxfam. They’re the most amazing I have been on, because it’s just you and a backpack, and you go where most travellers don’t. Those trips remind me of my gap year, sleeping in rough places but meeting incredible people and discovering how they live, what they do, how resilient they are. You carry their stories for life.
The roughest place you’ve slept?
A tiny town in Ethiopia, where they didn’t have a hotel. I rented a room with no hot water, and slept in my clothes in my sleeping bag.
Are you a natural adventurer?
I have never climbed a mountain or been to the Amazon. But I love exploring, and knowing how people live. You enrich your life by meeting people who inhabit a different world. We all share the planet and, if you know someone else’s problems, you can work with them and they with you. If I meet a woman in a Bangladesh factory, I’ll understand more about her world. At the same time, she knows that someone is appreciating the eco fashion she is making. It works for us both.
Favourite items bought abroad?
I buy things wherever I go. I’m obsessed with cushions, so I usually have one in my suitcase. If I go to Africa, it’s jewellery; I love Masai beads. In America, I often get something for the home, such as a candle or a rug. I enjoy going around our house and thinking, “That was from Ethiopia, that was from Scandinavia.” It’s like a scrapbook.
Favourite boutiques abroad?
The Frozen Fountain in Amsterdam is great for interior design. In New York, Kaight is an eco-fashion boutique, while Matta, on Lafayette , stocks items from developing countries, such as mats from Africa. In Paris, I always head to Merci for its bookshop, in a cafe.
Best hotel in Britain?
Other than the Firth Hotel, our house, which is always full of friends, the High Road House in Chiswick, west London, owned by the same people as Soho House. It’s so quirky, but comfortable, and you feel at home.
Name your favourite luggage
I never spend money on suitcases, but I can recommend Tumi’s suit carrier bag, which you lay your clothes on – unfolded, so they don’t get creased – and then close it like a sandwich and zip it up. I also have a little Samsonite wheelie.
What’s your wardrobe like when you travel?
Black trousers, jacket and top. Whether I have to do business or go out in the evening, it works.
Essentials in your handbag?
My business cards, my Liz Earle organic concealer and lots of amulets: a ring I found in Africa, a little angel, a charm which a woman in Kenya gave me for good luck, and a pin from my grandmother.
Favourite restaurants abroad?
Any trattoria in Rome that does local, simple food. I hate fussy food and elegant restaurants. Eating is about indulging your senses and having fun. My idea of hell is a stuffy Michelin-superstar place with what Colin and I call vertical food: piles of ingredients on top of each other. As an antidote to that, we often end up going for a pizza.
Best city for a weekend away?
Amsterdam. I love the spirit, the artists, the quirkiness and the shops, the kind you only find there. We love going in spring and cycling. The Hotel de Goudfazant, in a remote spot on a canal, is a warehouse that looks like a film set but serves delicious food.
Favourite travel agent?
We don’t have one. We always book ourselves.
Does your carbon footprint concern you?
Yes, but I don’t tend to offset flights, because the offsetting schemes seem to profit from people’s guilt, and you never know whether the company is actually planting trees. Instead, I rarely eat red meat, I have an eco business, and I live my life in a way that’s as carbon-conscious as it can be.
Livia Firth is a global ambassador for Oxfam.
Livia Firth's travelling life
The green entrepreneur Livia Firth reflects on her love of simple safaris and romantic escapes with husband Colin.
Livia Firth is the creative director of Eco Age , a business that helps people live a more energy-efficient life, and the director of Brightwide.com , an online film festival that streams social and political cinema. A Doctor of Humanities, she lives in London with her husband (the actor Colin Firth) and two children.
How often do you travel?
Every school holidays, so probably five times a year, mostly to my house in Umbria. I love everything there, from the landscape to the food. It’s simple, calm and relaxing – a contrast to our life in London, where we’re always on the run.
Where in the world would you return?
A Kenyan camp called Rekero in the Masai Mara, where we went with our friend and guide, Tim Melesi.
Do you like adventure holidays?
I like nature, but I hate posh safari camps, where it’s rough and wild outside but luxurious and separate from local life inside. We like travelling with Tim partly because it is just us and his Jeep. You feel you’re the only people who have ever seen that giraffe. Once we spent all day watching a leopard that had killed a wildebeest and taken it up a tree; the kids were mesmerised. We have what they call in Italy mal d’Africa – when you are away from it, you long to go back.
Where would you like to go next?
Vietnam and Cambodia. I’ve seen both countries in movies, and spotted a hotel in Mr and Mrs Smith – a guide we like – that looks incredible.
Are you a lover of luxury or simplicity?
Luxury when I work; when you are busy, it’s nice to be somewhere efficient and comfortable. On holiday I’m drawn to simple things, not fuss.
Any luxurious places you’d go back to?
Palazzina Grassi. Venice is a very intense city, complicated and crowded, and most hotels there are old and chic. Palazzina Grassi is modern and glam; for the Venice Film Festival, we had a room, overlooking the Grand Canal, which was soft, white and full of mirrors: very romantic.
Lovely spots to visit in Venice?
Burano, the isolated fishermen’s island where the houses are painted different colours and the only way there is by small boat. You get the most spectacular fish you’ll ever eat at a restaurant called Gatto Nero.
The most glamorous hotel you know?
Hotel du Cap, which has somehow hung on to the glamour that the Cannes Film Festival used to have. These days, the festival is jammed and chaotic. But back at the hotel, you suddenly feel like Grace Kelly.
The most remote places you have been?
Villages in Bangladesh, Zambia and Kenya, on trips with Oxfam. They’re the most amazing I have been on, because it’s just you and a backpack, and you go where most travellers don’t. Those trips remind me of my gap year, sleeping in rough places but meeting incredible people and discovering how they live, what they do, how resilient they are. You carry their stories for life.
The roughest place you’ve slept?
A tiny town in Ethiopia, where they didn’t have a hotel. I rented a room with no hot water, and slept in my clothes in my sleeping bag.
Are you a natural adventurer?
I have never climbed a mountain or been to the Amazon. But I love exploring, and knowing how people live. You enrich your life by meeting people who inhabit a different world. We all share the planet and, if you know someone else’s problems, you can work with them and they with you. If I meet a woman in a Bangladesh factory, I’ll understand more about her world. At the same time, she knows that someone is appreciating the eco fashion she is making. It works for us both.
Favourite items bought abroad?
I buy things wherever I go. I’m obsessed with cushions, so I usually have one in my suitcase. If I go to Africa, it’s jewellery; I love Masai beads. In America, I often get something for the home, such as a candle or a rug. I enjoy going around our house and thinking, “That was from Ethiopia, that was from Scandinavia.” It’s like a scrapbook.
Favourite boutiques abroad?
The Frozen Fountain in Amsterdam is great for interior design. In New York, Kaight is an eco-fashion boutique, while Matta, on Lafayette , stocks items from developing countries, such as mats from Africa. In Paris, I always head to Merci for its bookshop, in a cafe.
Best hotel in Britain?
Other than the Firth Hotel, our house, which is always full of friends, the High Road House in Chiswick, west London, owned by the same people as Soho House. It’s so quirky, but comfortable, and you feel at home.
Name your favourite luggage
I never spend money on suitcases, but I can recommend Tumi’s suit carrier bag, which you lay your clothes on – unfolded, so they don’t get creased – and then close it like a sandwich and zip it up. I also have a little Samsonite wheelie.
What’s your wardrobe like when you travel?
Black trousers, jacket and top. Whether I have to do business or go out in the evening, it works.
Essentials in your handbag?
My business cards, my Liz Earle organic concealer and lots of amulets: a ring I found in Africa, a little angel, a charm which a woman in Kenya gave me for good luck, and a pin from my grandmother.
Favourite restaurants abroad?
Any trattoria in Rome that does local, simple food. I hate fussy food and elegant restaurants. Eating is about indulging your senses and having fun. My idea of hell is a stuffy Michelin-superstar place with what Colin and I call vertical food: piles of ingredients on top of each other. As an antidote to that, we often end up going for a pizza.
Best city for a weekend away?
Amsterdam. I love the spirit, the artists, the quirkiness and the shops, the kind you only find there. We love going in spring and cycling. The Hotel de Goudfazant, in a remote spot on a canal, is a warehouse that looks like a film set but serves delicious food.
Favourite travel agent?
We don’t have one. We always book ourselves.
Does your carbon footprint concern you?
Yes, but I don’t tend to offset flights, because the offsetting schemes seem to profit from people’s guilt, and you never know whether the company is actually planting trees. Instead, I rarely eat red meat, I have an eco business, and I live my life in a way that’s as carbon-conscious as it can be.
Livia Firth is a global ambassador for Oxfam.
profimedia.cz
Livia Firth, François-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek attend Vanity Fair's 19th annual Oscars party at the Sunset Tower Hotel.
Livia Firth attends the Valentino Spring/Summer 2013 Haute-Couture show as part of Paris Fashion Week at Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, in Paris.
24.1.2013
Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani (L) poses with Italian producer Livia Firth during the Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2013 collection shows on January 22, 2013 in Paris.
Livia Firth, François-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek attend Vanity Fair's 19th annual Oscars party at the Sunset Tower Hotel.
Livia Firth attends the Valentino Spring/Summer 2013 Haute-Couture show as part of Paris Fashion Week at Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, in Paris.
24.1.2013
Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani (L) poses with Italian producer Livia Firth during the Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2013 collection shows on January 22, 2013 in Paris.
eco-age.com
04th March 2013 The GCC Brand Mark launches at Paris Fashion Week.
As you might have guessed from our Twitter feed, yesterday we had the pleasure of launching our GCC Brand Mark with the world's first Zero Deforestation luxury leather handbag collection!
04th March 2013 The GCC Brand Mark launches at Paris Fashion Week.
As you might have guessed from our Twitter feed, yesterday we had the pleasure of launching our GCC Brand Mark with the world's first Zero Deforestation luxury leather handbag collection!
eco-age.com
The Oscars Weekend
06.03.13
Fashion
Livia talks ecology with Leonardo DiCaprio and reworks some Oscar favourites
Welcome to the Oscars 2013, GCC style. This year we’ve gone back to basics for the Oscars, as we’re saving our fire for a very big GCC announcement during Paris Fashion Week on 4th March - stay tuned. This means walking the red carpets myself in some of my favourite GCC fashion names. And we’ve thrown in the odd eco hero for good measure!
As you know, the Oscars isn’t just about the actual awards; there’s a whole circus of events and outings ahead of the big night itself. There are few people who could get away with throwing a relaxed pre-Oscar party the day before (even when the general vibe around Los Angeles is far from relaxed!), but as Diane Von Furstenberg can turn her hand to anything, she threw a good old fashioned picnic on the lawn of her beautiful house.
It was totally relaxed and casual with big rugs and cushions dotted around everywhere, putting everyone at ease. As our good friend Laura Bailey put it, ‘imagine if you had a dream of Hollywood, an idea of what it would be, possibly in black and white. This is it!’
"Be yourself, not an imitation" is a DVF quote from her memoir, A Signature of Life. With that in mind I opted for a very ‘me’ outfit: an organic Stewart + Brown cashmere cardigan and my vintage D&G white trousers.
Then it was off to the Chanel Party at an Italian restaurant, Madeo, where I had the pleasure of hanging out with Hamish Bowles, Charlotte Rampling and Jeremy Thomas. As you know we’ve struck up a close GCC bond this season with the ever brilliant WilliamVintage, so I wore another piece from William’s carefully curated collection: a 1968 dress in canary yellow and black crepe. I accessorised with some Gucci shoes for the GCC in eco-satin (I originally wore these for Cannes last year), and the beautiful D&G clutch I carried last year at their Taormina event.
t’s hard to top an audience with Leonardo on eco issues, but on to Oscar night itself. I was in my element in a Grace Kelly inspired gown by the prodigiously talented designer Emilia Wickstead. This is the first piece Emilia has produced for the GCC but we’ve long admired the New Zealand born designer’s romantic aesthetic. In this piece she fulfilled GCC criteria working with fully traceable GOTS certified silk organza, made in her Westminster atelier. I also dug out my trusty Oscar accessories; the shoes and clutch bag by Roger Vivier that have stood me in such good stead for the last two Academy Awards. Who says you can’t recycle on the red carpet?
The Oscars Weekend
06.03.13
Fashion
Livia talks ecology with Leonardo DiCaprio and reworks some Oscar favourites
Welcome to the Oscars 2013, GCC style. This year we’ve gone back to basics for the Oscars, as we’re saving our fire for a very big GCC announcement during Paris Fashion Week on 4th March - stay tuned. This means walking the red carpets myself in some of my favourite GCC fashion names. And we’ve thrown in the odd eco hero for good measure!
As you know, the Oscars isn’t just about the actual awards; there’s a whole circus of events and outings ahead of the big night itself. There are few people who could get away with throwing a relaxed pre-Oscar party the day before (even when the general vibe around Los Angeles is far from relaxed!), but as Diane Von Furstenberg can turn her hand to anything, she threw a good old fashioned picnic on the lawn of her beautiful house.
It was totally relaxed and casual with big rugs and cushions dotted around everywhere, putting everyone at ease. As our good friend Laura Bailey put it, ‘imagine if you had a dream of Hollywood, an idea of what it would be, possibly in black and white. This is it!’
"Be yourself, not an imitation" is a DVF quote from her memoir, A Signature of Life. With that in mind I opted for a very ‘me’ outfit: an organic Stewart + Brown cashmere cardigan and my vintage D&G white trousers.
Then it was off to the Chanel Party at an Italian restaurant, Madeo, where I had the pleasure of hanging out with Hamish Bowles, Charlotte Rampling and Jeremy Thomas. As you know we’ve struck up a close GCC bond this season with the ever brilliant WilliamVintage, so I wore another piece from William’s carefully curated collection: a 1968 dress in canary yellow and black crepe. I accessorised with some Gucci shoes for the GCC in eco-satin (I originally wore these for Cannes last year), and the beautiful D&G clutch I carried last year at their Taormina event.
t’s hard to top an audience with Leonardo on eco issues, but on to Oscar night itself. I was in my element in a Grace Kelly inspired gown by the prodigiously talented designer Emilia Wickstead. This is the first piece Emilia has produced for the GCC but we’ve long admired the New Zealand born designer’s romantic aesthetic. In this piece she fulfilled GCC criteria working with fully traceable GOTS certified silk organza, made in her Westminster atelier. I also dug out my trusty Oscar accessories; the shoes and clutch bag by Roger Vivier that have stood me in such good stead for the last two Academy Awards. Who says you can’t recycle on the red carpet?
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