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...
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...
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.
All lovely; I especially like the second suit!
Gorgeous work 🤍