What was your first project?
A pair of trousers. We call this project “geppebba,” a mix of our names Geppetto & Ebba. A design with the potential to become a timeless classic. The design distills the look of a form that follows its function and represents our strong, revised take on the low-crotch trouser segment. We were totally “infected” and immersed in a wild development phase for 3 years, testing 9 prototypes until we finally managed to take the first step with a small company in Piove di Sacco. With this project, which we are still updating, we entered the ISSPO Brand New Award in 2007, won a fashion award in 2010, and developed a whole range of different models that reflect the geppebba line (such as traditional alpine shorts and snowboard trousers based on this design). Today we indeed have new projects and products, but we are still working on them. Geppebba has become our identity and our brand: it may forever be a field of research into perfection and variations for us.
The creative process: do you work instinctively or plan every single step? Where do your ideas come from?
Our book of ideas is packed with insights—more than we could ever realize. Naturally, our creative process is a mix of instinct and planning, influences, and personal desires. Ideas can come from anywhere, and our interests are broad and varied. For example, we love collaborations with artists. Sometimes we produce just 20 printed T-shirts or an edition of 5 trousers based on pieces we have already designed. A new product always has its own complexity, but it goes through similar phases. In any case, at the moment of creation we feel a certain impulse telling us “this must be done this way.” From there, we focus on the details. Sometimes the fabric surprises us in how it looks after a year. So the most time-consuming part is the testing phase, in which we wear the garment ourselves and define the production to achieve exactly what we want. You can understand that during the process you need ideas that lead to solutions, and it gets complicated when both clients and we ourselves are in love with a specific type of fabric that is no longer available.
What did you think when Berto reached out to you?
In fact, we came into contact with Berto fabrics from the very beginning through our production contact in Italy. We remember Piero in 2008, when he said: “Hey guys, look at this 12-ounce organic denim quality!”: we immediately used it to create a pair of trousers … and then we met and talked with interesting people from Berto during the Munich Trade Start tradeshow and kept ordering again and again.
Which Berto fabrics have you worked with for your project and your collections?
Domingo, premier color, old brocken 55, Lilium, Dandy blue 2, globe sky 8, maxim, ranger blue 75.
In your view, what is the most meaningful part of Berto for Talents? What goals have you been able to achieve thanks to this program?
“Sun’s Out, Guns Out!” When the time comes, you need heavy artillery: we love diving into Berto’s blue denim pool and creating iconic pieces with them. We are very grateful to be part of the Berto4YoungTalents project; it is an honor. As you can read between the lines, we are very passionate and emotionally connected to our products. Now that we can officially contact our partner for innovative, high-quality materials 24/7, we feel much better! 😉 We can only hope that some buyers or distributors will want to follow suit!
“Less but better” can be interpreted as an endorsement of a certain degree of purity in design and fashion design. It can also be understood as an environmental message about reduction and sustainability. What do you think about it?
What is purity in design? Perhaps the contemporary interpretation of style today. Respectful products—the quantity cannot make you happier than the quality. To some extent, we are all customers, and we know how often we experience that elegantly designed products are available on the market only at the moment of purchase. We work and live for a direct relationship with the clients we have. Sustainability is our understanding of luxury, with a small group of Geppebba fans. Our production is so small and, naturally, the best thing would be to do nothing. Old products had many qualities and could be repaired, but marketing tricked us into thinking that new is always better. The economy must be ecological. Living ethics is a prerequisite for everyone, and sustainability has been a media topic for more than 40 years—for us it is questionable why we should ride the green marketing wave when we make trousers on our pedal-powered sewing machine. You are not a green company by license—the meaning of “sustainability” today is something subtly perverse. Our private environmental message is that we live without a car and therefore cover 10–20 km every day, which has increased our fitness level for ultra distances—and that is no joke!
Is there something you’ve never done that you’d like to achieve?
Yes! We would like to try to create a pair of “super-sustainable” trousers. As we have already said, we are already sewing some garments on an old 1952 pedal machine, so the idea is to sow the plants, cultivate them and sell them 100% ecological, and learn and experiment with the entire process from yarn to fabric, just as they did 500 years ago. Only human-powered machines and our hands should be used. For the entire process, absolutely no electricity and no gasoline—nothing harmful, not even for the entire supply, etc. The ultimate. We would like to explore the entire value-added chain and also produce this pair of trousers. This would be our “big thing”!
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