The designer who encourages beauty

May 29, 2021

Trama is an anagram of Marta, a name that links this young designer to the profound meaning of her story and all those she tells with flowers.

In the small workshop in her Milanese home, Marta #encouragesbeauty —as her motto states—by creating compositions with dried flowers for small and large occasions.

We decided to ask her to tell us about her adventure, full of passion and courage.

What do you do with dried flowers?

As a designer, I love to "create" using different materials.

With flowers, I mainly make arrangements for the home and for intimate family celebrations, such as bouquets and garlands for anniversaries, birthdays, and holidays.

But I also do arrangements for big occasions, mainly weddings, and in these cases, I treat dried flowers as if they were fresh.

Photo by Trama della Vita

Why did you choose to use dried flowers?

Because of their beauty and versatility, and also because I find it poetic to be able to preserve something that is usually thrown away when it wilts, as well as being a sustainable choice.

Although they are gradually gaining popularity, dried flowers are still little known and little used.

My research generally starts with fresh flowers and ends with dried flowers. I love to witness the entire process of drying flowers; I think it's a bit magical.

The technique I use is the classic "grandmother's method": I place them upside down, in the dark and in a dry place, so that the drying process is completely natural.

This hasn't always been your profession. Can you tell us where you started?

That's true, but I've always loved nature, thanks to my father who passed on his love of trees and plants to me.

I studied design and worked as a product designer in a startup: a career path that was perfectly in tune with my creativity and interests. However, after three years, the work experience came to an end and something clicked in me: if until then, I had jokingly said, "

I'm

going to be a florist," at that point I actually did it.

With the whole summer ahead of me, I decided to go to the Netherlands—where they have a very strong flower culture and an open-minded approach to work, dedicated to passing on knowledge with dispassionate willingness—and I offered my services to a flower shop, saying,"I don't know how to do anything, but I want to learn."

On the first day, I wrote down the names of all the flowers in the shop in my notebook, until I found myself riding a cargo bike around the city, making deliveries and buying flowers at the market.

When the summer was over, I had to choose between going back to work as a designer or continuing along this new path, so I continued working in other flower shops.

Photo by Trama della Vita

From that moment until you gave Starting your business What happened: how did you plan the change?

I love being active, and spending all day in the shop made me feel a bit restricted.

What's more, this profession is also bound by market rules that distance it from its original nature: florists have the task of creating something very important, conveying the noble and lasting feelings of their customers, celebrating an essential moment in their lives, together with their loved ones. This value is often lost in the compromises of commerce.

So I looked for a way to work with flowers that was entirely my own.

My business was born in the midst of the pandemic, so I used the online shop from the very beginning. I do everything myself in the workshop: from cleaning the fresh flowers to drying them, from creating the arrangements to delivering them.

What is your favorite dried flower?

Of all of them, I really love the little-known flowers that 'dance' or 'play music', such as flax, briza and chasmanthium. Just adding a few to an arrangement makes it even more intriguing and detailed.

Among the more well-known flowers, I have discovered through experimentation that dried irises are something special; they look like they came from a Van Gogh painting.

What are the next steps in your business, your projects in the pipeline, your dreams for the future?

At the moment, the "project" that keeps me busy every day is making Trama more and more concrete, trying to consolidate what I have built so far. For the future, however, I hope to devote myself more and more to designing decorations and accessories for "micro" weddings, designed to last and be preserved as precious memories.

When she is commissioned to create a new composition, there is a specific moment dedicated to listening. It is there that Marta enters the fabric of other people's lives, taking on the responsibility of recounting and celebrating them through her delicate work. This is, perhaps, the part she loves most.