BERTO FOR FROM OWL: #INTERVIEW
Can you recall the exact moment when you decided to become a fashion designer?

It all started back in 2013. We (Filippo Tommasini and Alberto Ziveri, friends since childhood) decided to start printing some designs we made together with Marco Gherri (Filippo’s cousin) on some ready t-shirts. We made 60 t-shirts and sold them all. Since that moment we understood we could make something more sophisticated, with the help of other friends: Luca Rovelli, Luciana dal Zio, Lorenzo Maestri, Luca Marocchi and Matteo Costa (all part of our team, actually). We started to learn how the process works, we bought the first textiles and thought the first ideas.
What it is important to say is that we’re not fashion designers, we’re economics students with several passions (from sports to web design, photography, fashion and innovation), but we are not able to design. We just brainstorm new ideas and work with our team to develop them. That’s probably our advantage: we gather ideas in our ignorance without being limited by “design dogmas”.


What was your first project?

The first project was in 2014 with our first “collection”: the Summer 2015 collection. Each collection has new innovations an new ideas, and improvements from previous collections.
 
Denim produces the best Denim. As we want it, without compromise.
Creative process: do you work instinctively or planning each single small step? Where do your ideas come from?

We both plan and work instinctively. Our goal is just to make great products. So for example if we plan to make a jacket but it the result isn’t s satisfactory we won’t produce it. Our inspiration comes from our landscape and city (Parma), from Nature and from our traditions (we get inspiration even from the food industry). We never get inspirated from other brands.


How did your collaboration with Berto started?

We contacted the company in 2015. We were very excited to find a reliable and quality denim supplier.


Which Berto’s fabrics have you been working with for your project/collection?

We first worked with Dandy Blue, then with Ranger Blue.


What's the most meaningful part about this project in your opinion? What have you been able to achieve thanks to this program?

Berto produces the best denim. We found it durable and beautiful, and it always satisfied our needs in terms of quality and even price. It’s a denim without compromises, as we want.


“Less but better” could be read as an endorsement for purity in design but in fashion design too. It can also be adopted as an environmental message about reduction and sustainability. What do you think about this?

We think environment must be always kept in mind both in textile and clothing industry. We’re still small and young so our ecological footprint is very very low, but we already check every time whether the textiles are eco-friendly or not. However, our packaging for example is all made from recycled paper.


Is there anything you'd like to do that you haven't done yet?

We always have big projects and ideas in mind. The problem is always about maximizing the budget in order to create innovative products with an uncompromising quality. However, we cannot reveal upcoming projects, but we’re pretty sure the Berto denim will be included in our next Winter XVII collection.




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