Sara Sabella
FEATURED FASHION DESIGNER
AN INTERVIEW WITH SARA SABELLA
MM: Where did you start from? How did you acquire the skills that got you where you are now? How was your brand born? SS: The Sara Sabella Isola d’Ischia brand was founded by our mother the designer Sarallo Maria Antonietta and the history of the brand is mainly linked to the story of her family life and her passions. It all began in the 60s in Italy where our mother began to have her first experiences in the field of modeling and tailoring. These were tough years and learning a trade such as sewing was almost considered a necessity for women. These are also years of immigration and our mother, together with many other Italians, leaves with her parents to go to work in Germany. In Germany the work is hard, and the sacrifices are many, but our mother manages, despite everything, to follow her passions and to employ herself with many sacrifices in a clothing factory. In the company, our mother matures those skills and the right vision of the fashion sector that will accompany her for the rest of her professional life. Many years pass and on returning from Germany he meets my father, Giovanni Verde. In the 1980s, after moving to Ischia with the whole family, she founded the first Atelier in Ischia with the name Gioana Forio D'Ischia, creating a first line of clothing with hand-painted silks and fabrics. At that time, the first fashion shows and sales with our brand also began and continue to this day with the name of Sara Sabella.
MM: How did you come up with your flagship product? How did you come to do what you do? SS: We don't have a flagship product but a series of dresses that we have selected over the years. These dresses have wearability, color fantasy and elegance as a common factor. These are three qualities that hardly go together! What unites them is experience and love for what we do. Love is everything, it is harmony, it is compromise, it is beauty.
MM: Are there facts, people, difficulties, events that have been relevant in your path? SS: It is very hard to bring out a brand, especially in Italy where the competition is very strong. What certainly helped us was that Ischia is liked and known, people love the sea of Ischia, they love summer and colors. They are "substances" that sell and create, especially now with social media, a lot of virality on the net. Whatever happens in Ischia is amplified. And among other things we are the first ever in Ischia, there are no other clothing brands in Ischia.
MM: Where do you live? What is special about the place you live in? SS: We live between Ischia and Milan. Milan of particular certainly has the fact that it is the capital of fashion. Ischia it is a tourist island and well known for its natural beauty. We prefer to live in Ischia.
MM: What are your passions, strengths, defects? SS: The merits are the love for one's work and the fact of believing in dreams. If you believe it, it comes true; it's true! Defects: perhaps the fact of paying little attention to others.
MM: What are your values and principles that also guide your work? SS: Values are definitely honesty. Honesty towards customers, towards their workers and towards themselves. The principles are those of attachment to one's profession and to work in general. We try to have a good relationship with everyone, aware of the fact that giving means having more.
MM: Who is your ideal customer? SS: We always think of a woman between the ages of 35 and 55. Who works and loves themself. I say this because our clothes are not cheap, on the other hand the fabrics are Made in Italy with that same craftsmanship. And then there is also a discussion of style, trends and information, we always participate in sector fairs.
MM: What is your brand's mission? SS: Our mission is beauty (Sa-Bella)… but there is not only this. Although Ischia is a privileged place it has many problems, some common to the whole southern region, unemployment, poverty of ideas and spirit. Sara Sabella is a company that wants to help the area by giving work and help the community. Next year with the money from foreign contracts, we will try to renovate a children's playground near the company. It is important to Sara Sabella to give back to your community.
" Love is everything, it is harmony, it is compromise, it is beauty. " Sara Sabella
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