The brand “Anthemis” was born in the middle of the Italian national lockdown when Valentina Roncarati and Federica Sabatini started to look for a way of transforming the distress into something positive and stimulating. It hasn’t been easy at all, but they didn’t want to consider the idea of just stand by and watch. When life puts you in front of a choice you can either decide to react or succumb to the circumstances. Thanks to their determination these two young designers managed to finally materialise their goal.
Tell us a bit about yourself, how and when did you meet, how this project started…?
We met 11 years ago during the first year of high school, from the very first moment a great connection has built between us, so much so that we immediately started planning our future together. Since we’ve always been fascinated by the fashion world, right after our degree we moved to Milan to attend the European Institute of Design. During those years at University, we found out we had deep compatibility, not only from a personal point but also from a professional one. Therefore, the common desire to develop a new project came out from the shared sense of the big potential held in this strong bonding. As soon as we graduated we came across the realisation that we needed to get in touch with the working life to reveal the inner fashion essence. For two years our paths split, we experienced different work realities that gave us the chance to professionally shape and improve ourselves, whereupon we met again even more convinced to pursue our biggest dream.
What are the fashion ethics you believe in?
Anthemis was born at the beginning of 2020 that, besides everything, has been the year of change and learning. This rough period introduced us to a brand new perspective so that we decided to create our first entire collection utilizing some of the unused materials available in stock with aim of reducing waste and transforming the untapped resources in primary 
products. Moreover, with the need to break away from the whole fast-fashion world, we’re proud of ranking ourselves as a craft business that produces exclusively on customers requests. In such a way, mass production is excluded and the unnecessary stocks destined for disposal avoided. We hope to develop greater awareness in clients choices, leading them to purchase a unique garment that can last for a lifetime.
Where do you take your inspiration from?
Inspiration can come from several things: from a historical era, from an artistic movement or, why not, even from a movie. In our case, behind each of our creations, there’s always the idea of a story we’d like to tell. As soon as we get clear the context within which the story will take place, we start looking for a woman, or rather a Muse, that embodies all the peculiarities of that period or context, and who’s liable to be a perfect protagonist of it. The 360-degrees analysis of her is essential because the entire collection will be based on the result of the deep study of her unique attitude and personality (together with, of course, our reinterpretation of trends and in the face of our taste). All these operations are enclosed in what can be defined as a creative-visual process that develops in a real story but entirely made of images. Then, you know the collection is ready when, the story, can be revealed by garments.
Do you have a specific women image you’d like to dress? More specifically, who is your target consumer?
The kind of woman who inspires the Anthemis concept of fashion is strong and wild just like nature. All the garments we design are a pure expression of her being in everyday life, making her feel at ease in any context. We may say we turn to confident girls and women, generally to 25 from 40 years old.
Is there a specific reason behind the materials you are choosing?
The main material of the collection is undoubtedly leather. It is right to say that our brand is born from an existing Italian company that for over 40 years specialized in leather processing, so we’re familiar with it. Concerning the garment’s manufacture, we rely on our craftsmen’s skills, besides we’re proud to say that every single piece branded “Anthemis” is produced in our in-house laboratory near Bologna. However, we won’t exclude integrations with other materials in future.
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