Interview

Francesca Fossati talks about her work, passions, values and the next steps in her journey into “Fashion as Art”.

Hi Francesca, can you introduce yourself?
Ciao!
I’m Francesca Fossati, in first place a Designer and dressmaker of Haute Couture fashion.
I create and design clothes for women who love to express themselves through what they are wearing.
To me, Fashion is Art and I create small collections of unique pieces. I’m not interested in creating collections of multiple pieces because I believe in uniqueness, personality and in the values of true luxury, which is nothing less than a precious individuality.
For me, designing and making a garment is a tool to interpret and communicate the soul of a woman, her story, her personality, her being. And Haute Couture embroidery, a technique I am skilled in, is indispensable in making my work unique, rare, precious… and impossible to duplicate.
With some discretion I would define myself as a Visionary because I love to follow my dreams. And the first dream is that we return to revalue Fashion as an Art, to recreate the atmosphere which could be breathed in the ateliers of the great Couturiers of the 30s, 40s and 50s, where craftspeople worked to create unique pieces, where they chose fabrics of high quality, where the beauty was also in the finishing of the garment - on the inside of it - where every garment was unique.
When people bought less but were able to recognize quality.
I dream of seeing many Haute Couture ateliers, many young people who become passionate about the beauty of this wonderful profession once again, a craft which is almost forgotten: the dressmaker/tailor/creator of Haute Couture, a craft which embodies both technical mastery and the culture of aesthetics and design.
 And it is because of this dream that I want my ateliers to become places for training, real and true dressmaking ‘Bottegas’ where I bring together and train young artisans.

Yes, the term Visionary is a very strong figure. What does this mean to you?
To be a Visionary means to observe what is happening but above all to believe in it and work towards it so that my vision - the reinvention of the profession of the Couturier or the “Dressmaker/ Creator of Haute Couture” - happens: this is my dream.
I would like to train a new generation of “Fashion Artists” and create a new model of the “Couturier” – a figure which I love to define as the “Sarto / Creatore di Alta Moda” (Dressmaker-Creator of Haute Couture) – to look at this craft from a new perspective and to create a new model of the profession and of the ‘services’ required (creation, design, communication and staging) for an avantgarde and future fashion system.
Within my next project, I want to achieve this objective through collaborating with experts who have represented and still represent the history of training for the Fashion sector. With teachers of traditional pattern-cutting and drafting but using a specific methodology with an innovative approach and with professionals and teachers of the history of art/ design and theatre.
Fundamental to this project is also everything that has to do with the uniqueness of decoration, such as teaching the ancient, precious and extremely creative technique of Haute Couture Embroidery for the customization of garments that will become true works of art.
This is my vision: but it is a vision that I want to share with other people passionate about craft, culture and ‘Made in Italy’ and who want to rethink and redesign a new profession for future generations.
Interesting… so, in summary, you want to open a school?
The term ‘School’ for me is too narrow: I prefer to say a place of advanced educational training, for the recovery of the values of the great tradition of dressmaking and of Italian creativity and to bring this tradition into the contemporary and future world.
My path on this journey has already begun. Next year this project will see the light.

How exciting! We can’t wait to find out more! And Embroidery – when did you start this journey into Haute Couture decoration? Why?
In 2016 I absolutely wanted to get some experience in one of the most prestigious Fashion Schools in the world, I wanted to be able to enter and breathe in the atmosphere, I wanted to understand what a young person could study in this temple of fashion, I wanted to try and be a student there… I wanted to go to Central St Martins in London.
I found out that is was possible to participate in summer workshops and I chose one which could add value to my skills and my creations: Haute Couture Embroidery. And I have to say, as is often my luck, my teacher was a great master, Elisabeth Gasbarre Roulleau. At the beginning I was shocked, I felt out of place together with young people who were able to take on a difficult and complex technique with much less difficulty than me.
But then something clicked… the technique came into my hands and my head and I understood immediately how much potential it could have for the value of my work. And a whole new world was opened!
After a lot of practice, many additional and advanced courses in Lyon with Elisabeth, now Haute Couture Embroidery has become an integral part of my creations.
The results are really wonderful.
Thank you!
And Ostuni – your second home, not only for holidays. You chose the “White City” as a place to have your second Atelier. What connects you to this territory, what is special about it for you? … although it is not your place of origin…
I first experienced this region on holiday with my family when I was fourteen and since then it has become my preferred residence. Ostuni and Puglia in general revealed itself to me as a place of beauty, even then when it did not have the allure and fame that it has today.
Puglia represents beauty for me in its absolute sense, beauty which comes from the colours, architecture, history, and the warmth and openness of the people.
Creative people are nurtured by beauty and can create beauty when surrounded by it: I feel exactly like this when I am in Ostuni, immersed in beauty, beauty which I steal and capture for my creations.
Maybe it is for this reason that I love to give previews and presentations of my work in Ostuni: I believe it is right to give something back to a place that gives me so much.
And finally: what inspires you?
Everything I have known, seen, and which I continue to seek ... All that I have contained in my memory in a disorderly manner which I organize through the process of creation.
I am thirsty for the past, present and future ... In my mind I always mix things together ... But woe to me if I didn't have a method for design... And if I didn't have the technical knowledge ... It would all be wasted, and believe me, to be creative and to realize what one has planned requires indispensable and tiring endurance.