Imagine, wiping your paint-soaked hands-on finest cashmere, that’s just what Mirko Ghignone does with Avanti Toi, pure Italian luxury.
By Asmita Aggarwal
The first image that Giulia Marini has of India is her trip in 2017 to Rajasthan Agra, Delhi, as she loves cooking, she took a class to understand our flavours and spices. “I admired the stunning beadwork, embroideries and textiles, we have one from Rajasthan hanging in my room,” she smiles.
Her adventurous spirit took trekking to Ladakh, climbing 4950 meters. “I had breathing difficulty, but it was a sight to remember,” she laughs. Though her hi-end cashmere label has dressed from Kanye West, Brazilian footballer Neymar when he won the Golden Ball to Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards who wore her printed butterfly’s shirt. Avanti Toi is a French word that means “ahead of you” and they are fashion-forward.
The Italians are known for their mastery over hand skills, attention to details, a bit like our artisans, however, at their first showcasing at the LFW X FDCI, Avanti Toi, brings what many may be apprehensive of working with-cashmere.
The third-generation Giulia, of matriarch Lia Gambetta who began the brand in 1955, with knitwear, gave it a new spin by signing up with artist Mirko Ghignone. Within the historic Liapull cashmere group in Genoa, Italy, they gave it an artistic touch, even though cashmere is considered extremely precious, Mirko made it disruptive.
Avant Toi is different from the knitwear company born in the 1950s that worked with mohair and wool, later cashmere and silk. “Mirko began destroying and distressing cashmere, beginning as a blank canvas, using natural fibres. Though the story of the label is historic, when it began many locals were leaving the city, my grandma decided to hire and train them. Everything is made by hand, laborious but irreplaceable. We live by the sea and are 100 pc Italian by DNA,” says Guilia.
Mirko, through technical experimentation, uses dyeing, air-brush coloring, blending and spray-painting to give cashmere a discerning touch. “He uses natural paints, pressure and heat to fix the designs, so they remain new even after years. He innovates constantly in terms of shades and tonality each season. We bring to India, the latest technique-camouflage, where he dips his hands in paint and cleans it on cashmere. You would be surprised why he would do that? Beauty of it is that he used to wipe his hands on paper, at the end, he saw the paper and found naturally made abstractions unique. He decided to try it on cashmere and silk,” he adds.
Gulia didn’t study fashion, but international luxury management, she admits 20 p c of their cashmere offerings stay in Italy, almost 80 pc exported, even though Italian consumers are quality and design conscious.
At LFW they are showcasing a line titled “Traces of Memory”, inspired by the border her city shares with France, it is the sixth-largest city in Italy and the capital of Liguria region on the northwestern Italian Riviera. She has used landscape they see around them, blue waters to flamingo. It was a historic maritime trading hub and starting point for Le Vie del Sale (Salt Roads), ancient mountain mule tracks that carried “white gold” (sea salt) from the Ligurian coast across the Apennines into Northern Italy. “I love the cloudy skies, flowers from neighbouring Provence,” she smiles.
You would never think about repeated dye baths, deconstruction of edges, intentional pilling, painting, and aggressive washes, to create “Art to Wear”, as their tagline goes, but nothing has ever stopped the Italians, isn’t it?