What was your first project?

Valeria - My first project featured me as a 23 years old fashion coordinator for the creation of a line of conformed.

Cristina - I attended the Fashion Academy in Verona, where I had the incredible opportunity to take part to some internships in fashion companies. My first approach to work was a project for Byblos for the creation of a capsule collection: I had to study trends, k-shape, color balancing, galvanic and finally to plan a runway.

Creative process: do you work instinctively or planning each single small step? Where do your ideas come from?

Cristina - My creative process is all driven by instinct. I can not tell exactly what works the best for me. If I wake up with the right mood, it will be the classic work day, if it's one of those days of creative madness, then, it will be the perfect day to draw. My ideas come from the observation of small details that I collect and I put in my mental database: I am sure that sooner or later the time comes to retrieve them. For me inspiration is anything that creates emotion: a simple leaf falling in autumn or the vortex created by a drop of rain in a puddle. Everything is art, if there is passion.

Valeria - The creative process for me starts with a precise schedule. Within this planning you can find the drive that lead you to creativity.

What did you think when you have been contacted by Berto first?

Valeria - Being contacted by Berto for me was an great chance and opportunity to make garments with quality fabrics.

Cristina - In Berto I found competence and excellent quality, something that you look for and you hope to find in any company. Beautiful fabrics in different colors, variants and prints that are perfect to create accessories and clothing. The fabric is an essential element to achieve what you want to represent and at the same time to satisfy the customers. In Berto these expectations were definitely fulfilled.

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

Cristina - I fell in love right away with a gabardine dyed in a beautiful lime-yellow color, with which have been used for beautiful asymmetrical spring outerwear. Each fabric tells a story. I also remember to have been fascinated by a blue and white tartan that has been a source of real inspiration for the realization of a lot backpacks combined with contrasting fabrics in solid colors.

Valeria - With Berto fabrics I have created a dress with raglan A-line cut in a 70s solid color.

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

Valeria - This project gives me the opportunity to have a precious point of reference, which is the Berto fabrics. Knowing where it starts from in fact, give more stability to my creativity in the modeling level, so I have the opportunity to travel even more with the fantasy.

Cristina - The most important and innovative part of this project was to know that Berto could help strengthen the image of a partner through the creation of young and versatile products born from the best quality materials. I want to emphasize the importance of this incredible opportunity to "play" with the Berto materials. Through this collaboration for me it was also possible to start from the creativity and product design chapter and then move into the production phase using many different fabrics. I was able to reverse the process that governs the daily activities of our reality, where ideas are born from the fabrics availability of our wonderful stock and brought to life as a series of limited edition.

“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?

Cristina - Throughout the fashion world this is an issue on which there is currently a full focus: I’m referring to the sustainability of the entire system and the protection of the environment from pollution (the use of chemical dyes for the textile finishing or the toxic fumes created by the maceration of waste materials). Quid has always been sensitive to these aspects and tries to help by retrieving and using the remaining fabrics of largest companies in the industry, high-quality fabrics not used because they may have some flaws or are not sufficient to support a production. We seek to enhance these fabrics and we exploit the potential in the design process.

Valeria - For me it means getting closer to nature, slowing down the hectic pace of modern life and at the same time giving new life to materials that have still something to tell: they can be something that last and that is transformed into unique and precious garments.

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

Valeria - I consider myself very lucky because I just made a dream from my past come true: one of my evening dress has been on the catwalks last June. But this is just one of many dreams I have, I am just at the beginning and I don’t want to feel any kind of limit.

Cristina - I am a young designer and I still have an infinite number of products, ideas, projects and crazy things that I would like to make and share: I really want to see my dreams come true. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to attend my course in the Fashion Academy. Quid and its partners have made this possible. I will never stop dreaming, along with my favorite travel companion: my passion.


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