Tailoring: the importance of learning in a Bottega

Creative Italy’s team interviewed Alessandra, owner of a prestigious tailoring atelier in Florence.

Why Florence and why the Oltrarno?

Our tailoring workshop is located in the Oltrarno because this has always been the homeland of Florentine artisans, it is the neighborhood where still today you can find authentic artisan workshops.

What do you offer in your Atelier?

Ours is a design studio for furnishing and fashion accessories. We create the products directly here in the laboratory.

In our atelier we also offer products from other crafts companies like shoes, jewels, and hand-painted scarves. Basically, it’s a whole artisan world dedicated to women, from dresses and accessories to home decoration. But our bottega also has some elements dedicated to men’s clothing.

What is the characteristic that differentiates you from other tailoring ateliers?

Aside from having specialized collaborators, like the Maestro Cravattaio (the master necktie maker), each artisan is specialized in a specific sector.

Also, we host dinners and tasting experiences in this space, we have a chef who creates exclusive dishes and we take care of the table decorations.

What can a client find when visiting you?

In addition to an exclusive and custom-made dress, they can try short experiences that last a couple of hours on various themes, such as creative sewing, moulage and ties.

What courses do you offer?

We organize professional sewing courses of various levels together with a team of artisans, each with his or her own skills and competences in terms of modeling, wedding dresses and dressmaking.

How are the courses structured?

Our courses go from preparing the paper model to creating the actual dress. We start by building the bodices and the skirts on the millimeter notebook, then we bring the dress to a paper model with the client’s measures, we do the initial samples on canvas until we make the dress on the real fabric. The course includes all the material that is needed, like the main book, measuring tables, millimeter notebook, a ruler and other useful material with suggestions. At the end of the course we issue the certificate of attendance. The courses are led by professionals of the sector.

Why is it better to learn in a bottega (artisan workshop)?

Because the students are in direct contact with professionals who can assist and give suggestions that are different compared to an academy. Here in the tailoring workshop we teach students to have extra care for detail and presentation, for example we only use hand stitching because the dress has to be beautiful both inside and outside, that is why our seams are open and hemmed or in a French style. This is just an example of all the things we can learn next to a tailor.

Tailoring Course in Florence

Would you like to travel and learn the craft of tailoring in Italy? The professional tailoring course takes place in an artisan workshop in Florence and is available to students of all levels, from beginner to advanced. For more information and to book the course, please email info@creative-italy.com or visit Tailoring Classes, Professional Courses and Workshops in Italy.