2' min read
2' min read
"Why produce metres and metres of new fabrics to create fashion collections when stockists' warehouses are full of scraps of fabric in every shape and colour?". This simple question, which catapults without a net into the world of sustainability, Elisa Nencioni, 27 years old from Certaldo (Florence), asked herself as soon as she decided to create her first collection of women's clothes, presented in September 2023 at Milan Fashion Week, in a digital version, with the brand that bears her name, Nencioni.
Since then, the Tuscan designer, a three-year diploma from the Free Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, followed by a master's degree at Marangoni and experience in the style office of the Daks London and Ermanno Scervino brands, has not stopped for a minute. "I have always thought how beautiful it would be to be able to convey an emotion through a dress, to leave with people as happens with a novel by Goethe, for example," explains Elisa, "and that is why I have always had as a goal, even before I started studying fashion, to do my own collection, even though I was aware that it would be an uphill road.
Having no family members working in the sector (only a grandmother who had a leather clothing factory in Empoli), Elisa planned the stages by looking around: choice of fabrics in the deadstock warehouses of Prato and Campi Bisenzio; manufacture of the clothes in Tuscan workshops; choice of a show room and a communication agency in Milan; presentation of the collection starting in Milan and then flying to Korea and Paris.
"Being in Tuscany has allowed me to count on the suppliers of raw materials and workmanship, just a few kilometres away," he explains. "I decided to make an upcycling product, which comes from using leftovers a bit like the designer Marine Serre does, and this obliges me to spend more time choosing fabrics and finding the right 'hand'. But if we really want to protect the environment, avoid waste and be sustainable, should we go and produce what already exists?".
A few weeks ago, Nencioni presented her spring-summer 2025 collection in Seoul, Korea, in a fashion show of 12 Italian designers that was part of the Milano Loves Seoul project. "My fashion looks to research and experimentation and therefore Korea, where I will soon be returning, is a country that can appreciate my garments," explains Elisa. "Moreover, the first orders, in recent months, have come from abroad and in particular from the East. The designer, who has so far invested her own resources by opening a one-man business, defines her style as contemporary, "contaminated by elements from male tailoring, to dress a woman who is strong and aware of her femininity". Her favourite fabrics are those with a fluid but full-bodied hand, such as cady, satin, viscose, fine wools. "Which designer do I take inspiration from? Alexander McQueen for his approach to art: my dream is to be able to say something with my clothes'.
