Balancing beauty and function: Francesca Marchisio

Mar 19, 2023

Francesca Marchisio is an Italian designer and owner of her eponymous atelier in Reggio Emilia who was able to transform her engagement in designing a small collection into a circular and sustainable one. Thanks to her expertise Francesca helps the brands she advises to take steps towards waste-free design, production with more sustainable, long-lasting and biodegradable materials and to plan the reuse of their textile stocks.

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Sometimes all you needed was some inspiration: Between Conscious Program, therefore, started a journey to show you how diverse can be the range of impactful changes that professionals are able to bring in.

Meet the professionals and discover all the possible routes in the journey to sustainability.

The balance between beauty and function - Francesca Marchisio

Francesca Marchisio is a designer and activist committed to sharing a new idea of Fashion, in fact for her fashion must change imitating nature in a circular way. After attending the Istituto Marangoni in Milan, she had experiences in the MaxMara Group and in 2007 in the Next Generation award, at the same time she has been working for years as a consultant for worldwide companies.

In 2011 she founded Sacaporter, a small capsule collection of modular and reversible dresses, coats and small vest-bags. In 2019 she launched her brand 'Francesca Marchisio' at MFW with #Oxymoron and then #SimultaneousContrast, #Weareallinfinite followed reflecting the paradox of a timeless design and up-cycled garments.

Where does your career started?

“The project with which it all began was a collaboration with a major brand that wanted me to design a new collection, the idea was inspired by the traveling in the Himalayan mountains, in fact I suggested them to use cottons, wools and silks from their dead stock as materials and I created a couple of all-over graphics to be printed on these dead stock textiles. The colorful print has become the leit motif of the collection and the small cutouts have been recovered on each item and also in the packaging: with a selection of few reusable materials and a repeatable print, the collection was simply to achieve and caused very little waste.”

Fewer seasons longer lasting

The balance between beauty and function: fewer seasons longer lasting. “Sustainable” means “finding solutions”, personally I think that fashion must change its paradigm based on continuous "new and better" into a new concept based on the authenticity of quality and the evolution of products where the new items are connected to the iconic ones and against which up-cycle modifications can be made to change details as it happens for the greatest object or furniture designs. The fact that there is a seasonality in fashion means that there is continual waste production, but we can no longer afford this, we have to find a balance between what is beautiful and what is functional despite the fact that this means halving the collections that are presented each year."

A few sustainable ad hoc suggestions

“Every company is different, so before finding sustainable solutions it’s important to understand why the company has been grown and why they want rebrand. There is not one magic solution that fits every brand but each company can adopt a tailor made strategy to be really sustainable both for planet than for admin office. I think the key is matching high sensibility with mathematic thought. In general terms, as long as textile dead stocks exist, their planned reuse is an interesting solution with an economic advantage. While change takes place for the company the best thing is to combine what already exists with new and more sustainable textile designed to last over time and to be reused. The best approach is always asking “why” we should choose a product, “what” are consequences of its impact on earth and people, and “how” we can do the best to reduce this impact. “Thinking sustainably is worrying” about consequences.“

“Sustainability" is “knowledge". Only if you know the cause of a problem you are able to solve it. Latest social trends, video tutorials and informative contents are proof that the relationship between consumer and company is changing. If until now profit was made in terms of quantity through compulsive consumption caused by insecurity and ignorance, now the path should reward a profit generated by quality through conscious consumption that arises from information and awareness of value.”

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