I know that videos are not very appreciated here on Substack. But for the kind of work that I do and the message I want to pass, they are a powerful tool.

I think it’s important to slow down and appreciate how long it takes for things to be made, with no editing for social media.

We as a society are so disconnected from each other that we don’t see the labour behind what we have around us: the food on our tables, the clothing we wear and the different art mediums we consume. The ideas of time and value are lost.

Everything is instant to us.

And with the rise of AI, the tendency is to get worse.

I have been working on this shirt collar for quite some time now (as I mentioned here), and it has been very satisfying to see how it’s unfolding.

So I hope this gives you a small glimpse on the unseen work behind everything.

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Cotton threads, 
on a bamboo cloth, 
and a thousand French knots. 

By blessed Starlight 
made manifest,
from Heaven to Earth,
in perfect marriage,
align my souls,
with cosmic wonders 
from above
descending,
to kiss the soil of my heart
where the Garden of Eros 
shall grow.

- A prayer 

Almost four years ago, I had just moved to Milan, started a new job (the first one after the pandemic), and really got into my spiritual practice.
I started paying more attention to my diet and lifestyle, getting back to my ballet classes, and tried to dedicate more time to my creative work. Anyway, there was a feeling of renewal and promise, combined with the colors and perfumes of spring, just like this year.

At that time, it had already been quite a while since I had worked on a project. The first one was my graduation collection in 2019 (mentioned here), and the second was an experiment during the lockdown (briefly mentioned here). So I was feeling the creative impulse again, to start something new. Something that reflected the beauty of spring and the promise of a new life.

The fact that I’m writing this in 2026 may already tell you that things didn’t go as I had planned back then...
From 2022 to 2025, many things happened: a big business trip that sent me to live in Paris for six months, being hospitalised three times and coming close to death, initiations and elevations, buying a new house and moving again, and many more “smaller” situations that made me put this project on hold. Even though, from time to time, especially between 2024 and 2025, I managed to nurture this project into something that I now see as concrete enough to be shown, at least as a work in progress.

Who for thy sake would give their manlihood
And consecrate their being; I at least
Have done so, made thy lips my daily food,
And in thy temples found a goodlier feast
Than this starved age can give me, spite of all
Its new-found creeds so sceptical and so dogmatical.

It all started with this poem by Oscar Wilde, The Garden of Eros.
The homoerotic undertones of his writing, describing the blooming of spring, were the seed that inspired this project, as they resonated quite a lot with my life experiences back then. The cultural context surrounding Oscar Wilde was also relevant to me: the ultimate dandy, involved with the Aesthetic Movement, the importance given to beauty and craft, and his influence on menswear. His style is a celebration of refined classical suits, carefully crafted, but always with what I think of as a “queer twist.”

The Fair Folk were also an inspiration.
In folklore, they are usually represented with regal and aristocratic clothing, rather than the “hippie dresses” commonly associated with pop culture representations of nature spirits today. They were dressed as lords and ladies, princes and princesses of the Otherworld.

So I wanted a menswear collection based on:

• soft tailoring

• a reflection on Wilde’s colorful and homoerotic representation of spring

• a highlight on craft

• an otherworldly vibe

This a holistic project, as it’s connected to a poetry collection I’m writing (with some poems already published here), and a series of embroidery art pieces.
So in the end, the whole project should be quite big (at least big enough for me, as an independent artist with a full-time job to balance).

I really can’t give any estimate on when it will be ready.
But I can show you the garden being planted, and its flowers growing...

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The collar

The first step of this collection was starting to work on this embroidered collar.
This was the very first thing I started back in 2023 and had to stop many times, due to hospitalisations, house moves, etc.

As you can imagine, it’s a very slow process, with many tiny French knots covering its surface. I’m using a bamboo fabric as a base, and cotton fabric to create this flowering effect. I wanted to create a “flower bed,” and it would be beautiful to cover a bigger surface than a collar, but for now I’m focusing on this small detail to see how it goes (working on it in breaks over three years definitely didn’t help).

When finished, this shirt will be part of an outfit that I have not yet started making.

The suit

This is my favorite piece so far, and also the first one to be completed.
I found this beautiful curtain fabric at a flea market in Milan and immediately thought it would fit my collection: the colors, the patterns, and its antique nature were distinctly “Garden of Eros” to me.

I started working on a classical suit with it, changing the trousers to make them oversized. The challenge was figuring out how to cut the fabric without ruining its pattern, and making sure it matched while assembling the garment. I tried to work with invisible stitches so I wouldn’t ruin the pattern. I wanted the fabric to look pristine even when the whole suit was finished.

Regarding the composition, the seller told me it was linen.
Quite frankly, I doubt that very much.
But as an upcycled fabric, I can accept it...

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The (second) suit

While with the first suit I changed the proportions of the trousers, with this one I decided to change the top. Instead of a classical jacket, I repurposed a bolero jacket that I had already made during the pandemic.

I made this jacket with a very structured and rustic hemp fabric, and I had many meters of this fabric left at home (I still do, actually). I still want to update the embroidery so it’s more in line with the color palette of this collection.

At that same flea market, I found another beautiful fabric that I wanted to use, as I felt it reflected the idea of the Garden. Based on the bolero, I made a pair of trousers in the same fabric to create the suit, keeping a classical shape, and added pocket details using the other upcycled fabric.

Since I thought the fabric was too beautiful to be limited to a small pocket decoration, I decided to make it a three-piece suit (technically not a suit because it’s not all made from the same fabric, but whatever...), adding a waistcoat to unify the bolero and the trousers.

Also, the buttons I used for this suit are my absolute favorite.

So, I have embroideries to finish and other pieces to sew, but slowly, the Garden of Eros keeps growing...

In the meantime, here you can check out other pieces of my work related to this project, until the whole garden blooms.

from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

As I already said it here, It may be a bit pretentious to start this piece with a Darwin quote, specially when it’s about something ‘serious’ as fashion and clothing, but I’m fascinated by the idea of metamorphosis that it evokes to me: Fibers and raw materials being transformed into woven textiles, that in turn, will be used as pieces to cover and transform our image into how we want to be perceived.

Before I started fashion school, my knowledge and consumption of clothing was done with basically no reflection on materials, construction and labor. I would wear cotton or polyester, and never understand why the Brazilian heat was hotter and more unbearable every time I had the later on my body. I also didn’t care about what cotton I was wearing, the tinctures used, and how it was cultivated. Which is normal, as people outside of an industry are not obliged to know its technicalities in extensive detail. Things obviously changed when I started to research more about different textiles and fibers, either for my own creations or for buying new pieces.

Hemp was the first one to get my attention, probably because back then it was a completely new finding for me. It sounded like a miraculous fiber when I first heard about it: A durable and resistant fiber and yet, it softens with use, improves soil health and requires less water and no pesticides for cultivation, it’s UV resistant, breathable and naturally antimicrobial and hypoallergenic. I also loved the aesthetic of it. Raw, a bit wrinkly and soft.

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Bamboo was the second big one that I got into. It’s also breathable, antimicrobial, hypoallergenic and UV resistant. But different from hemp, it looks much more refined and sophisticated as a fabric in my opinion. Sometimes it can get closer to silk, although it still wrinkles depending on where and how you wear it. What sets me back with bamboo is that although the fiber in itself is sustainable and has health benefits, it can be produced in a way that requires a lot of resources and produces a lot of waste. It’s still better than regular cotton and polyester, but it requires more research if one is looking for the most sustainable option.

Nettle soon came to my radar too, with very similar properties as hemp, but it has more strength and durability, it’s fast growing. In my opinion, at least by the fabrics I could find, I also think that nettle looks and feels more sophisticated and refined in comparison to hemp. Its a very versatile fiber. I once made a cardigan with a nettle jersey fabric and it’s quite warm, but I also worked with lightweight and almost transparent nettle woven textiles.

These three fibers were giving me the excitement of discovery, and still are the ‘shinning things’ that I look for when I want to star a new project or get a new piece. But when I think about mainstream availability, there are indeed better options for people who are not really into fashion, or that don’t want to spend much time researching about fabrics:

Linen has all the properties of hemp and nettle. It’s perfect for summer as it absorbs and dries moist quickly, and as it has a low elasticity, it also has the rustic and wrinkly aesthetic of hemp. It’s by far one of the most available and affordable sustainable fibers for sewists, fiber artists, designers and consumers. Last summer I had the opportunity to visit Belfast, which has a rich history as a linen capital and wrote about it here.

Organic cotton is a tricky one. The advantage is that it doesn’t require the use of pesticides and other toxic substances, and it’s also relatively easy to find. But in terms of water and land usage, there is no difference from regular cotton. Regenerative cotton might be the most sustainable option, growing the fiber with practices that improve soil health and biodiversity. But for the sake of transparency, I must say that I couldn’t find any fabric made of regenerative cotton yet. Maybe I have to make more research about it, or if there is a company that sells it near me.

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But besides being environmentally friendly and having many benefits to the human body, another aspect of natural fabrics that I’m obsessed with, is how serene they look. Something that I believe to be truly beautiful.

There are many sustainable ways to dye a fabric, but I just love this clean slate visual that they have in their natural form. A sense of softness that doesn’t disrupts. A calmness when you gaze at them, and how it feels when they touch your skin. I like to use small embroidery and fabric manipulations as a form of decoration, but never too much, in order to keep this otherworldly purity.

It may sound exaggerated, but having this sort of connection to what you consume is also a way to reduce unnecessary waste. Sustainability is not only about the most optimal and innovative material, but a change in mindset: It’s when we ask ourselves why we need something, and what it means to us, and then everything has more depth and intention. Is a way of self reflection, and really paying attention to your thoughts and needs. It’s a way to consecrate your life, to make it holy and connect yourself to the environment around.

When I started to dress with the forest 
We were together as one. 
I returned a body to dust 
and earth
In a weaving of (re)connection,
Of a thousand fingers
Who threaded every fiber.

“Scent,
seducing.
So sweet is He.
His pink skin calling unto me.
And then I was one with Him,
when the Garden was growing
on my wrists,
and my veins burning
In purest fire.
When I laid back in the bed
of Hyacinths and Dandelions.
My hands were His,
and He touched myself
with blessed and soft fingers.
Possessed in ecstasy so high,
to bring forth
the brightest starlight.”

This was my very first post on Substack, and the beginning of a cozy and stimulating journey on the social media landscape.

It was also the first post of a series that I desperately need to update: Queer Folklore. As I mentioned in my post, this embroidery was inspired by the myth and Dionysos and Prosymnus, and how the Fig may be related to queerness and desire.

The embroidery is made with cotton thread on a linen cloth, that was later used as a pocket for a Linen over shirt also made by myself. Not before being properly consecrated on my Shrine to Antinous-Dionysos.

It’s passing the thread through the needle with patience.

It’s hand-stitching calmly and carefully,

It’s to feel and manipulate the fabric, the textures

and remind yourself from where those fibers came

It’s loving the creative process made manifest

by your own hands or by others,

and find community in the knowledge

everything you own and make,

in one way or another,

needed to pass through the hands of hundreds of people,

from the simple natural elements of the Great Mother,

to the thread and fabric you stitch

to bless your body.

More at: A Slow fashion fairy tale

"A story told in a dream

About the boy who was taken,

Covered by the purest threads.

A tale about the Boy and the Fairy Prince."

This project was the end of a long and complicated journey, and the beginning of a never ending story that I bound myself to tell.

I graduated from fashion school six years ago, and by the end of my third year, when I was supposed to design and produce my final collection, I was completed disenchanted by where I was and what I was doing. My mental health struggles didn’t allow me to follow the course as I wanted, and the whole fashion environment was making me doubt my career of choice.

So I asked myself: “How can I finally end this, without throwing away all the time and money spent for this course?”

And I found two guiding principles that I used during this process, and that I wanted to manifest into the world through my work:

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Slow Fashion -

“A movement that seeks to slow down the current fast paced routine of the fashion industry. That seeks to promote craftsmanship, respect for the people and the environment, and artistic and self expression over trends and over-consumption.”

I started with fashion school after a year of studying Art History in Florence.

I had a passion for costume and fabrics, and felt the need to do something more practical than just the study of the history of art. But I must confess that I didn’t know anything about fashion and how the industry actually works.

I threw myself into a place of over-production, marketing-induced mental health issues, harmful standards and stereotypes and a complete disregard for the impact we have in the environment. So I wanted my work to be the opposite of that.

What is slow fashion to me?:

It’s passing the thread through the needle with patience.

It’s hand-stitching calmly and carefully,

It’s to feel and manipulate the fabric, the textures

and remind yourself from where those fibers came

It’s loving the creative process made manifest

by your own hands or by others,

and find community in the knowledge

everything you own and make,

in one way or another,

needed to pass through the hands of hundreds of people,

from the simple natural elements of the Great Mother,

to the thread and fabric you stitch

to bless your body.

And at the risk of sounding pretentious, this quote from Darwin (that also inspired an album of my favorite band), even though he was talking about evolution and a completely different subject, to me it summarizes the creative power of transformation we have in our hands:

As I said, it may sound pretentious to relate this quote to just “making clothes”, as nowadays craftsmanship is not valued, and fashion as whole is considered to be vein and non-important by the majority of people.

But it’s part of our history and our development in the world, as we are a species of ‘crafters’. It’s part of our cultural heritage, on how we study the past and also it’s how many communities still pass their tradition to the generation to come. It’s also an act of resistance against the mindless production and consumption present in our culture since the industrial revolution.

Crafting is a powerful thing, and I like to highlight the grandeur of it.

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A walk into Faerie-

I needed a source of inspiration that wasn’t a reflection of the “trend’s forecasting” mentality that was pushed during the lessons.

Maybe it’s not the best ‘business plan’ to focus most of my art on spirituality, since it was my career of choice, and faith and religion are touchy subjects to a lot of people. But I couldn’t do something that is not ‘me’, as narcissistic as it may sound…

During the time of my graduation I wasn’t initiated and ordained as Priest yet, but Spirituality always had a considerate space in my life. I was used to write poetry and do other forms of creative media to put out my experiences with meditation and trance work.

An attempt to manifest glimpses of the other side through my work.

This process of making art based on spiritual experiences is actually quite common among other Witches, regardless of initiations and different traditions.

We are a community of artists, writers, performers and seekers of Beauty.

So if I wanted to escape the industry’s mentality, it was only natural to look for what was already a big part of my life.

Most of the process came from meditation, prayer and offerings in the altar of the Gods, but also by looking into the work of other artists, who even though might not have a spiritual element to it, were inspired by the same folklore and legends that are the basis of Neo-paganism today.

I remember that Loreena McKennitt’s interpretation of ‘Stolen Child’ by W.B Yeats, and the work of Brian Froud, with his illustrations and oracles of the world of faerie were very influential to me.

“Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.”

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And so, that’s how my graduation collection came to be.

A collection Inspired by the imperfection and asymmetry of nature, using linen as the most important element and handcrafted modifications, creating textures and shapes through the fabrics.

I look at them now, and can see a lot of imperfections and techniques that were not well executed.

But I also see the progress I made during my 3 years of study, what I can do now after 6 years of graduation, and all the journey I need to continue, to learn and practice things that are not yet part of my skills.

It’s an old collection, and I didn’t produce that much during this time (especially during the pandemic). But that collection set the tone for all of my creative work, and sometimes I still use the old patterns for new creations.

And that is the whole point of being Slow…

Queer folklore is a series that explores the themes of queerness and homoeroticism in mythology, folklore and fairy tales as a source of inspiration for my creative work within the mediums of textile art, embroidery, fashion and poetry.

This piece is about the story of Antinous and the pink lotus, and its importance in the construction of Antinous as a Deity. Inspiring a devotional embroidered image and a poem.

The Lion Hunt Papyrus

And swifter than the horse of Adrastus
Which once saved the king as he fled...in battle-throng.
Such was the steed whereon Antinous sat in wait for the deadly lion,
Holding in his left hand the bridle-rein
And in his right a spear shod with adamant.
First Hadrian his brass fitted spear wounded the beast
But slew him not, for of purpose he missed the mark,
Wishing to test to the full the sureness of aim
Of his beauteous Antinous, son of the Argus-slayer.
Stricken, the beast was yet more aroused,
And tore up in his wrath the rough ground with his paws,
And dust rising in a cloud dimmed the light of the sun.
He raged even as the wave of the surging sea
When Zephyrus is stirred forth after the wind of Strumon.
Straight he rushed upon them both,
Scourging with his tail, his haunches and sides
While his eyes, beneath his brows, flashed dreadful fire;
And from his ravening jaws the foam showered to the earth
As his teeth gnashed within.
On his mighty head and shaggy neck the hair stood bristling.
On his limbs it was bushy as trees,
And on his back...it was like whetted spear points.
In such wise he came against the glorious god, upon Antinous
Like Typhoeus of old against Zeus, slayer of giants...

Contemporary translation by the Hollywood Temple of Antinous

The poem was written by the Greco-Egyptian poet and magician Pankrates after the death of Antinous, the favorite companion of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. And it serves as an epic tale about a common theme on the few accounts about their time together: The hunt.

As the story tells, in one of their hunting activities, Antinous risked his life by facing a man-eating lion, and would have been killed without Hadrian’s intervention. The poem turns into a mythological tale on how the miracle of the pink lotus came to be, blooming from the blood of the lion slayed by Hadrian. Some say it was an attempt to give mythological legitimacy to the new cult of Antinous, officialised and promoted by the Emperor,

For a small community of contemporary Antinoan followers, the pink lotus became a symbol of bravery, and a reminder of our own mortality when we must face danger. But also a symbol of the miracle that can grow from hardship, fulfilling the main aspect of the Antinoan cultus: The promise of rebirth and eternal life after death.

The pink lotus is to me, one of the many aspects that relates Antinous to the growth of life and to the blooming of springtime. An idea that I wanted to represent in my work: An altar to his image, surrounded by his holy garden.

Reference: The bust of Mondragone is now in the Louvre, and is believed to have been made for religious purposes, as part of the established religion of Antinous. The passages are from the Pincio Obelisk, also known as the Obelisk of Antinous. It was commissioned by Hadrian for the tomb of Antinous (and now it's at the Pincio hill gardens, in Rome). The Obelisk describes in some detail, elements of the worship of Antinous

Work in progress

Antinous Asterion

A poem:

In this Garden of the Gods
There is a memory
that walked the Earth 
I walk, and live.
A memory with 
hands of once flesh
and now, Stardust.
A face that once
Imperial eyes gazed,
where beauty eternal 
is now the moon above.
Whose body 
sculpted, 
with perfect 
flesh and skin,
now laying 
in the pyramid 
of infinity. 
A memory of blood
spilt, turned
into seeds for 
the lotus 
In its crown 
of Divinity. 

There is a memory here
of serene Beauty,
And perfumed 
glowing curls.
of eyes, 
in melancholy 
and peace.
A memory 
of surrender and sacrifice,
and everlasting life
that unites human 
and Divine. 

A memory
whose name echos 
the constellations. 
Whose flesh unites 
The Flower and The Sun.

Our Lord 
of the neverending Stars

- Love is One, and One is All