“Today I’m going to take you to an opening, a dear friend I worked with in the theatre is opening a shop here in Fano, it’s called Rosso Cuore”. It was 8th December, 2011, the day Milanese designer Paola Brunello began her adventure in Le Marche and also entered into my life.
I remember clearly, that as I walked through the door of the shop for the first time, it was like being inside a small and detailed set, where design, shape and colour had been perfectly balanced by the skilful hand of a person with an impeccable sense of aesthetic and proportion. The space was furnished with fine reclaimed furniture, with a distinct touch of northern European style, long before the fashion was on trend here in Italy. Rosso Cuore reminded me of some of the parlours I had once visited in Paris and London and Paola was selling magnificent arts and crafts created by her and a few other carefully selected artisans.
Today, more than 10 years later, Rosso Cuore has become a brand, Paola continues to reside in Le Marche and she has a new, larger workshop in Fano, where she has also given life to Nellie, one of the most iconic brooches in Italy. Over the years Paola and I have got to know each other quite well and have had the pleasure of collaborating on a number of projects. We even worked alongside each other at Rosso Cuore for a few months, during which time I had the opportunity to get to know the incredible person behind the designer, admire her hard work ethic and learn of the story that I am about to tell.
Observing the carefully positioned creations within Paola’s sublimely decorated space, indeed it’s not a surprise to learn that she has a degree in scenography and set design from the prestigious Academy of Brera, Milan, and that for many years she enjoyed a successful career as a theatre costume designer. For a long time before starting her own business, Paola even designed costumes for actors and toured throughout Italy and abroad. She did this for 13 years until the time finally arrived to reinvent herself, having become unchallenged by a highly charged job that had largely become quite routine. It was at Verona’s iconic Arena in 2011 where she performed her final creative magic.
Life on tour and the lifestyle it entails had understandably taken its toll in terms of creativity. Paola began to entertain the idea of starting her own business and running a place where she could turn all of her passions and skills into refined design objects. What’s more, a man from Le Marche had stolen her heart and this imposed a clear change of scenery. Suddenly, all roads started leading to the region, in particular to the pretty coastal city of Fano. Until that moment Paola had not spent much time in Le Marche, let alone Fano, but she well remembers that first walk along Corso Matteotti, Fano’s main high street. The city was lively and pretty, the bars full, and there was a big bookshop in the main square that made her say “I could live here”. Paola is a lady of actions rather than words, so not long after that first trip, she rented a small apartment and her first chocolate-box shop, where I entered that day in December.
The original Rosso Cuore was like a small theatre, where all of Paola’s passions were on display. There were children’s clothes inspired by traditional fairy tales, fine paper goods of all kinds, and custom wedding stationery sets, because, amongst a plethora of skills, Paola is also blessed with an amazing command of calligraphy.
But it was the Spicy Collection that made her her name, inspired by a charming story and consisting of home fragrances and objects inspired by patisserie, homeware essentials (scented creations for drawers), cupcakes, lollies, mini pastries and the like, filled with natural fragrances and spices such as lavender, star anise, coffee grains and cloves. These were small delights for the five senses that filled your home and your drawers with amazing, natural scents. They also looked beautiful and quite realistic, so much so that more than one person whilst walking past Paola’s shop window, initially thought that it was a specialist bakery. Ironically, at the same time, the rest of Europe was quickly becoming fixated with elaborate cake design, much to Paola’s surprise and much like her avant-garde use of reclaimed furniture, she had unconsciously anticipated a trend.
At that time, a prestigious shop window in the old town of Pesaro was offered to local artisans to give them the possibility to promote themselves. Rosso Cuore was offered the month of March. Paola displayed all her creations and recreated her entire shop in the shop window. The art director of a specific wing of the Salone Internazionale della Casa (now it’s called HOMI) in Milan happened to walk past it and, blown away by this beautifully curated space and the creations inside, proposed to Paola to take part in the forthcoming edition of the fair, that coming September. Paola, still not accustomed to the world of fairs, initially thought the lady had invited her to attend as a visitor and not as an exhibitor! However, once the misunderstanding was clarified, Paola gladly accepted and decided to focus her efforts on the Spicy Collection, both refining and increasing it. September came and the fair was so successful that Paola returned home with 90 orders for shops all over the world and many journalists and bloggers dying to interview this emerging talent.
Back in Fano there was plenty to do, including contracting couriers, defining packaging and hiring an assistant to help with the huge amount of work ahead. From that moment onwards and for many years ahead her scented pastries would travel from Fano around the whole world. Meanwhile, Paola continued to take part in a number of fairs after that first one, in Italy and overseas.
Over the course of five years, during which time the Spicy Collection was expanded, reinvented and refined, Paola’s creativity started to suffer, that dreaded sense of routine came back and the urge to design something new emerged. Paola started to think of a new creation that, unlike her famous pastries that had been made to stay indoors, she wanted to design something that could be proudly worn outside. Of course, the perfect item to do just that would be a brooch, and incidentally it was also a much loved accessory, already adorned regularly by Paola herself. Another urge she had was to somehow tell a story. Paola frantically started researching great women of the past. It was then that she came across Nellie Bly, the world’s first investigative journalist. Nellie Bly was a role model of emancipation and resilience, a woman that at the end of the Nineteenth Century got a job in a factory to report on the workers’ conditions and pretended to be mad in order to be interned in an asylum to then unveil the conditions of the patients locked in there. But it was one story in particular that made Paola fall hopelessly in love with this courageous woman, leaving her no choice but to choose her as the protagonist of her brooches. Nellie Bly made a bet with her editor-in-chief that she would be able to take a trip around the world in fewer than 80 days, thus beating the fictional character Phileas Fogg. It so happened that in 1885, a woman, alone with but a few personal belongings managed to tour the world in 72 days. When Paola learnt of this story she had no doubt that a brooch would honour the intrepid journalist, it would be named after her and be inspired by travelling.
The design of Nellie’s face was entrusted to illustrator Dora Creminati, an old time academy friend of Paola’s, while Paola took care of the remaining graphics using India ink so that the finished object would retain some degree of an artisanal vibe. Paola romantically dreamed that the women who wore her brooch would acquire some of Nellie Bly’s strength and that, having this great lady near their hearts, they would feel less lonely and more determined, strong and stubborn like Nellie the journalist.
Paola presented the Nellie brooch to the fair of Paris and, once again, its success was huge. Of course, as the story goes, Paola did not realise that storytelling would be another emerging trend and once more, her intuition turned out to be correct and created a storytelling jewel, her “narrative jewel”.
Her collections are indeed inspired by travelling, carrying suitably travel-centric names, such as Subway, the Italian Grand Tour, Trip to the Tropics, Nellie at the edge of the World, Trip into the Botanic World and The Silk Road, in addition to a special wedding collection.
Knowing Paola and her recurring need of change, I do wonder what will follow on from her iconic brooches. Nellie has certainly many places to see and many stories still to tell. What’s more, many women are still yet to discover her, so I believe her time has not yet come.
The only certainty right now is that Rosso Cuore as a shop/workshop will not close and become a solely online business. Despite the Covid-crisis, which has pushed many artisans to renounce their shops to only sell their products exclusively online, Paola firmly believes in the need to have a physical space to work in and meet people, where one can unleash creativity but also shut the door when necessary. Paola is not the only one to need a place like this. Curious visitors like myself need places like Rosso Cuore. We need them in order to enjoy the beauty of creativity and to learn of stories like that of Nellie. Of course, these are hard times, but Paola’s 13 years on tour with theatre productions turned out to be a useful asset during the 2020 crisis. The theatre taught Paola to withstand constant unpredictability, develop a strong work ethic and to keep going and carry on during times of hardship. That is because, when you are on tour, the show must go on whatever the situation and at any cost, so every unexpected event, no matter how big or small, must be dealt with, because the curtain will open regardless of it.
And so, day after day and for many days ahead, Rosso Cuore’s shutters will continue to go up to reveal its stage, displaying the fantastic creations of one of Italy’s most talented artisans, and I personally cannot wait to read her next script.
Rosso Cuore is located in Via Cavallotti 14, Fano (PU), Le Marche, Italy. Please contact Paola at info@rossocuore.it to book an appointment.
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Photos by Vanessa Illi