Collection Pan Arab Luxury Magazine
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What material are dreams made of? Of tulle. Of pearls. Of thread which moves around on chiffon, gauze, tweed, tying settings of strass up in shining wefts. Of colours which draw on artistic suggestion: from Art Deco, from the Fifties, from African tribal styles, from Balinese inflorescence.
The world of Daniela Ravaioli, soul of Radà, has precise codes which appear on the surface through wefts and warps, kaleidoscopic colours, flashes of jais. Jewels are sewn in, not soldered. Simply the accuracy of hand-crafted pieces: Daniela Ravaioli’s company is a cosmopolitan crossroads where thirty people, passionate about beauty, put noble materials together. Material-art.
Thirty years ago, Daniela’s creative vocation was already powerful, driven by archetypes such as her first Hermes foulard, which has since been framed to mark “a love for the idea of beauty which has been with me since I was eighteen.”
The very first earrings created were made of pheasant feathers, modelled on a pair of pendant-earrings from London, Carnaby Street. Daniela took her first pieces to one of the best shops in Bologna in a Vuitton bag – and sold them all.
The trickle of business became a stream, then a river: the first collection of marabou feathers, neckbands with pendants and glass beads, and necklaces of shells collected on the seashore and painted, was designed and produced in the small workroom set amongst the fields of Romagna. Spotted fur thickened with studs, paying homage to ancient Rome, sold like hot cakes in shops such as famous Space, in Milano Marittima.
Once again, there is a natural union between materials. Metals are not cast using sterile welding methods but rather “cooked”, and assembled with embroidery and threads.
Daniela Ravaioli has natural talent, and was the very first to imprison pearls in ethereal cages of lace and grosgrain loops. New pieces are always being designed, worked by hand: fluorescent colours matched with rows of strass, fabrics mixed with bright, semi-precious materials, manufactured pieces with Indian or Indonesian flavours. A taste developed here, in Italy, with that unmistakeable refinement Daniela has always had.
Today, Radà is a legendary name in Japan, where the brand exports 80% of its production. The remaining 20% is split between Europe and the rest of the world.
Collections are produced in Bali and Italy, under the continuous direction of Daniela, who divides her time between Romagna and Indonesia. She spends months at a time in the small workroom in Bali, teaching, guiding, sewing, perfecting.
Each collection has 180 pieces. Not just necklaces, but decorated sandals, too, ballerina pumps scattered with jais, small clutch bags and huge maxis, with hard stones and pearly gleams. Chromatic pallets, the colours of which change entirely, exploring the magic of chromatic miscellanea, sometimes reliving precise historical styles and periods.
Vitality dominates everything. A passion which extracts the very essence of the new like an alchemic potion, season by season, endlessly.
