MILAN MILANO ITALY | VIA MONTENAPOLEONE SHOPS | VIA MONTENAPOLEONE SHOPPING DISTRICT

❝Fratelli coltelli❞ says an old Italian adage. The Italian words for brothers and knives rhyme, but Lorenzi family of cutlers in Via Montenapoleone belie implications of popular wisdom in this saying.
Franco Lorenzi’s family have been cutlers for generations, and their roots go as far back as 1500. But since that time, the mamma and papa of today’s firm sharpened blades of daggers and swords for Napoleon and the nobles of that era. Evening strollers through the Quadrilatero della Moda shouldn’t turn up their noses as they make their way through the most expensive drag in Italy. Lorenzi’s shop at number 9 is the oldest. Its date of birth is in January of 1929, when Franco’s father lived and worked there, in the little workshop where today his craftsmanship is still celebrated and handed down – from the very beginning, this is what has characterized small and medium-sized family businesses in Italy.

Franco Lorenzi, his son, and his brother tenaciously carry on with an activity that virtually no longer exists, and in defiance of the street, theirs is the only shop that houses around 20,000 objects without a single advertising logo – almost as if to say that advertising might be the soul of commerce, but in the long run, it is the quality that pays off. And here we’re talking about excellent quality, since every piece is worked on and custom-made, almost as if it were a little work of art. Finely wrought, hand-chased work to forge scissors, knives, walking sticks, pipes and lighters that have the same price as a Dior coat and are conceived, as the owner points out, to ❝furnish❞ the élite.
Of course – because just about everyone has passed through the shop – poets and writers, industrialists and politicians, vips and prelates in search a gift or an authentic accessory, traditional or eccentric as it might be.

In fact, at Lorenzi’s, you can find everything, for anyone’s pocketbook and to everyone’s taste. ❝Just to give a few figures, there are 1200 pipes, because each one❞, as Lorenzi explains, ❝has its own physiognomy and a good pipe is like a good garment – it must fit like a glove. There are about seventy models of barbers’ razors because each man, you know, has his problems – like a large or receding or double chin. Over 500 models of scissors are designed for every need, from gardening to bricolage; and there are over one hundred table knives: long, narrow, short, sharp, serrated – you name it. And then again, what about the more than one thousand toothbrushes, an infinite collection of pipes and combs, in plastic, gold, silver, horn...❞.
And then there are walking sticks, for the mountains or hunting, lighters, ladies’ mirrors, toilette accessories. Taking an inventory would be an arduous task, since each week a new idea comes up. You have to go in to believe your eyes.

Franco Lorenzi is proud to admit that many customers come to him only to be amazed. It seems that even a famous designer stops in every now and then just to take his mind off things and recharge his batteries. But foreigners and the children of his father’s clients are mainly the ones who come, with their children, to make their purchases. For that matter, for decades, the Lorenzi family motto is ❝dress people with accessories❞, an iron-clad rule that has been handed down not just among the closest family members, but also to the sales assistants in the shop. Superior products and impeccable service – that’s why the cutler in Via Montenapoleone is famous all over the world.

LORENZI
via Monte Napoleone, 9
20121 Milan
Tel. +39 02 76022848