Brand story
In her words
A conversation with Ludovica Gualtieri
Ludovica Gualtieri founded the house in Milan and directs it today. We asked her about beginnings, about materials, and about why nothing in the collection asks to be noticed.
On beginning
Why Milan
“I could have designed anywhere and had it made somewhere cheaper. But I wanted to be able to walk to the people who cut my patterns. When you can question a sample in the afternoon and see it corrected the same day, the garment gets better faster.”
“Milan also sets a standard you cannot argue with. Restraint here is not a style. It is the baseline.”
On the idea
One garment, two lives
“I kept meeting women who owned beautiful coats they could not actually wear through a day. Too formal by lunch, or too casual by evening. So they carried a second option, or they compromised.”
“A piece that transforms has to be resolved twice, and that is the difficult part. Both versions have to look intentional, and the mechanism has to disappear when you are not using it.”
On materials
What I will not compromise
“Recycled polyamide, post-consumer padding. But I am wary of talking about materials as a position. The honest environmental measure is how long the garment lasts.”
“A coat that holds its shape for ten years has done more than one bought on principle and worn for a season. So I design against longevity, and the rest follows.”
On quiet
Why nothing here shouts
“There are two kinds of excellence. One asks to be seen. The other recognises itself in silence. I am only interested in the second.”
“I want a woman to put a piece on and then forget about it. If she is still thinking about the coat at four in the afternoon, I have failed.”
Forget what you are wearing
Come and see
The atelier is in Milan, at Via Tintoretto 5. Write to us for an appointment or a question about a piece.