Antonia Sautter is a designer and entrepreneur born in Venice, to a German father and an Italian mother, renowned for her costumes that recreate the elegance of the past ages of Italy’s history, from the 17th century up to the 1920s. Her passion for creative arts, costume history, textiles, and ancient techniques of tailoring, accompanied by her love for artisan craftsmanship has permitted Sautter to become known as a distinguished Italian celebrity.
SP:A brief introduction to your early education?
AS: Despite what one may think, my school education had nothing to do with fashion or event planning as I was into foreign languages and literature, which I enjoyed, and by the way, I am sure contributed to opening my mind. It is another kind of education, by no means least important, that somehow shaped my destiny: my mother’s. It is back then, during childhood, that the deepest and strongest roots are laid. And it is indeed thanks to a very creative and inspiring mother that my love and passion for Carnival and costumes were born. Since September we started imagining who I would interpret the following Carnival and this not only meant the making of my outfit (and the ones of my little friends) but also the study of the character I was going to be. The game of dressing up and Carnival was actually a very clever pretext to make me approach history, geography, theater, and arts as a little girl. This somehow lingered in my heart while growing up, even when walking on different paths, and eventually re-emerged as the only possible way it was meant to be.
SP: What are you currently working on?
AS: My restless mind works constantly on different tracks, at the moment I am mainly working on a new fashion collection, to be realized as always entirely by hand in my workshops here in my beloved Venice, and of course on my everyday mission accompanying me since 1994: the building of a new chapter of Il Ballo del Doge, i.e. its 28th Edition, taking place on Feb 13th, 2021, on the night leading us to the day celebrating Love.
SP: Do you have any upcoming shows?
AS: I would have had more than a few in the weeks to come but unfortunately, due to the global pandemic situation they have been either called off or postponed. We are still working on them, though, and looking forward to making them come true!
SP: Tell us a bit about your work and what do you do?
AS: My work is my passion and dreams turned into fashion lines, costumes, and events. Of course, not only mine as in events and wedding planning, but also in fashion with custom made creations, my aim is turning people’s dreams into reality, building happiness and memories they will treasure in their hearts forever. Quite a challenging and tough mission but so rewarding!
SP: The Atelier is known for crafting breathtaking costume pieces tailor-made for the Il Ballo del Doge, the Venetian Masquerade Ball. Would you like to tell us a little about the costume pieces?
AS: Every costume I made for more than 30 years now, is a unique piece one of a kind, as unique as the person that will be not only wearing it but giving it life, depth, soul. Costumes are the key into another dimension, a way to reveal ourselves, to convey a message or a feeling, a shade of our personality. The visit to the Atelier is a moment of pure-play, fantasy, and imagination. I think that the fascinating codes of seduction have never changed and wearing a costume will help us to discover new ways to emphasize our inner potential because a costume can liberate your romantic fantasies and set you free. By choosing a costume to wear, you will be allowed to travel beyond reality, showing a secret trait of your personality, often hidden in your daily life. Before you know it, you will become a Doge of the Serenissima, a charming Casanova, a noble Lady, a sublime fantasy creature, a mischievous Cortigiana, a Queen of history. As I like to say, “wear a costume, live the magic”.
SP: To what extent is your fashion line inspired by the Baroque costume pieces that are made at the Atelier?
AS: Probably in its preciousness (even when very minimal) and it’s being entirely handmade. But more than Baroque, that characterizes my Atelier creations, my fashion line winks to arts and crafts from all around the world. I am talking about traditional textile printing techniques (which I use mainly on velvet and silk) and garments whose shapes belong to different traditions, that I reinterpreted in a modern way, inspired by research and study of decorative arts in vogue in different eras and cultures and strongly influenced by the history of Venice, my hometown.
SP: You are also known for creating costumes and masks for a number of films, including Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. Do tell us about your experience in creating costumes for film sets; how is it different from designing couture?
AS: My mission in life, as I was mentioning before, is making dreams come true, no matter if they are mine or others. This is the reason why with pleasure I cooperate often with movie and theater productions and with anyone else to whom I put my know-how, experience, and creativity at disposal. As for Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut production, they chose from my wide mask collection most of the ones that were used in the movie. It was indeed a great experience working with them and it touches me to know that, thanks to those creative moments at my workshop choosing the masks, there is a little of Venice in such a masterpiece.
SP: Please tell us a bit more about the craftsmanship employed to preserve the authenticity of the Venetian silks, damasks velvet, and brocades that you use in your designs?
AS: Preserving authenticity and ancient craftsmen skills that nowadays risk disappearing, are indeed paramount values in my work that I teach to my younger team. What is also to be preserved is the passion, enthusiasm, and rigor in the search of Beauty that is the real essence of those artisans who in the glorious ancient times made Venetian craftsmanship excellence in the world and that needs to be an example for new generations of artisans that will have to develop, reinterpret and update them in a new, rich, tradition. It is the spirit of being artisans that need to be cultivated, not only resurrecting the past but building a new future.
SP: What role does period costuming and couture occupy in the world of fashion today, that was inching more and more towards faster methods of production?
AS: We hear more and more talking about sustainable and ethical fashion, I think that somehow my small workshop is an example of this. As far as I am concerned I think that what you wear, fashion, should not only answer and be governed by market logic, as the risk is losing the concept of beauty, the meaning behind an art-craft creation and the preciousness of its ingredients, which should be the essence of fashion, as a lot of great couturiers of the past taught us. Now, I feel fashion is threatened by the law of profit, turnover, and selling, forgetting ethics, beauty, and sustainability, and losing touch with one of its fundamental values: expression of individuality. Fashion in past times was an expression of its time and an expression of power, a real social status symbol, accessible to just too few, to those who could afford it. The arrival of the pret à porter gave everyone the possibility of being “well dressed” but in some cases being endorsed by aggressive marketing, resulted sometimes in a homogenization, standardization, and in anesthetizing the sensibility of the consumer, accepting models more than expressing oneself through fashion. I am dreaming about a more sustainable and durable, less volatile, fashion – a fashion producing beautiful good quality garments, surviving times thanks to the high standards of the employed materials. I wish there was no need for changing constantly to follow others, to show off clothes as a status symbol, I wish fashion was an incentive to personalization, to build one’s own style.
I belong to the world of couture, of the made-to-measure, of handmade unique pieces, those pieces in which you can feel the soul of their maker and the soul of the one who has chosen to wear them. This is my way of making fashion which I hope can spread and push others to build up their own workshop with their own lines.
SP: What are you working on at the moment? How has the ongoing pandemic and its effects on everyday life affected your practice?
AS: The pandemic is affecting all of us, imposing a “halt” that to me means a stop to the production both of events and creations, but not to the production of dreams as it is giving us, me, time: a precious resource (maybe one of the most precious for a creative mind) I seldom can dispose of, caught daily between meetings, an appointment with clients, costume making, event planning, the actual organization of events, rehearsals and more… I think I would rather be in the hectic city of my “regular” days, but despite it all, I am taking advantage of this brighter side. I am imagining and working on future projects, one above all the next edition of my Ballo del Doge, diving deep into my heart and soul to capture important tiles to combine in the making of my future and the one of those (precious clients and glorious team) that will share it with me.
SP: What’s your vision for the future?
AS: All my life I have been a dreamer, a visionary, maybe a little fool, always projecting myself in the future sometimes diving into the unpredictable. Now the situation is really difficult, but I am a Venetian and as my ancestor taught me, we are now facing a storm, we must arm our ship and navigate by sight, never losing faith. As someone said “the moment you are ready to quit is usually the moment right before a miracle happens” and we believe in miracles, don’t we?
Image Courtesy: Antonia Sautter
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