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Valentina Vergottini, born in 1983, looks like a blond doll with blue eyes and a wreath of flowers in her hair. She looks like she came out of a shabby chic magazine, an elegant shabby, but looking at her creations, one realizes that in her vintage clothing, there is very little shabby because the style of her creations is actually the result of study and attention to detail. Details that make the difference.
After graduating at the IED in Milan, the European Institute of Design, she creates the La Latteria delle Femmine brand, which started out in Italy and was later projected on American soil with the mastery of an artisan, in particular of a Neapolitan – land she totally loves – because Naples remained unharmed to the speed of the rest world. The name of the brand is very curious as it refers to two meanings in particular: going to buy milk from the milkman “lattaio”, as still happens in Italy, and the woman’s breast, the “femmena”, symbol of femininity, abundance and fertility but also of the domestic hearth.
Her productions say a lot about her vision: poised between the expressly Italian culture, visible in the refinement and attention to detail, and the love for t-shirts, of blatantly American taste, -who does not remember the first advertising of Levis?- that then became a must have for both men and women. La Latteria delle Femmine calls to mind suggestive atmospheres of that popular Italy, rich in traditions that the world envies and takes on emotional implications for those like Valentina who have moved away from their country but want, through the tangibility of the product, to recreate the situation as if it were a praise to the Bel Paese. And it was rummaging in her closet looking for something fancy that Valentina decided to make something concrete out of her emotions .
She does it through t-shirts: Iconic, elegant and tasty at the same time. A simple and indispensable piece of clothing.
So, with macramé lace, fringe flapper, crinoline, Swarovski, buttons and lace she decides to adorn the image of the Neapolitan Mediterranean woman par excellence: the iconic Sophia Loren that appears on the t-shirt, the brand’s flagship line, while lighting a cigarette with a candelabrum (The Smoke Lady), enjoying a plate of spaghetti (Spaghetti Lover), or picking up roses (Sophia on the Roses) or the Masterpiece T-shirt, where Sophia waits impatiently with her arm leaning against the wall for the arrival of a man. Unique in gray melange, the Masterpiece, produced in a very limited series, proposes again Sophia Loren between macramé lace, normally used for wedding dresses and 50 pieces of Swarovski, applied with patience and craftsmanship expertise by Valentina for the realization of which takes a week between technical times to be respected and put into practice. These are the images that, the creator of the brand “La Latteria delle Femmine”, has launched in its first collection of limited edition T-shirts in America and now almost sold-out. Like many Italian brands has brought Italian craftsmanship to the fore, here in the States, land where the speed of processing is synonymous with numbers and therefore business and in complete antithesis with the concept of quality.
Neapolitans are also the proverbs mentioned on the T-shirts: a tribute to women and their being unique. Then there is the Jewelry version of the classic T-shirt that is enriched by a detachable necklace that can be used individually.
But despite the highlight of Valentina’s creations being the T-shirts, all 100% pure cotton, no less fascinating are the accessories: beach bags and wicker clutch bags with lace inserts and hand painted parts, leather bracelets distinguished by the pendant in the shape of a briquette of milk, hence the name of the brand that calls to mind the all-Italian custom of going to the milkman to buy milk. And then necklaces, flower garlands and scarves all exquisitely matched. The scarves, in silk and cotton, in particular, are cut in such a size as to be extremely versatile: to be tied around the neck, as a belt, or as a simple pashmina, in a range of colors that mainly focuses on shades of white, beige and very soft pastel colors.
But if while observing the creations of Valentina, the freshness of her creations due to precision and refinement of details is evident, it is looking at the packaging in which the products are stored and sold, which leave her costumers astonished by the delicacy with which Valentina leaves nothing to chance : hand-painted jars, which refer to the jars of preserves and jam that the grandmothers cooked and stored in the pantry, and then bows, ribbons, tissue and the inevitable shopping carton of raw cardboard, synonymous with craftsmanship.
A true masterpiece from A to Z to present as a gift for a special occasion.
