Spazio Vayadù: a concept store that becomes a journey into feminine craft.

Our world in a concept store near the Budello in Alassio

Vayadù is a brand that can be breathed into the spaces of its holiday homes.
Since its foundation, I have always dreamed to dedicate a space to the arrival and departure of our guests, to welcome them and allow them to take home a little piece of us.
A space that would tell our world in a breath and that could also open up to those who had not yet stayed in our homes.

Those who know me know: when a project is on my mind, I don’t rest until I realise it… And so at the beginning of spring I rented a small shop – in Corso Dante, near the Budello in Alassio.
Together with Sara from Homing Studio, my trusted interior designer, we dressed it up in Vayadù’s colours and started decorating it with a selection of handmade products.

The doors of Spazio Vayadù opened with summer and lead straight into our world of inspiration and care. The story is entrusted to the space and the objects that inhabit it, designed to inspire beauty or to care for the beauty of women. Objects that speak of the work of skilled hands: my favourite craftswomen who create for the women who encounter them.

With this blog post I would like to take all my readers inside Spazio Vayadù, on a short journey into that female craft that has inspired me so much.

A space to welcome and inspire

Together with Sara of Homing Studio, we worked on a design that did not recall a shop in the classical sense, but let the atmosphere of our homes breathe.

The lines and volumes of the interiors are designed to welcome, while the palette reflects the brand’s colours, skilfully calibrated to inspire at first glance.

Starting with powder pink, a tribute to femininity and the dance in my heart. While the forest green and natural wood elements are in honour of the nature that hosts us and its seasons. And then the milk white, which envelops everything and reminds me of a cuddle of well-being and the page on which to write a new story. To complete the work, we chose furnishing accessories in raffia and woven wicker, which speak to me of summer and sunshine, with their colour of ripe wheat.
And once again the Vayadù atmosphere takes shape right in front of our eyes in an alchemy of elements in dialogue with each other, bringing a curious smile to those who peep into this Spazio and a surge of inspiration to those who say thank you and leave.

And once again the Vayadù atmosphere takes shape right in front of our eyes in an alchemy of elements in dialogue with each other, bringing a curious smile to those who peep into this Spazio and a surge of inspiration to those who say thank you and leave.

Daniela and her Interra: a talent for ceramics

The journey into Spazio Vayadù continues with the selection of handcrafted creations that populate it. Starting with InTerra ceramics, a collection of unique pieces born from the magic of the earth transmuting into ceramics.

Interra also furnishes our homes with a deliberately raw style, enhanced by textures obtained by imprinting fabrics, lace and other materials on the still-fresh clay.
After firing in the kiln, a special glaze colours the reliefs of the textures, enhancing the details and dressing them in a delicate, almost impalpable palette.

Behind InTerra is Daniela and her talent, which has emerged powerfully in her quest for her time, for a sustainable and happy life, between “family and work, slowness and hard work, clay and elegance”

We asked her what stories her ceramics tell and we can only use her own words in responding: “When I want to describe InTerra’s ceramics the first word I use is ‘imperfect’. […] InTerra’s is an imperfection that is loved,desired, looked for.

These edges that are never smooth, always different, are the mirror of what we are and what we should embrace with pride.”

At Spazio Vayadù in Alassio you will find small collections of InTerra to decorate the breakfast table with many different shades or larger pieces, such as vases or centrepieces, in which the texture remains clear in all its details.

Verde Olivia jewellery from the hands of Lady Alice

Our journey in Spazio Vayadù among my favourite female artisans continues with the jewellery of Verde Olivia, a brand that was born from Alice’s passion for feminine elegance of every era.
What inspires her are in fact women and their taste, their personal idea of elegance, which even as a child she perceived in her grandmother’s gestures “with her Sunday ring” or in the lipstick that her mother would put on her lips “immediately after wearing gold earrings, necklaces and bracelets”.

Today, her creations take shape in an atelier as green as her name, where she collects ideas, objects and curious encounters. An emerald living room with its doors always open, from which a new inspiration enters each time: a different woman who tells her story without hesitation.
Alice draws inspiration from these encounters for customised collections, limited edition designer jewellery.

Her creations in Spazio Vayadù also tell a story waiting to be ‘heard with the eyes’. They are inspired by our colours and are created to be recognised by the women who wear them, to satisfy their desire ‘not for vanity, but for presence’, as Alice would say.

The creations of Elisabetta and Manuela, the seamstresses of Maison Mael

I met Elisabetta and Manuela in Savigliano, the town where I live near the Langhe.
I have always been fascinated by the magical workshop of Maison Mael, populated by reels of fabric, colourful paper patterns, cheerfulness and cut threads. Here, tailor-made garments that make women shine in all their beauty come to life.

But their vision and their work take them further: their motto is ‘helping ideas take shape’, i.e. enabling all women to realise their creations.
That is why there is always a tailoring workshop in their studio! And I can’t tell you how many times they have tried to put me to work in front of a sewing machine!

With their tireless work they tell ‘stories of dedication to people and their ideas’ and this brings them closer to the soul of Vayadù, which feeds on and restores creative inspiration.
This is why I strongly desired their creations in this Spazio, asking them to make a collection of cushions, beach towels and hair bands, using a fabric printed with the Vayadù pattern.

Cristina Pedratscher’s elegant photographic prints

I also chose a km 0 artist for the prints: Cristina Pedratscher lives and works in Savigliano, my home town.
When I met her I immediately felt lucky: I find her research, which uses the camera as a mirror in which to fix emotions in black and white, very interesting.
Her lens delves into the depths of the unconscious and speaks the expressive language of the body, immortalised in unusual movements and explored with highly contrasted chiaroscuro.
The skin and muscular tension take centre stage. The skin as a boundary, as an accomplice of movement in releasing or receiving emotions. Just like in dance.

Perhaps that is why I love her photographs so much and wanted them at Spazio Vayadù. And Cristina brought here some self-shots from the ‘Elements’ project, which was born as an invitation to observe ourselves under different lights and points of view.

I would like to end this little tour by thanking the women and artists who have said yes to this project, making Spazio Vayadù a unique place to be amazed and inspired.
I thank them above all because with their lives they show me every day ‘a new meaning of success’, which is inextricably linked to the ability to bring the most beautiful gift of oneself into the world. I think this is what John Lennon meant with the verses of his ‘Woman’.

If by reading this article you would like to have these precious objects in your home – even if you are far from Alassio – I advance you that you will soon find them in a small e-shop associated with this site.
In the meantime you can write to us and we will do our best to reach you as soon as possible, wherever you are.