Natural materials, exotic woods, high quality leather.  Gentlemen around the world always look for high-end accessories, customization and uniqueness. Born in 2009, after 30 years of operating as a shop, the family owned company Cedes Milano crafts luxury made in Italy accessories for gentlemen, in order to satiate the market’s appetite for fine male accessories. BACO’s fashion editor Valentina Accardo sits down with Mauro and Linda Lorenzi, owners of Cedes.

What is your area of expertise?

“We produce travel sets, shoes and grooming accessories and home goods. We have noted a growing interest in the shoe sector.

What are some of the materials you use? 

We use natural materials like buffalo and antelope horns, stag deer, bamboo, pigskin and boar bristles, ovangkol wood,” said Linda.

What does a real gentleman need to do to take care of his shoes?

“He needs a complete set of brushes. First, he needs to remove the dust with the hard brush, then put cream with the small round brush in a circular motion and then let it sit. After that, brush the shoes again with the hard brush to remove the excess of cream and use the soft brush for the final shining. The brush must be dark or clear depending on the color of the shoes. At the end of the process, the shoes need the sciu-scia cloth to make it perfectly clean,” said Mauro.

Why it is called sciu-scia?

“After the war, all the kids in Naples were asking to the American soldiers to make their shoes clean yelling around the streets: shoe-shining, shoe-shining! With the Italian southern accents soon it became: sciu-scia,” said Mauro.

Nice story. How about grooming sets?

“It one of our main areas of expertise. We have complete set with razors, brushes and bowls and we carry travel sets. We use materials such as mother of pearl, bamboo, zebu horn and real badger hairs, the top quality in bristles. But we also use high tech materials like carbon fibre.Our product is compatible with Gillette Fusion razors. Everything is handmade in Italy,” said Linda.

I see brushes for jackets too?

“Here we have a four-cloth brush set for jackets: black and hard for tweed, white and soft for wool, white and black, mixed soft-hard for cashmere, and bristle brass for suede. Everything is customizable,” said Linda.

HEADQUARTERS: Via Morimondo 26, Milano

PRICE RANGE: from 200 euros of the sheepskin mitten to over 4000 for a complete box.

WHERE TO BUY: info@cedesmilano.com, Finaest