Portraits

“My dad brought me here a lot as a child. I remember being able to wander around and watch what was going on… Every so often, as a treat, he took me to trade fairs, which I loved. You could say that my sister and I grew up surrounded by textiles, and I believe that’s what led to our passion for this family tradition.

Tessitura Stamperia Luigi Verga began life in Como in 1940 as a weavers’ studio, in a region with a long history of craftsmanship. My father founded it and later expanded it to include printing and finishing and an extremely unique ‘hand painting’ process. We took the reins in the 1990s; today my sister is in charge of design, and I am responsible for the commercial side and relationships with our clients. However, my most important role is to maintain close contact with the people who work with us. They are the beating heart of the company and the main reason for its success and the excellent reputation it has boasted for many years. Tessitura Stamperia Luigi Verga employs weavers, designers, people who study different textures on the computer, painters, and lots of other professionals. Many have been here for years, while others are enthusiastic young people who our experts have trained up, but everyone works together to achieve the same objective.

Over the years, this has allowed us to satisfy the requests of our most important partners: fashion designers. Our fabrics have always had creativity at their heart; we take the input from the designers and, with an artisanal approach and the utmost attention to detail, create textiles that often seemed almost impossible to produce, with unique details.

This is what we do: we turn ideas into textiles.

When I think back to our first meeting with Prada, for example, many years ago, I remember that weimmediately formed an excellent understanding. Miuccia Prada knows exactly what she wants and she expresses her ideas clearly, but you need to be extremely perceptive to interpret them. That is how the renowned fabrics from the Spring/Summer 2015 collection came to be made. It was a very hot July, we had old fabrics from the Prada archive to look at, along with other historic documents, and Mrs Prada explained her vision to us. We translated it into cutting-edge, modern brocades, which were extremely well received all over the world.

We always start with a meeting, and then work step by step, attempt after attempt, until we achieve perfection. That’s what the Prada Group expects, and it’s what we aspire to. Those brocades represented a great victory for us, and especially in the race against time: from start to finish we made them in not much more than two weeks! Fashion demands this: quick reactions and the ability to adapt to constant changes.

I believe that Prada Group and Luigi Verga have gained a lot from one another, especially from a human point of view. We are united by our sensitivity. Sometimes difficulties arise, and we have to work under pressure, but we are always motivated by a shared love for our work.

Every new experience enriches us in some way, and perhaps that’s part of the reason we have never turned down a challenge in our many years of work.

This company has been my life, and I say that without any regret. I would do it all again if I were to go back in time. I’m delighted that my daughters and Maria Stella’s daughter have started to work with us, inspired by our passion, and they are already making waves with new special projects. Deep down we have always done things that are a bit “special”.

I must confess, I have a long-held secret dream that I would like to turn into reality with the Prada Group; I think that with Prada dreaming is allowed.

But it’s a secret dream, and I don’t want to give it away!”

Como, 26 June 2017