Archivi tag: wasted fabric

SILVIA TOFFANIN

It was love at the first sight with Silvia! Perhaps because of her energy, or her genuine and contagious smile with whom she welcomed me when we met the first time. I believe I would like everything made of her just because of her and the way she moves in the space around itself, because it seems she does it lightly and cheerfully.

Silvia was born in Padua, a quiet city near Venice, in the north of Italy. She was a cheerful, active, diligent school girl, but very talkative 🙂

She is now living in China after 13 years spent in Milan, where she is now running her Footwear Design Consultancy Studio, BLACKZEROstudios, based in Milan and Shenzhen.


Why China? It happened by chance, but she discovers a completely different way to work and to make business: in China everything moves fast, people are very dynamic and love to risk.

The Made in Italy is unique but Chinese people are unbeatable in business.

Dreams

I started dancing at 5, so obviously the first dream was to become a dancer, then in middle school suddenly, after seeing Apollo 13, I began to dream of being an astronaut… later an airplane pilot! My childhood was serene and happy: afternoons after kindergarten and in summer, when my parents had to work, I spent time with my maternal grandparents. Grandma is a seamstress, I always saw her with needle and thread in her hands, so I spent the whole afternoons playing and messing with fabric remnants and copying clothes. Since then I noticed that my interest in fashion increased and when I was 8/9 years old they gave me one sewing machine toy for my birthday.

The Beginning

Since adolescence, with the help of grandma, we created a lot of clothes or customized what I bought or what I already had, adding particularity and originality to the pieces I wore. At the end of the High School, where I studied languages, time has come to make a decision how to continue my studies.

To everyone’s amazement I decided to study fashion. Fashion was far away from my previous studies and from my personal style at that time. Indeed in that moment, I was not a Fashionista in the literal sense. I was a little rebel: creative, eccentric, thinking out of the box, with a great passion for streetstyle and couture, always researching new mixes of fabrics, colours and shapes. That’s why I thought my creative energy could perfectly find application in the charming world of Fashion.

My family initially disagreed, but eventually we found a solution and I left for Milan. 5 years at the Politecnico of Milan, a thousand adventures, ideas, projects, experiences.

Even before finishing my master’s degree I started working for a Footwear Design Studio. Thanks to a university course I have known Marco and Guillaume and their brand Guillaume Hinfray, like this I sent them an email asking for an internship and so I started. Beside my grandmother, surely they are the people who inspired me to take this path and thanks to whom I turned my passion into my work.

From there everything began!

 Work

(2009) I stayed with Marco and Guillaume 6 years long and then moved on to the freelance business collaborating with other studios and brands.

Less than one year ago, in 2019 I started my project Studio Blackzerostudios_Milano: after so many years drawing shoes, in September I got the chance to participate at the London Fashion Week with a capsule of clothing. I took the opportunity on the fly: this is how my first clothing collection was born.

Future Projects

And now here I am, I continue with the same passion and love for fashion I have many projects in the drawer that I hope to realize soon! These days I’m working on a new important personal project. It’s a “secret dream” I’ve been keeping in my heart and now I think it’s the right moment to start.

I can’t reveal more details, so… stay tuned, news are coming!…

 

Photo credits by Ph. Elisabetta Brian @elisabetta_brian
Model: Francesca Interlenghi @the_dummys_tales
Location: Galleria Raffaella Cortese @galleriaraffaellacortese
Exhibition: Unrequited love by Monica Bonvicini

 

Tèssere Project

Tèssere is a continuous opportunity for networking and socialization. Every day, we try to add to this road we are creating. We would like to become a brand for products, and a new way of thinking about work, a way to respect people, and the enhancement of their capacity and specialty: a new way of experiencing the environment.

Tèssere is a big team of more then 10 women with different background and experiences: weavers, tailors, designers, a kind of “supporter” and a coordinator for each workshop.

Tèssere included two different artisan workshops where the textile turns through a traditional weaving technique called “de sa trama’e manta“. This technique allows the re-use of discarded textile or clothing and creates new styles or strips that become the weave in the loom that joins the woven of wool or cotton creating unique and very original artifacts.

Some years ago I had the idea to start ​​the project Tèssere. It began when I looked more carefully at an ancient artifact made with the traditional technique “de sa trama’e manta”. I thought that this product possessed an extraordinary value and it was a perfect combination of creativity and technology, history and culture of our communities. That object contained in itself another fundamental element: the recovery of what would end up in landfill. I thought that all these matters can be synthesized and linked with the social dimension of the work that would restore dignity to women and improve their quality of life. Because I dealt with social issues for years, it was natural for me to combine all these elements into a single project, so I cherished this dream for a few years until a competition announcement of the “Fondazione con il sud” allowed us to implement the project which was ultimately selected for a national competition that began December 2013. The project consisted of two workshops about thirty kilometers away from each other, in two different villages. 4 communities are involved as well as two social cooperatives, a cultural association, a society of environmental design and the Caritas all coming together for one goal: to create jobs in a new way, sustainable, with roots in the history and culture of their own land keeping an eye on the present and the future.

We are in Sardinia, in the smallest province of Italy, Ogliastra. It is an ancient land of great culture and extraordinary nature, but marked by deep economic crisis. We preferred to act, rather than feeling sorry for ourselves. We preferred to design and share ideas and dreams, rather than complain about the lack of jobs.

Tèssere is a challenge. We often repeat that with determination and courage we can overcome even the most difficult challenges. In this first years of work many beautiful things have happened: we have seen the generosity of people who donated clothes and fabrics destined to be thrown away; wasted fabric becoming transformed, contributing significantly in reducing pollution and last but not least, watching Tèssere enter the market force with quality artisan products, recognizably beautiful. We have also seen the windows of other shops with our products, our bags carried around with the natural elegance of women, new relationships blooming with other organizations, individuals, and designers, the large amount of brand new clothes donated to the Caritas for families in need; the smile and the satisfaction of women who have found jobs through us, and are still employed.

Tèssere is this and much more.

Because every day it opens a new window for us, new connections develop for our small company.

Tèssere is a continuous opportunity for networking and socialization. Every day, we try to add to this road we are creating. We would like to become a brand for products, and a new way of thinking about work, a way to respect people, and the enhancement of their capacity and specialty: a new way of experiencing the environment.

Have a look here!

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