Barnebys: Your family history is strongly linked to the marble and the Carrara quarries...
Fiametta Vanelli: The history of the Vanelli marble began in 1818, when the duchess Maria Beatrice d'Este gave my family the right to excavate white Carrara marble. At this stage, the quarry Vanelli supplied marble for the construction of public works in the most important European capitals. In the following century, in 1960, Aldo Vanelli acquired the family-owned quarry, called Zona 67.
FiammettaV creates marble with a ‘feminine’ touch. Can you elaborate?
When I found myself the female heir of this brand, I immediately started to give a female interpretation to marble, particularly by way of the Zona67 Jewellery line.
I have always been fascinated by the infinite shades of marble: I began to observe even the smallest details and scraps of small stones, and I imagined they were gems. Statuario white, Portoro black, Bardiglio gray, Paonazzo: I decided to cut them as precious stones in an exclusive line of fashion-jewellery. And from there, the feminine touch dedicated to all the tools I wanted to find in my kitchen, combining design and functionality for everyday objects.
Marble is a noble and precious material, and in most minds it is often linked to imposing and austere design and architecture. The approach of the FiammettaV Home Collection line, however, is far from this stereotype. How was the idea of this collection born?
Today, with the advent of robotics and the latest generation techniques that allows endless cutting solutions, it is possible to create works of art by international artists and special projects that move away from that notion of marble as a heavy element, confined to the use for impressive or classic structures.
In 2014 I started the FiammettaV Home Collection with the aim of combining the millennia of Italian craftsmanship with the most modern technological applications. I wanted to give a different, lighter, everyday and familiar cut to the marble. This was possible thanks to internal know-how and investments in terms of cutting-edge machinery. My creations are now found in stores such as Conran shop, Globus, Fortnum & Mason, Bergdorf Goodman, Luisa Via Roma and Rossana Orlandi.
Is there an object to the collection to which this idea is best linked?
The cutting board: everything starts from there, a simple and indispensable object and, above all, strongly linked to the territory (near here the famous Lardo di Colonnata is produced). It is one of the first objects I have produced and that today is present in my collection in five different variations.
Another more recent piece to which I am particularly attached is the Paonazzo marble version – the marble that best represents the quarries of my family – of the Dionisio cabinet bar of the 2017 Capsule collection. It is a line of exclusive furniture, handmade thanks to the collaboration among the Vanelli quarries, the Turini & Werich furniture factory in Tuscany, and the designer Massimiliano Giornetti, for a long time creative director at Salvatore Ferragamo. The bar cabinet is one of the most elegant and sophisticated pieces we have made and of which I am particularly proud.
Your approach to marble is extremely artistic: where does this passion for art come from?
It has always been a passion, which in fact led me to complete a master's degree at the Università Internazionale dell'Arte di Firenze. Then I opened a sculpture workshop with my brother Gualtiero in Pietrasanta. Here, national and international artists could experiment with marble as an artistic medium and many of these collaborations became objects of exhibitions organised by us.
This experience was followed by commissions from designers such as Matthew Spender, Marco Borgiani, Alessandro Mendini and Rudy Wach since 2001. The works created in our workshop have begun to appear in exhibitions and galleries all over the world.
And not only art and design, but also fashion: your e-commerce has a beautiful line of marble jewels and in June you organised a very successful show in a Carrara quarry.
Yes, let's talk about Zona67 Jewelry. The new jewellery collection was launched on June 2nd with an event called ‘Unexpected Lightness’ which saw a collaboration between my brand and LT GOLD STANDARD by Ludovico Torri. Both are made in Italy and are brands whose mission it is to reinterpret marble in an unprecedented way, mixing it into collections and through details in the fashion, jewellery and home design sectors.
The event was held in one of the most beautiful locations in the world: a marble quarry in Carrara. The pianist Stefania Mettadelli and the soprano Cristina Martufi's voice made this event a truly beautiful experience. We transported our guests, the international press and celebrities with jeeps to the heart of the Apuan territory to experience the productive and creative process that distinguishes this place as excellent throughout the world.
The underlying idea was to overcome the limitations and stereotypes related to a material apparently incompatible with the concept of lightness and associated mostly with constructive elements. This was done by creating light on sophisticated objects and details such as buttons, jewels and home design objects for daily use.
LT GOLD STANDARD expresses all this through a handmade loungewear collection in Italy, with a fine selection of fabrics embellished with sophisticated marble buttons from the Apuan Alps. The idea is to play with the materials to create something easy to wear, but at the same time unique and fascinating. Zona67 Jewelry continues this concept with a new collection of jewels with marble details, while for catering we have used a selection of objects coming from FiammettaV Home Collection.
Italian marble is one of the most requested Italian materials abroad: do you think that the potential of Carrara has been fully exploited?
Absolutely not. I admit that the final consumer often lacks knowledge and awareness about the quality of marble. Unfortunately, more and more often, I see low quality products, both in processing and in marble (especially if overseas), with prices that make our Italian product uncompetitive. In my small way, I struggle everyday to reverse the trend of this process.
I want to make marble enter everyday life with elegance and quality: in my collection there is never shortage of objects, even from 20 euros.
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