Barena was founded in Venice in 1993 by Sandro Zara, after thirty years in the Italian textile trade. He'd spent those years visiting the archives of shut-down wool mills around Venice, where he found original patterns and stitching books from the old lagoon trades. Those became Barena's Venetian workwear archive, and the collections still reference it season after season.

The starting point is 19th-century lagoon workwear, the clothes of Venice's fishermen and hunters, cut softer and made for now. Sandro put the idea as elegance even when we are working the land.

Massimo Pigozzo has led the menswear since the beginning and still does. Collections start with the fabric. Everything is made in Italy. It's still family-run, with Sandro's daughter Francesca designing the womenswear and overseeing the brand image.

The clothes are soft tailoring: relaxed, navy at the center, easy without being sloppy.

Cueva has carried Barena since 2022. We've since worked together on exclusive capsules made in Italy.