An Italian First For Houston Sets the Stage For Uptown Park Magic — Fabiana Filippi Finds a New Showcase at Elizabeth Anthony

Typically, Julie Roberts entertains her best clients with posh in-store affairs at her chic Elizabeth Anthony boutique in Houston’s Uptown Park. But on this occasion, she stepped beyond home base to entertain her fashion flock with a luncheon event at Lombardi, the wildly popular Italian restaurant just across the street in the mixed-use development.

Earlier, Roberts had been having dinner at Lombardi with Aryana Cianni of Italian brand Fabiana Filippi and the two so enjoyed the evening that Roberts decided to wed the two Italian brands in one delicious midday trunk show/luncheon.

The event began with champagne in the luxe store and then moved on to the restaurant for a three-course feast and fashion presentation of selections from Fabiana Filippi’s spring/summer 2025 collection. It was the first time the collection had been presented in a retail setting after having been introduced at Milan Fashion Week in September.

Before the clutch of ladies arrived, PaperCity visited with Cianni to talk about the popular Umbrian-based fashion house, which is known for its elegant minimalism and precise craftsmanship.

PaperCity: So for the first time since its founding some 40 years ago Fabiana Filippi has appointed a creative director?

Aryanna Cianni: Yes, Lucia De Vito and she’s worked on this collection. So you definitely see her in the prints, bringing some novelty, some more fashion forward pieces, still keeping and maintaining the DNA of the collection. But she has brought on board some fun, beautiful prints that are always tied back to the territory Umbria.

She developed novelty pieces where it is more of  3-D applied crystals and sequins. So that’s been fun. It’s a little more youthful with touches of very sharp couture. I want to say pieces that are a little more tailored to the body and lots of different pieces. We see some of that today.

PaperCity: These pieces are beautiful and the price points are far friendlier than other similar Italian brands like Cucinelli.

Aryana Cianni: I feel like, as a brand we all have some similarity, especially since we’re all from the Umbrian territory. But our esthetic, it is cleaner and more monochromatic driven. We do have our own point of view and we’re very competitive with the price points given that this is all produced in Italy.

PC: What will we see at lunch today?

AC: The highlights of the spring/summer 2025 collection. There are more special pieces, more of the unique pieces that are not necessarily in all the buys, just because they’re more couture driven with injection of color, as well as their fabrication, and then more of the DNA pieces as well of the collection. So there are going to be more suedes and leather and Napa leathers that are part of the collection.

PC: I understand that Fabiana Filippi has a commitment to sustainable fashion.

AC: Yes, we take pride that our cottons are all organic. We are 42 percent organic right now from our dyes — we try to use less chemical dyes as possible — to our yarns, and even our packaging is environmentally friendly. So we are really conscious about the territory that you know we come from.

Fashion Fun at Elizabeth Anthony

The personal appearance/fashion events are set to continue at Elizabeth Anthony throughout the fall. Here’s the schedule:

— October 24 through October 26: Eva Regehr of Catherine Regehr joins Elizabeth Anthony to showcase her spring designs.

— October 29 through October 30: Edeline Lee makes her first in-store designer appearance.

— October 31 through November 1: California-based designer Lourdes Chavez visits Elizabeth Anthony twice a year to showcase her collection and create custom designs.

— November 20 through November 21: Nardos Imam of Nardos Design will be in-store for the trunk show and the annual American Heart Association event with runway under the stars on the evening of November 19.

— December 5: In from Kashmir, India, Yaser Shaw will showcase the one-of-a-kind embroidered shawls.