A grassroots way to luxury

Ilaria Venturini Fendi was born into a family that, for generations, has been creating fashion. Daughter of Anna, one the five sisters heading the historical Fendi fashion house, and previous artistic director of the “Fendissime” line, a few years ago Ilaria felt the need to radically change her life.

In the fashion industry the months passing are usually regulated by the relentless and often stressful rhythms of the various fashion weeks and tradeshows and not by the natural seasons. So, being passionate about nature and eager to get her time and life back, Ilaria started an agricultural enterprise in Rome.

As the years passed, her passion for fashion design resurfaced and she launched a new brand Carmina Campus creating a line of accessories made using the most disparate recycled materials she would find in old warehouses.

Ilaria also launched ethical projects involving a group of Cameroonese women who, using colourful tribal headgear, created for Carmina Campus the “Cameroon Bags”, and, through the AltaRoma organisation she began a collaboration with the UN agency International Trade Centre (ITC), to develop in Africa local craftsmanship projects and workshops.

At present Ilaria is focusing on interior design objects and pieces of furniture that she sells, together with exclusive designs created by contemporary Italian and international artists and designers at her Rome-based boutique-cum-gallery, RE(f)USE and at independent retailers based in America, Asia and Europe.

Next week a video shot by the International Trade Centre in slums and in Kenya will be screened at RE(f)USE. The video is linked to a new workshop entitled "Un viaggio in discarica" (Travelling through a Dumping Ground), a project launched by Carmina Campus that will taken place in Africa and Italy and will focus on recycling different materials.

From accessory designer you became an agricultural entrepreneur. Which was the most difficult aspect of this radical change in lifestyle?
Ilaria Venturini Fendi: Choosing to change is always difficult. Yet I had got to a point in my life where I felt I needed more time for myself and also some new energies and I decided to try and find them by combining two universes I always loved, nature and design. In a way I think I just endowed my past job with new values, giving more importance to my love and respect for nature and my interest in social projects.

What kind of activities would you like to develop in future at your “I Casali del Pino” agricultural enterprise?
Ilaria Venturini Fendi: We already carry out quite a few activities and have some great plans for the future. I have started converting the business into an organic farm: at the moment we have cereal cultivations mainly destined to our sheep that produce milk and cheese, a big vegetable garden that gives us the vegetables for our restaurant and an orchard where we plant rare fruit trees. The future of the farm depends from a restructuring plan that has been so far taken into consideration and carefully analysed by 21 boards since the land is part of an archaeological area with many important Etruscan and Roman finds. Once the buildings are renovated following the principles of bioclimatic design, we will use them for farmhouse holidays.

When did you start your collaboration with the group of Cameroon-based women?
Ilaria Venturini Fendi: Everything started when the Rome-based “Tor Vergata” University asked me to support them with a course for a group of beekeepers from Cameroon. At the end of the course the students gave me as presents a few tribal hats made in their village. As soon as I saw them I thought they could have been turned into beautiful accessories and that’s how we started producing the “Cameroon Bags”. I’ve been to Cameroon twice and will go back again soon to visit the women who make these hats. I’m trying to organise a craftsmanship centre in the village of Dschang for this group of women who have a few family and health issues. It’s very difficult on a bureaucratic level, but we do have the support and help of the International Trade Centre and I’m sure this will help.

Can you tell me more about the Cameroon women collaborating with Carmina Campus?
Ilaria Venturini Fendi: They are strong, wonderful and hard-working women and they’re highly motivated as they really want to change their lives. I had long chats with the group coordinator and with one of the women who has the best technical skills. We usually give them very precise instructions regarding size, shape and quality and they produce the bags following the highest manufacturing standards. When we first started, I used to practically buy everything, even the pieces that weren’t really that perfect, but now we apply very selective criteria so everything is done extremely well. I’m proud of their work and, though I know Carmina Campus’ contribution to solving local issues may be rather limited, I hope that it will offer them some advantages and help them improving their lives.

Most of the Carmina Campus pieces are made with rather unusual materials, which is the most unusual one you have experimented with so far?
Ilaria Venturini Fendi: It’s always the latest one, that material you have just found and that will offer you a sort of impossible challenge until you find a way to employ it. It’s that material, from Venetian blinds to metal sponges used for dish cleaning or linings of old car seats, that – you would have never guessed – will have an amazing new life once employed in a bag or an evening clutch.

Do you feel it is hard to convert those buyers who are into trendy and fashionable, yet often unethical, pieces to ethical fashion?
Ilaria Venturini Fendi: I guess you don’t necessarily need to go down the grassroots way as I did to understand that nowadays the world is changing, but I think consumers are looking at a different kind of luxury. I like to think that those who buy a Carmina Campus piece do it also for the message it carries. I do believe that even a recycled product can be a status symbol, as long as it’s the expression of a positive and optimistic trend, of a new way of thinking that can bring a social revolution.

If you could turn back the clock, would you leave behind your previous career again to dedicate your time to your agricultural enterprise?
Ilaria Venturini Fendi: Definitely. The last few years brought new developments in the fashion industry and the word ‘luxury’ has gained a new meaning. In my personal vocabulary ‘luxury’ now means to be able to do the job I loved, but giving it new aims and objectives, charging it with values that were missing before in my life. 

What’s in the future for Carmina Campus?
Ilaria Venturini Fendi: I envisage a ‘recycled’ future for my label and want to launch further collaborations with people based in countries that have a craftsmanship production and an eco-sustainable industrial production. The label does not have any marketing targets and that’s the most beautiful thing about it, since this means that we have the  freedom to plan our next steps little by little following our needs, wishes and desires.

"Un viaggio in discarica" (Travelling through a Dumping Ground) will be presented at the RE(f)USE store, via Fontanella Borghese 40, Rome, on 2nd February 2010.

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