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

I do not remember, or rather, it has yet to really happen. I’ve studied as a product designer and I like to tell what is behind the project rather than the project itself: with Berto there is really a lot to tell, believe me!
First of all, working with such an historical brand means growth: working with the highest quality materials is a privilege and it is even more important considering that the company is a few kilometers away.
What was your first project?

I chose a 100% cotton denim, that one that is really hard on the touch like it could stand on its own! I’ve created six rigid denim pants, one different from each other. I wanted to use a fabric that could fade and transform through each washings. A fabric that could feature signs of aging, rips, cuts, as to show the different moments that the person has lived with that garment on.

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

Working in the store and being in contact with people give the chance to always have new interesting ideas to propose. When I work to create my collections with Berto for Negozio Sbagliato, I think about the Venetian women and their different bodies and shapes. In this way I want to offer clothes that have style without considering always the size as first. Instinct always provides the best answers to our needs.

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

First of all, working with such an historical brand means growth: working with the highest quality materials is a privilege and it is even more important considering that the company is a few kilometers away. I think that in the future we should improve and invest on the short supply chain not just for a sustainable reason but really because the experience and passion coming from this companies can be transferred and communicated in an effective way. It is important that we know where we come from and what we can do in the world also with small brands.

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

For the first micro capsules, I chose OSAKA in blue and copper shades: it’s divine over time, with the washings it changes color and become soft, almost as if you could tailor it on your body. For the new collection instead, I ventured on the brightest colors opting for GRACE PRINT yellow and pink, screen-printed cashmere denim design to wear with a white t-shirt and a pair of sneakers. Pants and jacket, an 80s pop attitude for a woman that doesn’t really know what wearing heels means.

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

One of my biggest satisfactions is knowing that my customers who bought the garments created exclusively for Negozio Sbagliato with Berto’s fabrics, may contact the company later to congratulate for the quality of the garments and want to be in touch with the same company through the store. My job is to try to convey to the customer what lies behind the process of production. See, touch and be able to tell how meaningful it is to know how to choose the best for ourselves and for future generations, it is quite even more important on a moral side than economic one.

“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?

Absolutely, I think now more than ever it is important to choose something that we really like, that brings added value. I am daughter of the legendary 80s, we are people who have accumulated things for too many years, and at one point we found ourselves no longer able to choose what is really worth buying. You need culture, responsibility in purchasing and in communicating messages every day.

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

Yes! A “Berto Sbagliato Store”!

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