Imagine you’re designing your fantasy tennis weekend. There’s the exotic travel, of course: you’d obviously pick one of the world’s most stunning enclaves, say, Portofino, on the Ligurian Coast; design a program of intense days of play on some of the world’s most beautiful tennis courts—there’s a reason the Belmond Splendido’s cliffside court makes every player’s bucket list—tournament play with real stakes; and then there’s the après. Take your pick—beaches, boats, maybe even some tabletop dancing to end the very long evenings before waking up to sweat it out on court the next day. Now give it a name: the SEASE Cup.
In this scenario, you’re playing the role of Franco Loro Piana, one of the two SEASE founders along with brother Giacomo, and you’ve turned what started as an annual (casual) gathering of sporty friends into the most full-tilt tennis-tournament weekend imaginable. The only catch? You’ll need to know the Italian lifestyle brand at the heart of it to look the part and join the family. But after SEASE’s first tennis collection hits shelves early next year, it’s not hard to imagine everyone clamoring for their own SEASE Cup to celebrate. For those who’d like to do so, we humbly present the recipe:
Start hard, then go harder: This year’s SEASE Cup began with a spirited draw ceremony at harbor trattoria Winter Rose with piles of local pine-nut pesto pasta and Portofino Dry Gin, where the group toasted brand ambassador and Spanish tennis legend Feliciano Lopez. It helps to have tables full of friends old and new, and copious amounts of bonhomie. Bonus if you can hear the party as you’re walking up, as we did from blocks away winding our way down to the storied Portofino harbor.
“The weekend is like a wedding,” said Loro Piana, “The first night you say you’re going to go to bed really early because tomorrow is the important day, but everyone is having too much fun to do that.”
Above: Feliciano Lopez joined the tennis die-hards for the SEASE Cup, playing an exhibition match against Emanuele Queirolo and taking in the sights and sounds of Portofino. Photo by Clara Vannucci.
Second: choose courts that will feel like home—and enjoy meeting all your needs—from racquet stringing to keeping players sated with early morning coffee and bomboloni to late-night plates of pasta and pizza (and prosecco). Our venue for the weekend was Santa Margherita Ligure Tennis Club, set against the Ligurian hillside. It played host to three intense qualification rounds over two days and featured players who’d traveled from across the world to compete—and snag swag bags filled with SEASE gear and sunglasses from Milanese eyewear brand L.G.R.—all while creating new on-court foes and off-court friends.
After a match, I asked an opponent of mine, textile designer Carlotta Bonadeo, to sit down with me and try to explain what makes this weekend, her second SEASE Cup, so special. We’d gone from facing off against each other moments before to agreeing this was one of the best weekends of our lives. How? Probably the most important ingredient of all—the people. Invite only the authentic, the passionate and yes, the little bit extra ones, and you’ve got the SEASE Cup formula down.
“I love Franco and Giacomo, the way they bring together people—interesting ones, even sometimes crazy ones—all around this sport,” she said. “For them and for us, leisure time is the best time we can spend in our lives. I’ve loved SEASE as a project from day one, because it’s not just a fashion brand, it’s a community, it’s a way to share moments.”
Sharing in those moments was Lopez, who brought his wife and team from Spain to spend the weekend with us tennis die hards, show us all how a recently retired top-20 player with seven titles and a few Davis Cups to his name still gets around the court (well, it turns out), and share in the merriment. He’ll also star in the SEASE tennis collection’s newest campaign, shot in and around Portofino in some of the most historic—and meaningful—spaces for Loro Piana and his guests, from a secret hilltop tennis court to a legendary focacceria. But that’s a story for another day—this weekend was about SEASE’s present, while the future awaits.
Above: Scenes from the SEASE Cup tournament weekend, including Franco Loro Piana closing down the party with an epic set on bongos. Photos by Alessandro Barresi.
“These weekends are what brings me joy,” said Cosimo Gherardini, who heads operations at the restaurant Sant Ambroeus in New York and Milan. “The main thing is the friendship, I love tennis but also this is a way to experience a cool brand like SEASE. It appeals because it’s so tied to sports but as a fashion brand, it represents quiet luxury and quality. Tennis is great for both. ”
Last ingredient for your perfect tennis weekend: Finish strong. It’s hard to imagine a more epic finale than a beach bash and SEASE Cup trophy ceremony—medals for the winners, broken racquets for the losers— at the legendary Bagni Bosetti with bites by Cova, and bongo drums by both Loro Piana brothers. (Editor’s note: Bongo drums are only for the most advanced practitioners of partying SEASE style and as such should only be attempted by experts). The after party, well, you can use your imagination.
But as Loro Piana says, it’s all part of the reason he and his brother started SEASE to begin with:
“One of our most important missions was to create a culture and shared values and experiences in life that create amazing emotions and great memories,” he said. “This is really necessary when you work hard to establish a brand in the market, but you also need these community building events where people share different experiences. Tennis has this power of creating competition to fight, to play in the most beautiful place in the world and then you’re dying for next year’s edition.”
With any luck, we’ll be invited back.
