The project “Alice in Wonderland” is a result of the partnership between Èstro Lab and two clients: Goretti (a company specialising in applications, processing and accessories for major footwear and fashion design brands), and Deadema (an expert lab specializing in the production of ornaments using the die-cast technique).
The request: production of two collections for the spring/summer season, based specifically on the fairy tale “Alice in Wonderland”, a project which premiered at Lineapelle, the most important international trade fair in the leather industry.
Our process: we started by selecting some of the inspiring images we collected through our journeys, surveys on social media and dedicated websites. In wonderland nothing is what it looks like and everything occupies an unexpected place, rules make way for the freedom to be and to imagine.
Reading the novel by Lewis Carroll, a great classic, and attending shows and exhibitions inspired by that psychedelic world which has fascinated the most creative minds of all times, have made for richer and more stimulating research.
We thus prepared moodboards to guide us all along the journey, with a view to studying and creating new suggestions.
A fantastic world, an oneiric reality, a surreal garden have been the guiding images which inspired our choices of materials: leather and fabrics with surprising finish, unusual combinations, stones which are opalescent or with an rainbow-hued look, colours and shapes reminding us of enchantment and referring back to an artificial nature.
The binomial natural/artificial link has remained a strong and constant point in our work, to be taken into account when creating each proposal, to make sure they are never banal.
After such intense research and study activity, we moved on to design, developing the topic with the clear objective of highlighting and bringing out the potentials of the two client companies.
The result: proposals which are well-balanced, carefully merging all processing techniques (water-jet cutting, application of thermo-adhesive strass studs, sewn stones, threading, plaits, embroideries, padding and high-frequency techniques for Goretti; glazing, textures, setting of stones and crystals, experimentations with new coating for Deadema).
Every time we deal with the prototyping phase, making changes and improvements as necessary, leading to the design and construction of sample collections, also suggesting proposals for presentation.
