Salt on the skin. Boats coming in. Voices drifting from the harbour. In Trani, the sea is not scenery: it is a way of life.
This is where Here is The Sea begins, a collaboration between Nugnes and ASPESI that looks beyond the polished language of fashion to capture something more instinctive: the people, gestures and rituals that make a place what it is.
Built around a limited-edition capsule, a photographic exhibition and a cast of real characters from the Trani coastline, the project brings together two visions of Italian style: Nugnes’ Mediterranean approach to luxury and ASPESI’s enduring commitment to function, quality and essential design.
At its centre is the 13PIÙ, one of ASPESI’s signature shirts, reinterpreted exclusively for Nugnes. Waterproof and quietly functional, it balances rigour with ease, while a hidden “marine tattoo” inside the garment gives it an intimate connection to the territory.
The clothes, however, are only part of the story. Photographer Piero Percoco turns his camera towards Trani’s fishermen and residents, documenting them along the coast and harbour with the raw, unfiltered intimacy of everyday life. No fantasy Mediterranean. No postcard. Just faces, gestures and stories.
From 17 to 26 September, Percoco’s photographs took over Nugnes’ Trani space, where they appeared alongside the capsule. At the opening, the photographer met the fishermen he had portrayed, signing limited-edition postcards and recreating the easy rhythm of a conversation at the harbour bar. Later, the terraces became a Mediterranean piazza of sorts; filled with music, food and people.
Here is The Sea proposes a different kind of fashion narrative: one rooted not in destination, but in belonging. Because sometimes the most powerful way to tell a place is simply to let the people who live there speak.