FRANCESCA AND ELIA WORKS

FIRST ENCOUNTER

Francesca and Elia Works is born from an idea of its founders Elia Corradini and Francesca Petazzini.

Francesca grows up on the Parma hills, in a context surrounded by nature. A big passion for Italian literature, Greek and Latin drives her to attend classical high school. After graduating, she studies Fashion and Visual Arts at the University of Venice where she gives expression to her creativity by designing first collections.

A strong interest in craftsmanship and the use of natural materials immediately emerge from her works. That brings her to London, where she experiences first-hand manual weaving techniques and dyeing processes with plant extracts at the studio of the designer Faustine Steinmez.

Elia is born in Umbria, into a family linked to the world of craftsmanship and art.

Since his childhood he spends many hours in the family workshop where he develops, almost for fun, great creativity and manual skills.

As an adult, a strong interest for science subjects leads to studies in Physics. Parallel to his university studies he creates together with his mother a workshop of bags and accessories.

Here he experiments with artisan techniques, discovers new materials and studies dyes and treatments.

Once he graduates in physics, he devotes himself fully to the family workshop and collaborates with multiple brands, without ever abandoning the search for his own stylistic identity.

Elia and Francesca met in Venice, where they spent a training period in the field of bag design.

In the following years they both worked in different contexts of the fashion and textile sector. In Milan they perfected their technical skills by deepening the study of pattern making.

Thanks to their heterogeneous and multidisciplinary path they begin to work with various realities in the world of visual arts, theater and contemporary dance, with which they still collaborate.

From the encounter of their different background and the shared passion for craftsmanship and natural materials, and with the aim of proposing an alternative vision to that of the main fashion brands, in 2022 they decide to begin their personal project.

THE ETHICS AND THE PROJECT

This project was born with the intention of proposing a new way of seeing clothing and leather goods, such as something that has ethical, aesthetic and functional value.

Every single piece is designed to remain, to last over time and not to be consumed in a moment.

Elia and Francesca, through their work, they want to demonstrate that it is possible to create an alternative to the Western way of consumerism and to design with respect for people and the environment.

The goal is to replenish with nature and the world around us an ancestral bond, which it appears to be by now been lost or forgotten.

Totally disengaging from the logic of industrial production, nature and its elements take on a central role in the work of the two designers and artisans, determining its character and the expressive potential.

CREATE WITH NATURAL FIBERS AND VEGETABLE DYES

Within their small workshop, Elia and Francesca bring the creative process to life.

Forms and volumes emerge from their exchange of ideas. Contemporaneously, they study vegetable dyes, research new natural materials and develop innovative technical solutions.

The two designers personally make the patterns by hand, cut, sew and dye, taking care of every detail.

The design of each piece is the expression of the delicate balance between the different elements and values which are the heart of the project.

The attention to comfort and the relationship that the garments and accessories establish with the body of the wearer are combined with linear and essential cuts.

The colors and every nuance are determined by the nature of the material, the plant and the dyeing process used.

The choice of natural materials such as hemp, organic cotton and vegetable tanned leather, and the use of vegetable dyes such as woad, logwood, madder, weld, pomegranate husk and walnut husk, represent the soul of the project.

A garment or an accessory made with natural materials is not harmful to the environment, respects the health of the wearer and gives a pleasant sensation in contact with the skin.

NATURE MAKES EACH PIECE UNIQUE AND INIMITABLE

Creating in harmony with nature means respecting it and allow it to leave its mark in what we do.

Features of natural materials and vegetable dyes change depending on the vintage and the state of the plant at the time of harvest, which is influenced by various climatic and atmospheric events.

All this makes every fabric, every dye bath and consequently each piece unique, unrepeatable and different from all others.