An Interview with Via Piave 33          

      By Chloé Neveux

– VIA PIAVE 33 IS A BRAND FOR THE FUTURE, OPERATING IN THE PRESENT –

   Elisa Betella & Alessandro Spaggiari

Before becoming the distinctive Italian lifestyle brand that it is today, Via Piave 33 initially represented an address, one of someone’s homes; the home of Alessandro Spaggiari. It is the place where everything started, and what seemed like an unassuming address has already been through three Fashion Weeks ever since its creation in 2021. Alessandro was always an artist, and he started Via Piave 33 not to create a brand, but an art project. Elisa Betella, his partner and designer of the brand, and Francesca Spaggiari, his sister and co-founder of this familial project, have been working together since the beginning on developing their contemporary Italian lifestyle brand. Even though fashion is a crucial component of Via Piave 33, it is far from being their only product. What they produce varies from garments to accessories, body care, and home decor; what they do varies between conceptual kits, pop-ups, and live, immersive experiences. I had the opportunity to interview the two creators, Alessandro and Elisa, and question them about their art project’s meaning, their relationship to fashion, understanding the contemporary concept of New Luxury, being an independent brand, and the idea of using art and fashion to create not just a brand, but a whole, timeless universe.

Chloé: To get us started, I would like to ask you a more general question. How did Via Piave 33 come up to you? What direction were you aiming for when starting the project? Do you believe you are currently going in the direction you had in mind initially? 

Ale: Initially, everything started as an art project. We wanted to focus a lot first on the imaginary of the brand (a word Alessandro uses to describe the brand’s dreamlike creative world), through the use of visuals, videos, storytelling, sounds, and more. We believe that this is part of the full experience, together with the product. This artistic project was then first launched with the “Purification Kit”. With this unique experience, the goal was to develop a new and different relationship between the human being and the object. To conceive the object as more of a talisman than anything else, something that has a deeper connection than just its function and aesthetic. And so, we did that by delivering it with an experience. The simple act of washing your face. It was a 12-step ritual to implement in your daily routine to promote the action of disconnecting from the hectic digital world to take a personal moment for yourself, in a forced way where you have to put intentions into the action. The action was indeed very simple, so the main goal was to promote thinking, reflection, and comfort. 

Elisa: Regarding the creation of the name of the brand, it represents the home address of Ale, and the place where this family business all started. We thought it was good to keep a name that reminds you that this brand is not just solely for the production of garments, but also for objects, pieces of furniture, and home decor, which all households require. So the name was overall very important to us because it reminds us not of a concept but of a place, a significant one. After all, a house is very intimate and personal, which correlated with our visions and values that we wanted to bring out for the project. The house is also the place where you take care of the most, which directly links to the first live experience, the “Purification Kit”.

Ale: We are aware that our name is not very international because it is meant to be said in Italian, but we are curious to explore the intersection between contemporary concepts with more traditional, made-in-Italy ideas.

Chloé: I also really appreciate that you kept the number in your name. I find it unique and original, and I think it makes it clearer that it is a physical address for non-Italian speakers. 

Ale: Yes, and it is interesting because apart from representing my real home address number, this number has also been spiritually relevant to me and the project. It is true that when we all decided to collaborate on the project of Via Piave 33, it was our moment, for the three of us to finally stop all our previous activities, to finally focus and reconnect with our spirituality and slow-life mentality. We actually approached numerology, a spiritual science, that gives a life-birth number to each individual based on their date and place of birth. The fun fact is that the number I was given through numerology was 33, the same number as my home address, which made this even more significant. There is also some religion behind it through Catholic metaphors and the number 33 (The number 33 consistently appears in the Bible during moments of covenantal fulfillment, divine transition, and spiritual maturity. While not directly defined as symbolic, its recurrence suggests deep meaning: Jesus was crucified at 33, fulfilling prophecies and symbolizing redemption), which is very related to Italy, and so since this discovery, we believe you can see a touch of religious inspirations in our visual references. Today, the 33 is now our symbol, like a brand logo, since every time, as the double 33 shaped like a bubble. It is something unseen to the general public but very meaningful to us, but we are glad because people are starting to recognize it, and we hope that the more people they can get to know the story behind it.

Chloé: What a coincidence to have your home address number be the same as your lucky spiritual number, and it being one meaningful in the Bible as well. Wow… I also love how important submeanings and mottos are to you and the creation of your brand. You seem to have a set of values associated with Via Piave 33, making it kind of like your own contemporary, artistic Bible.

Ale: Interestingly, we do make a lot of indirect references to religion, it is more cultural inspirations, since it is something that is a part of us indirectly, that we both grew up with, and that we kept in the brand’s aesthetic. For example, our main color used is white, something related to the church in some way, and we started to implement it not with a real purpose; it was truly something organic that is now a part of our aesthetic. 

Chloé: That’s beautiful. To transition, I also saw on your documents and website that you mentioned how Via Piave 33 “promotes technology and primitivism,” and it both fascinated me and intrigued me since both are pretty dichotomic. I wanted to discuss how you perceive technology within your brand, and also how important marketing and digital communication are to you, since you do not have a physical shop yet. How did you manage to make your brand as big as it is already, without having a physical place for it yet?

Elisa: Indeed, we do not have a physical shop even though it is a big plan of ours. For now, we sell to shops, online, and we used to open ephemeral stores during the year. Therefore, I think that technology is quite important to us because it was the starting point of our project, and when we do pop-ups and launch ephemeral experiences and shops to let people know and market our events. We also used technology for the “Purification Kit”. We offer a different way of shopping for now, and we have managed to create a strong, reliable community already through that. However, we are of course planning on opening our own shop one day because that will be the best way for us to meet people and our buyers. 

Ale: Also, the sentence you’re referring to is an optic that we developed because the digital party is very important for us, but in an experimental way. We work a lot on our digital platforms to support our projects, but also in contrast with our products, which are all artisanal, organic, and physical, and “primitive” in a way. We embrace technology in a very artistic and experimental way, so we constantly try to push its limits. 

Chloé: It is amazing and pretty ironic how what you are trying to do seems to be using technology to make things feel more human; it is an interesting parallel and approach to the digital world. Now, I would like to touch on another specificity of your brand, which is the fact that you are an independent brand. What is your overall feeling and experience being an independent brand? Are you planning on remaining independent in the long term, or are you open to collaborations?

Elisa: Staying independent in the following years is really important to us because the upcoming years are going to be the most crucial ones for the development of our universe. Remaining independent might be helpful for that. We are very open to collaborations with brands that understand our values and universe, of course. For example, we have been contacted by this Italian design brand, and collaborating with them could be a way to be known in more parts of the world. 

Ale: Yes, and by being independent, we learn a lot, and it pushes us to learn all the phases of a brand. From the creative point, to the commercial, to the production, to the legal, etc, which makes us stronger on our own in the end of the day. Also, to ensure longevity, we know that being a brand is a question of time. You need to be able to survive over the years, to maintain your integrity, and to maintain your current community, all while growing it as well. Therefore, we believe that remaining as faithful as we can to the initial ideas of the process is very important because that is what can make us stand out from the others, always. 

Chloé: I think that your discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of being independent all circle back to the question of time, and that makes me think of one of your famous mottos: “Small Steps / Long Distance”. I love that sentence because I think that it is a beautiful and necessary mentality to adopt today. It is sort of contrasting to what every Gen-Z is trying to do right now, where everyone feels like they are in a race and feel like they have to be successful when they are the youngest; the quicker, the better. Yet, I think that it is also important to take time to reload, take a step back, and reconnect with what each individual truly wants to share with the world. In a way, what you are doing opposes the controversial modern concept of fast fashion. 

Ale: Yes, this mentality we adopted ever since the creation of the brand in 2021 has inspired us in many ways. An example would be our first physical experience at Milan Fashion Week in 2024, which was a game-changer. We realized that these in-person experiences are the best way to show people our universe and to interact with them. The experience of time and space, both live and digitally. We believe that now, more than ever, it is important to be present and to be in motion. We also have the chance to be able to travel for our brand a lot; we were just in Japan and Korea, and we do that because we believe that it is only by being present in person, at least for now, that we can understand and create a true, stable community. 

Chloé: Now, I would like to move on to another aspect of your brand that I found very attractive, especially to my young generation. I would like to question you on the concept of “New Luxury”. The renowned global fashion media HighSnobiety wrote a whole book on New Luxury and defined it as: “The New Luxury isn’t just about what you wear, but also what you know.” It’s not anymore about how expensive a product is, but it’s about how you feel and how unique and exclusive the experience as a whole will make you feel. I feel like that definition is very closely related to your brand and values.  Would you define your brand as “New Luxury”? 

Ale: We believe that we are in a very evolving and difficult time right now, with everything going extremely fast, like you said. Everyone seems to request to have a slower pace, yet everyone still responds with a very fast-paced rhythm. Luxury’s meaning changed because people don’t really know the quality of the products anymore; we have lost the knowledge of very well-made products. It is mostly just a “feeling” now. It is also an era where people want something real and authentic, but without spending too much money on it. Today, solely relying on releasing really expensive products makes it harder to find customers because the few people who might be able to afford your product will not fit with your mindset. That is why it is important to find this balance between well-made products that are not overly expensive and that can provide not just someone’s needs but feelings. We are into making something meaningful accessible. We also make sure that the product you are buying makes you feel like you are part of something new, a sense of belonging. The soap bar, the olive oil and other cardinal everyday object that we sell are all goods that one could buy from a regular shop but could also choose to enhance it buy purchasing it from a New Luxury brand like ours, making the repetitive, and simple experience of washing your hands for example, a lot more appreciable for a potentially small price difference. What I like about New Luxury is that it is something that regroups a distinctive and more admirable community that seems to regroup more sensitive, artistically oriented people, who truly have feelings about their purchase. Also, New Luxury relates again to our discussion about slowing down life’s rhythm because, as you said, New Luxury is about “knowledge”, but “knowledge” takes time. That is why we focus so much on sensorial, immersive experiences and the importance of being present in the moment when purchasing and choosing products from our brand. 

Chloé: That is very true. I believe that New Luxury is very interesting and relevant to young people since it is the only type of luxury that young people can afford, in a way, and that interests them. Now, it is not just about how much time it is going to take to create the product, but it is also about how long it is going to take to go to this specific place for an event or pop-up for a brand, and how this modern purchasing experience is going to impact one overall. 

Chloé: To end this conversation, I have a personal question that I have been pondering ever since I discovered your brand. Overall, do you think you value the experiences, the kits, and the objects as much as the fashion aspect of your brand? Do you think in the future you are going to expand even more the spectrum of your product offerings, or, on the contrary, focus more deeply on the creation of one single type of product, such as garments?

Ale: That is a difficult question for us because it is something quite frustrating for us. In our mind, we are a complete 360º brand, but we understand that it is normal for you and any other external viewer of our brand to first see more fashion than anything else in our brand. Since our team remains relatively small, we had to dedicate a lot of time to the clothing collection since it takes more time. Therefore, for now, on the outside, users see more activation made for the fashion side of our brand. Yet, we believe that in the future, we would like to maintain and make even more evident our balance between objects and garments. For now, to activate the fashion side in the best way possible, we conformed to the traditional “fashion rules” by launching our collections following the traditional fashion calendar (changing our collection twice a year, with Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter) because it is good for visibility and coherence. However, in the long term, we are looking forward to breaking this traditional way of displaying fashion collections, to create timeless, more basic clothes that can be seen as eternal and unique.  

Check out Via Piave 33 on their…

Website: https://viapiave33.com/collect/

Instagram: @viapiave33