ANTIOCA
ADVERTORIAL PARTNER: ANTIOCA
BY MATTEA & SAVERIA PASCAL-ROSSI
MERDE: What is the concept and purpose behind Antioca?
ANTIOCA: Antioca is a brand of maximalist arm candy & accessories. We focus on creating unconventional, daring and extra accessories to enhance your inner alpha self with a focus on maximalist gloves. Our purpose is to create garments rooted in boundless creativity, designed to be worn everywhere and anywhere while building the future of fashion by putting sustainability at the centre of our creative thinking.
MERDE: What does ANTIOCA mean to you?
ANTIOCA: Antioca means two things to us. Firstly, it's a pure tribute to our ancestors. Saveria, my younger sister and I built this brand together to honour our ancestors who flew from Italy to what used to be French Algeria in hope of a better life. We are from this small island part of Sardinia, Italy called Sant’Antioco. Back then, most of the members of our family were named Antioca and Antioco, and we thought that giving our brand the name they used to embrace was the perfect tribute to show them how grateful we are for their legacy. During the summer 2022, our whole family went on a pilgrimage to Sant’ Antioco. My grand mother and her sister who are originally from there were obviously part of the trip. Digging into our roots and family in our perfect Mediterranean landscape was the obvious spot for our first campaign shoot and who better than our granny and her younger sister to be the main models of the campaign?
Secondly, Antioca also means freedom and dream. That's the vision Saveria and I had when we built Antioca’s brand identity. The name fitted perfectly in this. We aspire to be part of this new wave of designers breaking boundaries wherever we can. We believe that fashion is one of the most prominent ways for people to express themselves and that we should all feel completely free to wear whatever we want, wherever and whenever.
MERDE: Who is your customer and how do you envision your gloves fitting into their wardrobe?
ANTIOCA: Our customer is anyone regardless of their gender and generation. Anyone who is looking for a daring and extra addition to their day to day look. Anyone who is looking to elevate their style and add a touch of edginess and glam to it. That’s how we see our gloves fitting into their wardrobes. See them as the perfect accessory to elevate any look to something more edgy, more daring, more glamorous, more dreamy.
MERDE: Will you take us through your design process?
ANTIOCA: We use high-end circular materials from all the Top Luxury Maisons. Our drops are made in limited quantity to avoid waste and consciously produced in North London. Our starting point is sourcing our next circular materials. Once we have found the perfect ones, the next step is to start envisioning how to bring to life those fabrics again. Each of our pieces is thought through to be unique and maximalist. But, while we love maximalist and extra, we want our pieces to be wearable, versatile and functional. For instance, an example of a design change we recently went through was moving from traditional gloves to fingerless gloves. We all know how important it is nowadays to show our nails, our jewellery or simply to be able to confidently eat a pizza or immortalise a life moment, with fingerless gloves you can do all that.
MERDE: How does East London weave into your brand story?
ANTIOCA: When we mentioned earlier that Antioca is about freedom and dreams, we think this could also apply to East London. From the sexy attitude, to the maximalist volumes, the bold prints or streetwear, we love to walk around and look at how people are expressing themselves through their outfit. In East London, we can really sense this idea of embracing one's true self and taking on the world. We love this way of thriving through life and wish every one of us could be confident enough to do the same. My sister and I grew up in Paris. My sister still lives there and going back home very often allow us to not only take inspiration from East London but also weave Paris into our brand story. Paris is for the structure, the glam and the colour theory, while East London is for the extra, the daring and the edginess.
MERDE6: What are your goals for the future of Antioca?
ANTIOCA: We are dreaming to mainstream the use of gloves for everyone and everywhere and to become the go-to unconventional, daring & extra shop for your true alpha self.
Mattea & Saveria @antioca__
