Velvet Mi Amor Stefano Chiassai Corinna Chiassai

Velvet Mi Amor by Sefano and Corinna Chiassai

This photographic volume is a journey into the enveloping and caressing world of the noble fabric by definition: velvet. The designers Stefano and Corinna Chiassai, together with other names in the fashion & design sector, tell page after page what could be the future projection of such an ancient fabric. To do this, they tried their hand at creating a collection of clothing in which creativity and technology find a synthesis in new versions of the famous fabric. Velvets with different intensities and volumes, three-dimensional velvets, velvets printed with the trompe l'oeil technique, velvets that change depending on the light that illuminates them.

The Chiassai's explore velvet, in the traditional sense of the term, without losing a gram of its timeless charm. Velvet probably originated in the East but around the 13th century it also appeared in Italy: first in Palermo and Venice, then in Amalfi and Lucca. Since the 15th century, Florentine velvets have become a precious commodity exported almost everywhere. Since then this much loved and desired fabric has become one of the cornerstones of Italian and international art and textile industry. Its undeniable extraordinary nature is given not only by the refined softness perceptible to the touch or by its profound intensity evident at a glance. Velvet is a versatile fabric like few others and with enormous potential not yet fully explored and exploited.

In fact, "it never goes out of fashion", as they say, yet velvet is rarely seen in catalogs and at fashion shows, especially if the target is young. On the contrary, the Chiassais, as they tell and show in this surprising photographic volume, experiment with countless interpretations and "new lives" of velvet, a quick-change and malleable fabric. They offer it in colors and shades different from the traditional ones. The texture and the possible combinations with the most diverse fabrics and materials vary. They exploit its incredible ability to seem like something while being something else. The brilliant, innovative creativity of the two designers opens the present of velvet to a future whose beautiful and persuasive contours can already be glimpsed.

Stefano Chiassai

He cultivated his passion for fashion in the family business until he founded his namesake brand "Stefano Chiassai" in 1980. Five years later he opened the SCS Studio Chiassai style office in San Giovanni Valdarno (AR) together with his wife. After the successes achieved at Pitti and the Milanese fashion weeks around the second half of the 1980s, in 1994 he closed his own brand, dedicating himself to stylistic consultancy for numerous high fashion brands. Since the 2000s he has been designing men's lines for international brands.

Corinna Chiassai

Stefano's daughter, she studies fashion in Florence and Milan, then collaborates with various brands both in Italy and abroad. Since 2016 she has been Creative Director at Studio Chiassai founded by her parents. He manages the research archive and creative hub TheCube. Together with his father he signed the volumes CAOSORDINATO and RITMOEMOTIVO.