Isabella Stefanelli
Each hangtag is dyed with black tea.
Included with each Isabella Stefanelli garment, which is said to be "genuinely handmade."
These tags not only contain descriptions of the fabric's warp, weft, and sewing thread, but also the name and photo of a person who actually existed in the past, and what kind of activities the person was involved in when they were alive. The symbolic parts are summarized.
Isabella Stefanelli's clothes are named after real people who lived in this world in the past.
It's not an afterthought name like domestic brands do, but clothes that reflect the person.
At the time, there were people who were considered heretics when they were alive, and people who did things that were commonplace today but were not mainstream at that time. There are various people who have been praised by the world.
Isabella Stefanelli's Isabella empathizes with that person's way of life and feels that she wants to be like that person as well.
Isabella Stefanelli creates designs by imagining what it would have been like to wear such clothes back in the day when such people were alive.
Each piece of clothing bearing that name comes with a tea-dyed hang tag.
Our store recently received its second fall/winter delivery of Isabella Stefanelli.
During this season, there is a considerable time lag between the collection season, but that's how it is with this brand.
That's what we do with every piece of clothing.
First of all, Isabella Stefanelli's clothes do not have the "exhibition samples" that normally exist with other brands.
It's just a piece of basted cloth called sheeting, with some pins attached, and the same ``clothes'' shape that the clothes are named after, hanging on hangers.
And there is only a small sample of the fabric that can be used for the garment.
Based on that, I use my brain to imagine things and then place orders on the spot, during an appointment at an exhibition.
I don't think there is any other brand in the world that uses the imagination of its head to the limit like this.
That's why all the dealers who carry Isabella Stefanelli don't see the finished garments until they arrive at their stores from England.
That's dangerous, isn't it?
However, the finished clothes are 100% guaranteed to be of a much higher quality than what they imagined at the exhibition venue.
This is promised to Isabella Stefanelli.
That was in January of this year.
When I went to Isabella's atelier in London, I experienced it myself and was convinced of it.
This is a must-see for me when I go to the Paris exhibition in January. So, I consulted the people involved with Isabella Stafenalli in Japan, and I asked them to confirm with me, and after the Paris exhibition, I would like to go to London and see how clothes are made in Isabella's atelier. I asked.
So I went from Paris to the suburbs of London where Isabella's atelier is located. A day trip. lol
We left the hotel very early in the morning and arrived at the hotel we were staying at in Paris in the middle of the night.
Of course, it was my first time in the UK, but I contacted Isabella in advance and she carefully taught me how to get on the tube (subway in Japan) and how to transfer from the London station where the Eurostar from Paris arrives. It was given to me.
This helped me a lot that day, especially on the way home.
If it weren't for the tube routes that Isabella kindly explained in handwriting on top of the photos, I would have gotten into trouble and got on the Eurostar I had booked to get back to Paris. I wouldn't have been able to do that.
I'm very grateful.
I was apparently the third Japanese person to go to Isabella Stefanelli's atelier.
The first two people are people involved with Japanese brands and support Isabella. I'm not the person at the store selling it.
yes.
In other words, I was the first store in Japan to go to Isabella Stefanelli's atelier and directly observe her clothing-making process.
Fortunately.
St Pancras station in London.
This station is said to be the setting for the scene in the first Harry Potter series, The Philosopher's Stone, when Harry Potter heads to wizard school.
I arrived at this station by Eurostar and contacted Isabella.
Then we took a tube ride for about 40 minutes.
Unlike the Paris Metro, I felt that the British Tube was more polite and had proper announcements.
I think it's a little close to Japan.
We arrived at the nearest station where Isabella's atelier is located.
From there, I'll contact you again and say we'll start walking there.
London was so cold that it couldn't be compared to Paris.
As I walked, cringing, I saw a woman running towards me from far in front of me, waving at me.
The frigid cold suddenly blew away. It's very heartwarming.
Isabella came to pick me up on the way.
I finally met you.
Of course, Isabella and I are meeting for the first time.
However, they seemed to be very welcoming to me coming from Japan.
On this day as well, while she was teaching me various things and I was learning various things, she was constantly sewing clothes by hand.
He was always there for me even though he was busy.
From the moment I entered Isabella's atelier from the cold outside of London, the world felt different.
I still remember this experience vividly.
As customers who have tried on Isabella Stefanelli at our store have said, when you wear Isabella Stefanelli clothes, you feel like you are surrounded by gentleness.
It's not a physical thing like how soft it is to wear.
The moment I met Isabella and entered her atelier, what I felt was her overwhelming kindness.
This is deeply reflected in the atelier where Isabella continues to work, and in the clothes she creates.
It takes an overwhelming amount of time and a seemingly endless amount of hand work to produce each piece of clothing, and it is precisely because of the way she deals with each piece that Isabella herself is imbued in every piece of clothing.
“Clothes that deeply reflect the person themselves.”
That's Isabella Stefanelli's clothes.
She started sewing at the age of 4 and has been making clothes for over 40 years.
With that in mind, I can put all my experience and skills into one piece.
Isabella calls the Isabella Stefanelli clothes she made herself "KIDS."
"They're my beautiful children," he said.
I was only able to stay there for a limited time that day, but I guess that's exactly what happened. I felt that.
These clothes are on a different level.
From sketching the clothes, draping, pattern design, design, sewing, and weaving the fabric.
A person who can complete "everything" by himself when it comes to making clothes.
He has now far surpassed the term "designer," and I don't know of anyone else like him in the world.
Isabella Stefanelli's clothes are often referred to as "improvisational," and it may be easier to understand when you say that.
There are no blueprints or specifications that exist in normal clothing manufacturing, and the process of making a single garment is disparate.
Therefore, even though the shape is the same, the sewing and other details are different depending on the fabric.
However, strictly speaking, I don't think it's "improvisation."
First of all, Isabella Stefanelli's clothes are often hand-stitched.
Of course, some parts are sewn using a lockstitch sewing machine.
There is only one sewing machine in the atelier.
For example, even though the coat is called Virginia, all the details are different depending on the material, thickness, and whether it is hand-woven or machine-woven.
Isabella showed me something.
It's a small miniature piece sewn in places, made of the same fabric as the clothes I'm currently sewing and making.
The idea is to use the cut fabric to test out various specifications to find out what is the best way to make it.
Treatment around the collar, pockets, and fabric edges...
Various details were tested.
These include the type of thread, color, sewing method, and processing method.
All of them had been tried many times.
When I asked Isabella about it, she said that she has never measured how long it takes to produce a single garment, so she doesn't know.
If there was a "sample" of Isabella Stefanelli's clothes, and you were to make something based on that sample, you could time it.
However, this is not the case; each piece of Isabella Stefanelli's clothing is made to order, so each piece has different sewing specifications and is made differently.
Therefore, it seems that they do not know how long it takes to make one piece.
Even with the same shape, Isabella thinks about it in her head and searches for the best method using the leftover fabric, and as a result, creates a garment with the best specifications.
Even the sewing thread used for sewing is not ordinary "sewing thread".
We sew while considering the ``appropriate individuality'' of the ``fabric'' and ``thread.''
Even if the outer material is a machine-woven fabric, Isabella Stefanelli takes it for granted that she can ``pull out the threads'' from the fabric and sew with it.
I think this is a very advanced sewing method.
Isabella has been making clothes for over 40 years, ever since she started helping her father, who was an Italian tailor, but she still tries it out with her own hands.
Then, as Isabella Stefanelli, I make my own decisions and apply the best methods to the clothes.
In fact, it takes a huge amount of time to hand sew each garment, but I also spend a lot of time before I start sewing.
And when it comes to hand-woven fabrics, it's even more.
Isabella Stefanelli's clothes come in two types: hand-woven fabrics and machine-woven fabrics.
The rest is hand-knitted knits.
For hand-woven fabrics, Isabella decides on the threads, the combination, arrangement, and organization, and then puts everything together herself.
There were several female seamstresses in the atelier, but Isabella had a small hand-woven loom in her private workspace separated by a partition.
When Isabella Stefanelli's clothes are completed, the seller cannot explain why the details are the way they are.
At the same time, Isabella herself cannot explain it either.
When I ask her, she responds, ``I don't know either.''
That's because he is truly a "real designer's designer."
Throughout history, he is a hugely famous designer who has designed, planned, and created patterns for famous brands around the world.
About seven years ago, I started a brand with my own name.
He is a designer who has been a part of many brands and has led and led the global clothing market.
That's why there is no such thing as ``this way'' or ``for this reason'' when it comes to clothes.
Now, such things "exist in a completely different realm." I felt that very much.
However, when designing fabrics, Isabella seems to have a vague image in her mind.
Not the head. It's "in my heart."
It seems that he designs the fabric by moving his hands and checking with his eyes what is in his heart.
The process begins by deciding on the thread, and in order to remember the process of composing the fabric, they sometimes record it with a video camera.
Whatever is in your heart, give it shape with your own handloom.
I will create sample fabrics based on my past experiences. I put everything I feel into the fabric.
I keep records of the things I have designed so that I don't forget them, but I am not sure why the fabrics I design are the way they are or why the clothes are shaped the way they are. Even Isabella herself doesn't know.
Even Isabella Stafenalli doesn't know why her clothes are made.
“Isabella herself”
and
“What you create in front of your eyes with your own hands”
When these two match,...
It seems that “Isabella Stefanelli’s clothes” will be completed.
Usually, he records how he designs by taking videos or writing it in a notebook, but recently an app has been released that allows him to record the organization chart of fabrics, so he uses that app from time to time as well. He said he was trying it out.
He took time out of his busy schedule to teach me various things in very polite and easy-to-understand English, even though I can't speak English properly.
By then, it was already past noon.
In Paris in January, I was running around exhibitions, so every night I was dizzy and exhausted, so every day I ate nothing but cold rice that I casually bought at the supermarket in front of the hotel, but Isabella-san made carbonara. He made it for me.
Wait a minute. So she went to the supermarket to buy the ingredients and made it for me.
I'm not really picky about what I eat, but I hadn't eaten anything big in over a week, so the carbonara really hit home for me.
It was warm and felt incredibly delicious.
By the way, I also like Okayama's soul food. I bought millet dumplings and took them home as souvenirs. It's sold everywhere in Japan, but I thought it wouldn't be available in the UK.
It's a pink package, and each individual wrapper has Momotaro, a pheasant, a monkey, and a dog drawn on it.
Then, Isabella-san was happy and said, "It's so cute!" perhaps.
Isabella taught me a lot of things, and I would like to share them with photos on this blog. That's what I was thinking, but due to Ms. Isabella's wishes, this is the only thing that is okay to be published on this blog.
View from the rooftop of Isabella Stefanelli's atelier.
This is where Isabella Stefanelli's clothes are made.
A “dream-like feeling” that doesn’t feel like reality.
It's not just a dream or something like that, my stay in London was very short, but it was a completely different space from Paris and other places in London.
For example, Mr. Yamauchi's studio in Yamauchi has a sense of tension, as if a single thread is being held taut.
Of course, there is a sense of tension in Isabella's atelier. Because this is where clothes are made.
There is always the sound of the loom, and the seamstresses are always moving their hands.
However, it is a place where Isabella actually lives and where she makes clothes.
“The place of life”.
Isabella is a very warm and kind-hearted person.
I felt that Isabella's warmth created the ``atmosphere'', ``place'', and ``space'' of this place.
I believe that clothes have the maker's touch, and the maker's humanity resides in them.
I could feel this in Isabella Stefanelli's atelier.
I'll be introducing the clothes later.