WHAT'S THE STORY
AVANT TOI
“SUBVERTING NORMS AND CLASSICISM” Avant Toi has been a byword for avant-garde since the 1990s and surprises with a new twist to its DNA every season – brightly coloured, innovative cashmere. The brand is backed by Liapull Cashmere of Genoa, a family business with ambitious plans for 2022. We sat down for a chat with Fiorella and Mirko Ghignone. Interview: Janaina Engelmann-Brothánek. Photos: Avant Toi
Genuine works of art: the colour formulas are Avant Toi’s greatest secret, as is the production method. Only this much can be revealed, it is an artistic-artisanal process.
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style in progress
Avant Toi has always been considered a brand with strong innovation capabilities and a unique vision for the future. How do you perceive this time of profound change in the fashion world? And what does it mean for Avant Toi? Fiorella Ghignone, Managing Director of Liapull Cashmere and Avant Toi: Our Avant Toi cashmere label has been around since 1994, but our story starts back in the late 1950s when our mother, Lia Gambetta, founded Liapull in Genoa. She started very small, producing a few jumpers on a donated knitting machine. She was one of the few women who ran a company independently and was way ahead of her time. We had the privilege of witnessing their entrepreneurship and attitude, and it has certainly rubbed off on us. We still produce our collections here to this day, meaning that we offer “Made in Italy” products. Yet the Avant Toi label now accounts for 80 percent of our turnover and, yes, I am convinced that our success has something to do with our very innovative approach. But Mirko, my brother and creative mastermind, can tell you more about that. Mirko Ghignone, Creative Director of Avant Toi: As Fiorella just explained so beautifully, we grew up in this business surrounded by a great deal of creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. That shaped us, no doubt. I was eight when I crafted my first scarf on the knitting machine. Our mother always gave us the freedom to experiment, to express our ideas. That is how Avant Toi was born. I had started exploring the idea of action painting on cashmere and silk. Naturally, this defied all the traditional aesthetic and stylistic rules usually associated with precious yarns like cashmere (laughs). Who would even dare to paint on such a precious yarn with a brush, let alone in such vibrant shades? Yet this is precisely how something unique is created. I love the idea of subverting norms and classicism. And I am thrilled to say today that my gut feeling was correct. Now more than ever, end consumers are looking for “oneof-a-kind” pieces. They desire to feel truly special. This change suits our way of thinking and we have certainly benefited from the pandemic to a certain extent. I finally had time to decelerate and paint
