Sara Libera Santarelli & Alessia Tarda

WHAT’S YOUR BACKGROUND?

S: The word ‘studio’ as a child was first and foremost a place, a laboratory. My parents are both architects, and in their studio I would Google images that I could save, print on the paper I liked best, cut out and collect. Then there was the plotter that printed very high rolls, an inventory of stationery and posters from art and architecture fairs on the walls. I am grateful to those encounters and situations that amplified some hidden curiosities, including fashion and visual research.
A: My friends often introduce me as ‘Alessia Tarda de Latina’, which makes them smile, a lot. Maybe it’s because of a reference to a scene from a 90s cartoon or because of my speech, which has kept its inflection alive. From the age of three, pointed at as the daughter of the obscure for being left-handed in a school run by nuns, I spent the first years of my life pretending to be a teacher to imitate my mother. Once the performance was over, the choice fell on an intense three-year degree in industrial design, accompanied by the very faithful Sara, and a master’s degree in fashion at the IUAV.

THE CONCEPT OF YOUR COLLECTION?

The concept behind the collection is the story of our experience in the Venetian house we shared for two years with a group of girls and a black cat named Goran. This flat is known in Venice as the “girls’ house” because it is inhabited mostly by artists from different backgrounds who had already created projects in the past by forming a collective.

Hence the title “Everyone calls it the girls’ house”. Over the years, this space has seen the passage of many people and stories, so when we arrived the house was full of paintings, objects, photographs and clothes. In the very first approach to the project we wanted to create garments that not only communicated visual imagery, but also managed to be ideally part of that intimate space. We imagined them as a place where the girls could live, recognising home. For this reason, the reflection on the formal question represented a significant moment, leading us to focus our attention, first of all, on the daily practices that we put into practice in the home in relation to clothing. These practices took the form of rituals. There was that of dressing in layers, then transferred to soft, rounded silhouettes, that of exchanging clothes and modifying garments to adapt them to different builds, as they were often bought second-hand. Finally, the collection was an opportunity to collaborate with some of the artists who lived in the house, including: Thomas Braida, Megan Freeman, Noëma Kosuth, Rachele Maistrello, Anna Marzuttini, Valerio Nicolai, Anastasiya Parvanova, Barbara Prenka, Maddalena Tesser, Sulltane Tusha. Each of them, in their own way, has contributed: some by creating abstract paintings and embroideries on garments, some by printing designs on fabric, some by creating patterns for jacquards and accessories.

WHAT ARE YOUR LUCIDITY PILLS?

S: Alessia only relies on homeopathy for her lucid pills, at most on tarot cards. In cases of extreme necessity, she consults the online oracle.
A: I’m sure Sara would look for her lucid pills between the lines of Paolo Cocks horoscope, which she loves so much, or at the bottom of a bottle of wine.

Sara Libera Santarelli & Alessia Tarda

WHAT’S YOUR BACKGROUND?

THE CONCEPT OF YOUR COLLECTION?

WHAT ARE YOUR LUCIDITY PILLS?

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