From Italy with Love
Our Story
Writer Gary Picariello
The short version of our story is that Feltro Fashion Italy has grow to be a family operation which creates luxury clothing and accessories, using the techniques of wet felting, ecoprint, and shibori felting. Now, let me fill in the blanks. (Rightfully so, we designated my dad to write this story, the only vetted journalist and writer of the family).
In August of 2011, my wife and I moved from southern Italy to Rochester, New York. A year or so before, I had retired from 22 years of service as a broadcast journalist in the United states Air Force. My wife Giulia, who is Italian, had just wrapped up a career as a teacher. I had spent all of my military time overseas with several stints in Italy, so, once we both retired, it was a no-brainer to settle down in Southern Italy, where we'd purchased a house many years before. Giulia's family still lived there, and that's where our daughter Jasmin was born and raised.
While we were inItaly, our daughter won a scholarship to study abroad in the United States for her junior year of high school. The school assigned to her happened to be in upstate New York. We had no intention of moving to the United States! My wife and I were perfectly happy to sit on the beach and enjoy the sunny weather of Southern Italy. But Fate apparently had other plans.
My daughter packed her bags and departed to a small town outside of Rochester, NY. She lived with a host family. She enjoyed school, learned impeccable English and did things that she had always dreamed about. One of the classes at school was the Young Entrepreneurs Academy (better known as YEA!). The kids were learning about writing a business plan and creating and operation a business. Our daughter explained this to us one evening as we were skyping, and she casually related that she thought it might be interesting to create a business based on mom's "latest hobby,: which was wet felting.
Nuno Felting
Intensive and ancient technique that combines wool and any other natural fabric, only with the use of hot water and soap. Felt is created in fact when wool is subjected to heat, moisture, and pressure. Hot water and soap activate the felting process by allowing the individual fiber threads to chemically bond. By applying intensive labor the process becomes irreversible.
Shibori Felting
Intensive and ancient technique that combines wool and any other natural fabric, only with the use of hot water and soap. Felt is created in fact when wool is subjected to heat, moisture, and pressure. Hot water and soap activate the felting process by allowing the individual fiber threads to chemically bond. By applying intensive labor the process becomes irreversible. The addition of the shibori technique allows for a tridimensional effect, bringing more movement and complexity to the pieces.
Ecoprint
An art that uses leaves, flowers and branches to naturally dye and shape silk fabrics and felt. Part of the process is felting, which is created when wool is subjected to heat, moisture, and pressure. Hot water and soap activate the felting process by allowing the individual fiber threads to chemically bond. By applying intensive labor the process becomes irreversible. No sticking or sewing involved.