by Alessandra Curreli | 9-02-21 | Thoughts and words
The first Alessandra Curreli made in Italy fabric was born from the union between fashion and craftsmanship and wool and cotton, in collaboration with the company “Mariantonia Urru” of Samugheo.
The entirely handmade “Dots and Lines” fabric was created with the Pibiones processing, typical of the island, revisited in a modern and trendy key, and was the protagonist of the F \ W 2018 collection.
The peculiarity of this fabric is the combination of cotton and wool that create a contrast between crepe and smooth and in the same way the play of colors and volumes given by the full and empty spaces between “Pibiones” and the lines that give the garment its three-dimensionality typical of Sardinian carpets.
by Alessandra Curreli | 9-02-21 | Thoughts and words
It is not easy to talk about the things that scare us.
It never is.
When Italy began this long journey, we asked ourselves what would become of professions like mine, linked to art, creativity, “NOT” consumer goods.
We are getting used to a different life, with slower rhythms and that we certainly never expected until a few weeks ago.
It’s been 11 days of quarantine and it seems like a lifetime. Sometimes I wonder what it will be like to return to “normal” life. But what, after all, is normality?My norm was to go to the Lab, pull out my projects and lock myself inside my 29sqm, forgetting everything. Forgetting the world outside my door. This has definitely changed. I have not been able to create for 8 days. For 8 days, the more I try to give vent to my imagination the less I can. That’s why, then, I’m dedicating myself to something else; to my Academy lessons to prepare for my students who continue to savor a semblance of reality in a situation that seems truly unreal and like a post apocalyptic film; I dedicate myself to cooking, which reactivates that little bit of color in a world of gray. I started sharing more thoughts and words, which I am usually quite associative.
I started video calling my nephew and my sister, because I don’t want to miss even a moment of her growth.
I picked up a book again, enjoying the time I couldn’t dedicate myself before, rediscovering writing and the pleasure of putting pen to paper the thousand thoughts that run through my head.
You see, when I design an item of clothing, I express my feelings, my joys and my anxieties.
And I express them all there.
They come out with their colors, with their shapes and express my state of mind. Now I wait to understand what my state of mind is, which is why I can’t translate my feelings into clothes. Definitely the words come out first right now. At a time when people need to feel close in a world that has to be at a distance, words help us feel less alone and discouraged.
The moments will come again when flowers, colors and lines will come out.
For now I can only tell you that we are all, more or less, in the same situation and that this will help us to restart more loads than before.
Do things you couldn’t do before. Take some time. Rediscover the pleasure of small things.
And if you need it and if you like, ask for help. Speak. Confront and do not close in on yourself.
I hug you,
Ale
by Alessandra Curreli | 9-02-21 | Thoughts and words
The third week of quarantine has begun.
It started with a gray sky, gusts of wind and a sharp drop in temperatures. However the soul, well, that seems to be lighter.
The last week was a combination of moments of up and down, of lightness and heaviness, of many things you can do at home interspersed with the boredom of having finished them and not knowing what to invent.
Despite these intervals, I had some time to reflect on the meaning of the change. You know by now, 30 is approaching and I have to draw a line and take stock of my life; pros and cons of being a freelancer, pros and cons of life in Milan, pros and cons of being free from everything but chained at the same time.
I didn’t think I’d ever have the time, never the desire and above all the strength to touch these topics with myself, making all the knots come to a head. I have always been one of those of “I keep very busy not to think, because if I stop and think about it is the end”.
No wonder, in short, we live in a world that is so fast that it’s not so easy to even think about stopping. The quarantine, on the other hand, literally forced us to slow down, to stop, in a world that we struggle to follow, very often not feeling in step, like during a choreographic step lesson when you waste time and estrange yourself from the group feeling isolated.
So now I’m here, looking at a PC screen and trying to find the words to write about my change in progress.
Yes, the change has been activated, after a week of total oppression, of feeling of stones in the stomach, of tears, of that sense of distance from your loved ones that was even before but now it seems to be harder, more real, not knowing when you can come back to hug them.
And I don’t want to be trivial, I didn’t think for a second of changing my habits. I didn’t think about not rushing to achieve goals; I didn’t think of leaving everything to move to Bora Bora to open a beachfront cocktail bar; I haven’t thought for a moment about living a healthier life, because I actually like my lifestyle, it’s healthy and varied and I have no reason to change it.
Yet one thing I thought of changing it.
My way of seeing my work.
I’ve always been a handyman, one who has always used head and hands to achieve her goal. One who has never asked herself: “If I lose this job, what will become of me?” because even now I don’t have a job, I follow a way of life.
I thought if maybe it was the right choice to be a freelancer or if I would have agreed to be a classic employee with the possibility of having a good career (certainly more money) and not having the constant weight that having to take care of everything creates.
I thought about it for several days, almost weeks, yet every time I reviewed the various jobs that I could have done, I always went back to being an independent worker. I have probably always liked the idea of rolling up my sleeves and achieving my goals by myself. Surely it is a way of life that I have always sought, that of not having in any way to come to terms with anyone but myself and a large part of this reality that I wanted to build comes from the example of my parents, who could not do what they wanted and have always tried to make us do what we can to achieve our happiness.
In these three weeks of quarantine, I realized that the problem lies not in the type of job I have, but in the way I approach my work, making it, at times, the only (or almost) important thing in my life.
My job is my passion, my secret dream. But it’s not me.
I am many things. I’m certainly a designer, but I’m also an artist, a painter, a little yoga student, an aunt, a daughter, a partner, a sister, a friend. They are one and a hundred thousand. And if I were to fail in the realization of this project I would never fail as a person, because I know, 100%, that I have done everything possible.
So my change was personal, and it was the best thing this quarantine could give me.
The awareness that we are not our job.
I am not my job.
I’m simply Alessandra.
by Alessandra Curreli | 9-02-21 | Thoughts and words
We are more than two months in quarantine. I don’t count the days, because for me it would be even worse.
I have resigned myself to the idea of producing something new, ideas don’t come and honestly I don’t even take it as a negative thing, quite the contrary. I’m studying, trying to broaden my knowledge and planning for the long term, because in days like these, either you plan something or you die a little inside.
Despite this preamble, many have asked me how I behaved towards the production of masks and why I did not start making them after 50 for a well-known Covid hospital in Cagliari. The answer has always been that I didn’t want to speculate on a bad situation like this and that, at the same time, I couldn’t afford to use all my fabric stocks to create for free masks.
More or less 30 days have passed since that day when I closed myself in the lab to do good. But today the rules are different. You can almost breathe the air of phase 2, a phase in which everyone will have to preserve themselves but above all preserve the health of others, using masks.
The fundamental requirement that the masks must have is to not let the droplets of saliva pass while we speak, sneeze or cough.
They have to filter our own air, because alas, we could be carriers of the virus and not know it.
So I pulled out from all my medical friends and relatives (whoever knows me knows that I am surrounded by them) all the useful tips to produce, in total safety for those who buy them, reusable masks, which help us but also the planet, allowing us to wash and sanitize them without having to throw them away every time after use.
So I decided, starting tomorrow, to let you find the possibility to order the masks directly from the shop, hoping to come and meet you if you don’t find any in the pharmacy.
The masks will have a low cost (6 Euros), because they will not be sold with the intention of making money, but simply with the intention of having something on your face that does not make you feel too uncomfortable, that you like it and that represents you. They will obviously be made with natural materials and with leftovers from collection fabrics. They will be double-layered with an internal pocket to put the filters that you can buy at the pharmacy, making them even more efficient and safe.
There will be both for adults and for children and will be customizable with drawings and writings that can be washed even at low temperatures with the addition of sanitizers, while the single-colored ones can be washed at 90 degrees.
In short, from tomorrow, if you want, this extra service will be available.
Know that each order will make sure to keep a designer busy and active who feels pretty useless at the moment!
I really hope it will be a welcome thing and I can’t wait to do something for you!
I hug you
Ale
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