Antonella Bertagnin – Q & A with Lineapelles’ Creative Director

Ad| Antonella Bertagnin is considered one of the most trusted Italian trendmakers in the leather industry. Since 1998, she is the Creative Director of leather fair “Lineapelle” and coordinates the fashion committee “Trend Selection”, providing fashion trends and colours for Italian tanneries.

Alongside curating seminars on fashion trends in leather, footwear and leather goods all over the world, Antonella Bertagnin also coaches tanneries and leather goods companies in collection development, for skin and textiles. Together with Mrs Bertagnin, I was in the jury of the craft prize „Craft the Leather“ from Consorzio Vera Pelle.

Mrs Bertagnin, where does your enthusiasm for leather come from and what do you think makes leather so special?

Indeed, it’s an enthusiastic job, working with a material which is always there. Yet, the skin in particular carries in it the story of the human evolution like an always equal and always different screen on which to project the desires.

How has the leather industry changed over the years and what is important for leather manufacturers today?

In a world that moves at the speed of the … network … even the leather industry cannot remain immune to changes. From a primary need, to a ductile and extremely fashionable material, the path is long and interesting. But what is even more interesting is how the ancient and contemporary souls coexist and together re-design a new one.

The new technologies, also derived from cross-research with other industrial realities, have added performance to this ancient material, adapted to the needs of the contemporary, working not only on aesthetics but also on important elements such as specific weight, softness and sustainability.

Lineapelle recently took place in London and New York. What are your impressions from the fair in these two countries?

The atmosphere surrounding these two previews is shining. These are the first appointments of the season so curiosity is high.

London and NY are two dynamic and interesting realities that highlight nuances of different markets. It is interesting for those who watch the record of the reactions to new proposals and have the first confirmations about the evolution of trends.

Leather companies and the digital age. How important is it for them to be digital today?

Artificial intelligence is the new frontier of the technology that more than anything else affects our daily life. More and more in the reach of everyone, it suits every desire and is applied in all fields. The digital sphere is its direct medium. It has become fundamental in the communication of a brand, has sped up the realization of ideas and lowered the costs of some workmanship. It has shaped a contemporary aesthetic and is impossible to do without.

I generally like to open the presentations of the FW 18/19 trends with a quote:

“A softwear does not make mistakes, its mistakes are intentional and open the doors to discovery.”

Search goes digital.

What are the future leather trends?

To advance the future forecast of fashion means understanding the map and evolution of infinite interlaces and contaminations that the contemporary manifests. Crossing, hybridisation, and manipulation are the words that accurately identify this time.

The skin is not immune to it, rather it draws a new lymph and the catwalks confirm it.

But the great leather classics intended for accessories will again find a new balance in the future, obtaining a space between creative manipulations made of courage and provocation.

To give it a new read, the creativity intervenes of those who dare to break the conventions, close to the finished product, the classics with the most extreme research, the basics of the most advanced technology and the most courageous experiments.

Regarding the tanneries, next to the classics and basics, the research will still revolve around the declination of glosses, iridescences, to the pleasure of pairing the skin with other materials like wool, fur or felt – for more technical aspects such as new coatings or stretch aspects.

More info about Antonella Bertagnin can be found here.

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