Since their first contact with them, in Pavia, during a chance meeting, I fell in love not only their brand, STMA, but also of their way to be. Able to dream and aim high, but always with their feet on the ground. I saw them grow together with their brand, I saw them jump in events, during Milan Design Week: able to gather under one roof, thirty emerging brands, one more interesting than other, grand part of which I myself ninth even know existed.
And that’s why when I saw their new collection, so beautiful and talented, it was natural to invite them to come to our showroom online Wait Order, to launch their brand to a wider audience, and why not Italian and also international .
Now we come to take the last step: interview them to know them more closely!
Hello guys, tell me who are the people who are behind STMA?
Behind, in front and to the side there’s still us, Stefania Marra and Andrea Capiluppi, two young designers, model makers, craftsmen and more.
I, Stefania, started out as a fashion designer, I studied and worked here in Milan in different style offices, then in 2013 with my partner Andrea we founded STMA. Behind us for making the garments, we have instead a beautiful little Italian tailoring workshop that treats us like children.
Tell me how does the brand STMA started. From the beginning till today.
The idea, style and name in the abstract STMA born several years ago when I was still a student in fashion design.Il real goal is in fact always, to create a brand that was mine. The idea of being able to dictate the line, taste, see the birth of a garment and follow it in all its details, from design to implementation, I think every designer the greatest satisfaction.
But it is only thanks to the complicity and capacity of Andrea, that I like to define multitasking, we have decided to embark on this path.
First, taking a space in a small co-working with designers, graphic designers and carpenters. It is a strange path for a clothing brand, but the “workshops 2.0” are precisely this type of space, the factory of collective knowledge.
Only after a couple of years, when our needs and goals have changed, which was officially founded the atelier of STMA.
The name of the brand. Are the initials of Stefania Marra, is not it? It has some other meaning? How to pronounce? ST-IMA?
It is exactly my initials. Does not mean anything, I wanted an identification code.
Something that does not leave anything transpire. I really liked the name as both conceptual graph of assonance. Pronounce ES TI EM A.
I know that you have recently created a studio-shop in your hometown. That feedback has had this experience?
Following the experience of the co-working we decided to open a space that was not just a store, not just a studio and much more than an office. A space that was both concept store, which would tell us and that would express the best our character, but also a place to work and create. A laboratory without doors, which would allow everyone should come to smell the scent of craftsmanship behind our creations.
We bravely were in our hometown Rho, near Milan.
It has become our second home. We have allocated part to the laboratory, where we develop models and create prototypes, part office and part to showroom where we welcome buyers and customers.
We immediately had an excellent response both with our customers, who finally had a place to try and buy the collections of STMA, both with the Rhodense public, that we always manage to impress with our presence.
Why the choice to steer the brand towards an increasingly high positioning?
STMA is a brand newborn, still has a lot of ground.
But we know that we do not want to deny us the opportunity to experience and dare.
Our production is entirely made in Italy with its tailoring, so we would like to position ourselves in the market medium-high.
Tell me about the collection for next pe 2016 is now available to Wait Order?
It’s called Desert Storm, is a capsule collection consisting of 20 heads, characterized by light, reflections of ‘gold and laminated fabrics. And is entirely it produced in Italy with sartorial finishes, fabrics and innovative. It ‘ s a collection elegant, fashionable and feminine. An elegant but not traditional, inspired by a woman warrior, determined and sometimes androgynous.
We can say that Mad Max – Fury Road, the film to which we were already very loyal in its first version, we loved to the point of inspiration for our collection.
But this is not the first, nor will certainly be the last time that the world of cinema influence our work.
Arrakis and Ludovica Van, to name a few, are the names of the garments of our first collection of … but these explanations do not, those who are able to understand, understand.
What is the audience you are targeting?
I would say an audience aware. Know what they want, knowing what you buy and conscious of what them wears.
An audience full of character in short, that not intimidated … nor from the particularity of a garment, or by the fact that we are an emerging brand, because fully aware of what is behind a piece signed STMA.
I know that you are now focused on Italy, but will you also are looking for a foreign audience?
This has always been our greatest desire. We wanted to wait, to be able to grow enough to have a very high quality product in all respects. We believe that what is exported with the label Made in Italy, should be such as to have certain standards and not just a label flag.
Imagine being able to choose a spokesperson for STMA, who would it be?
Obviously there being inspired last Mad Max, we could not dream that Charlize Theron as a testimonial. Not for its canonical beauty, but for the warrior spirit who plays a woman determined, confident and ready to fight, but beautiful at the same time.
Imagine being able to choose any place in Milan for the next show, both public and private. How much space would you choose?
Always remaining in the world of dreams? It would be wonderful to think of parading with STMA the spiers of the cathedral, a very unusual and inaccessible location for a fashion show, but just as scenic, unique and unreal. Maybe a little ‘epic … but the show would be assured.
And what music would you choose?
A little ’90’s … Closer Nine Inch Nails.
A little ‘underground, but not too … .I fink U Freeky of Die Antwoord
The economic situation remains difficult on Italy. Are you optimistic about the future?
I have never been optimisticfor nature, maybe, Andrea, but we love our work so that we could not you keep doing this, whatever happens.
The important thing is to find new way out.
Official STMA site: www.stefaniamarra.com/
STMA, ALL THE PICS OF THE SPRING SUMMER 2016 COLLECTION
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