Companies speak to us

MeDea: nature clothes

Emanuela Venturi, founder of MeDea, begins her “adventure” in 2000, when she went to Bolivia; there she was fascinated by altiplane, by the nature, but also by the way local Aymara population works.

She discovered the fascinating world of natural dyeing processes, made by the local population; she decided to stay in Bolivia to study these processing, in order to produce clothes that make people feel confortable, because they are rmade with natural processes and with no environmental impact.

And so the brand MeDea was born: collection for women and children, 100% alpaca wool with natural dyeing. The clothes are handmade, or with a natural loom.

MeDea clothes are recommended particularly for children, as they do not contain chemical additives.

 

 

Fior di Bebè: Dreamed in Italy, Handmade with Love in Italy

Fior di Bebè is born from an idea of the founder, Attilio Celozzi: making something useful to respect an important moment.

Two years ago he realized there wasn’t on the market an original, high-value and handmade product for newborns. Therefore he decide to create Fior di Bebè: refined clothes for babies, skillfully packed by hand like rosebuds; a gift both for newborns and for new-mothers!

The importance of the Made in Italy is essential for Attilio: handmade, valued products are the distinctive feature of Italy

 

 

Nicoletta Fasani, creative dressmaker

Nicoletta has always had a special passion for craftsmanship: a grandfather was a confectioner, the other one a shoe maker, and a grandmother was a tailor.

She always liked cutting, sewing, gluing, but also projecting and designing. After a degree in Philosophy and a course in goldsmithry, she decides to open her own enterprise. Her first success is the “Bi-niki”: a modular dress, an exception to commutativity: changing the order of the parts, the result change! It has two symmetrical, modular parts that are interchangeable: you can combine different colors and materials. Essential characteristic: the size is unique.

After the “Bi-niki” Nicoletta invented also the “Tri-niki”, the “Mono-niki”, the “Frak-niki”.

Sustainability is a key value for Nicoletta Fasani: she produces according to the “just in time” philosophy, thus reducing wastes, spaces for storing. And in order to be more “eco”, Nicoletta decided to hold “scartoria” workshops, where she teaches how to reutilize production wastes to make jewelry.

 

 

Cado: every brain has its hat

Cadò is for Dorina Camusso a new challenge: she approached the fashion world as a designer (she worked for 26 years in the field of industrial design) and not as a stylist: starting from the peculiarities of different materials, from 2007 she designs and produces hats, which are not only accessories but also design objects.

These hats are the results of experimentation and design, and they are rigorously hand-made.

To create her hats, Dorina is inspired by history, fashion and art; they combine originality and wit, they are comfortable not only to wear, but also to put…in a pocket!

Nowadays Dorina produces not only hats, but also accessories such as bags, gloves, outerwear, fashion jewelry. She uses different techniques according to different kind of materials she utilizes to produce her winter and summer collections. The most used materials are: boiled wool fabric, felt, jersey, cotton, linen, straw, plexiglass.

In order to reduce the impact of the enterprise, Dorina recycles production wastes: for example, she created a special collection of jewelry in straw and plexiglass.

 

 

Santa Clara: style without time

Santa Clara is a shoes brand born during a trip to Cuba: the founder, Andrea Zavattarelli, was fascinated by the way Cuban cigars are skilfully hand-made.

He decided to apply this old procedure to the world of shoes, replicating an old process in our “new” world, where most products are made by machines and a lot of enterprises have a great social and environmental impact.

The core values of the brand are: handcraft, style without time, Made in Italy, attention for the social impact of the enterprise.

A strong digital strategy and a particular attention to social media is the approach chosen by Andrea Zavattarelli to launch Santa Clara on the market: a product without time meets the digital world.

This love for quality, hand-made products reflects in the social commitment of the enterprise: Santa Clara supports “Stand Up for African Mothers”, a founding project promoted by AMREF.

 

 

“Meda Orafi”: tradition, craftsmanship and innovation

The Medas, goldsmiths since 1916.

Grandpa Dante was born in 1904. Being the second oldest out of eight brothers, he was apprenticed to the greatest Milanese Masters at the age of just 12 years old. As he was a painter, a sculptor, a designer, even a goldsmith, he was an all-round creative talent who opened his own workshop in Milan at the age of 28.

In the 1940s, Dante Meda ran one of the biggest goldsmith’s workshop in Milan, where  twelve people worked as craftsmen.

Mario Meda is Dante’s son and followed his father’s footsteps. When he was a child, he used to pop into see his dad in the big workshop which was located on the lower ground floor in Sant’Andrea street.

In that place, which smelled of wood and metal, Mario grew up fast both as a man and as a craftsman. At the age of 15, he studied to become a goldsmith, attending the School of Applied Arts at the Castello Sforzesco and working as the apprentice of Ernesto Ba, whose workshop was located at the Galleria Passerella, near Piazza San Babila.

Here, Mario designed and made jewelry for the biggest names in this field, such as Cartier. In 1965, Mario opened his own workshop. It’s still a place with an old-fashioned flavor, where many drawings and products saw the light of the day.

Young Miriam Meda has been cultivating a taste for art, design and beauty for 25 years. At 26, she graduated in Architecture and accepted the challenge to be an artisan goldsmith in the time of Internet and the Social Networks. Under the guidance of Dante and Mario, Miriam is working as an artisan who is able to settle the Lombard goldsmith tradition and the taste for the design of our time.

Meda Orafi embodies the old-fashioned craftsmanship in a world which is constantly changing.