BIO

My Story: From Medicine to Fashion

I had followed the "family tradition" into medical school. I felt a growing sense of dissatisfaction, but I had no clear idea yet of where my future was heading.

Still a medical student, I spend some months in Berlin, immersed in its avant-garde scene. Among other things, I see the Antwerp Academy's graduation show, and something shifts.

June 2008. I'm travelling on, in the basement of a hostel in Amsterdam. In a flash, the thought becomes clear: I want to make clothes. I'm lost for words. In silence, I go for a walk.

I return to Italy, and with the support of my family, I begin my formal training in Florence. It feels like freedom — a real desire to learn, to discover, and I start to believe that what I do has value.

I continue my formation moving between different premier Italian institutions (such as Istituto Secoli), learning each discipline of the craft in turn. This unique background enabled me to develop deep expertise across the entire creative process: from initial design and pattern-making to final tailoring.

I don't think I've ever doubted this path as much as during an internship in a theatre costume workshop — frustrating, with little hope. And then, a couple of months later, my sister gets married wearing a dress I made for her. No pressure, no obligation — just a gift. That's when I truly began to love this work, which is, at its core, simply being a tailor.

In the autumn of 2014, I had the chance to share my story and my ideas with someone; I never felt quite ready, but by the end of that meeting I found myself committed to making a small collection. I started as an assistant, and in a short time opened my own studio in Como specializing in the research, development, and design of sustainable women's fashion.

A Singular Vision on the Creative Process

Unlike the fragmented modern fashion industry — where design, pattern-making and tailoring are almost always separate hands — every stage of creation happens here, in the same hands, from first sketch to finished garment. My diverse background bridges the gap between creativity and technical expertise, allowing me to manage every stage of creation.

This approach preserves ancestral techniques while adding a modern, creative soul. It is a very hands-on process - every design is “engineered by hand” merging traditional flat pattern-making with the art of draping, to build a garment directly in three dimensions, developing innovative approaches.

The construction itself pursues “construction without construction” combining the lightness and essentiality of Japanese aesthetics with the rigor and construction of European tailoring. The aim is always to give a garment its form using the fewest structural elements possible: without unnecessary seams, without interlinings, without rigidity where none is needed. A continuous search for a perfect aplomb that enhances posture, movement, and natural beauty.

This is not a search for revolution, but for evolution — a body of work that deepens and refines itself over time, rather than one replaced by the next season's demands. Discover our craftsmanship and the fabrics behind every piece.

Training with a Cause

Between 2019 and 2020, I led the atelier of CouLture Migrante, a social enterprise project in Como training asylum seekers and migrant artisans — men and women from Gambia, Ivory Coast, Pakistan, Nigeria, Peru, Kuwait and beyond — in the craft of tailoring.

What made it extraordinary wasn't only the teaching. It was discovering that mutual respect turns a workplace into something else entirely — a place where different approaches don't just add up, they multiply. I came in with years of technical training behind me, yet I learned as much as I taught: an African tailor , working in a completely different tradition, could construct a complex, made-to-measure garment with a speed, economy of means and efficacy I had never encountered — proof that there is more than one right way to arrive at a beautiful result.

It's at these points of encounter, where different approaches meet, that the most interesting things happen — the same conviction that shapes how I see Lake Como itself: not one tradition, but many, layered and held together. I find something electrifying in that mixing of cultures — it's where fashion is at its most alive, capable of crossing boundaries and opening new ways to express who we are. Some of those first apprentices now train new members themselves.

Memberships & Certifications:

• Listed in the Wellmade Directory (Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte)

• Certified by the Lago di Como collective trademark (Camera di Commercio)

• Supported internationally by ICE - Italian Trade Agency

• Member of the Europeana Network Association for European cultural heritage