L’enfant terrible of the accessories world, Natalia Brilli’s mission is to take leather and restore the nobility of this “incredible and paradoxical material”. And doing so by straddling the worlds of the unusual and the outcast; refined luxury and elegance. She is a self described mix of two cultures ” from the north (Belgium) , I inherited a ghostly, dark and surreal spirit, associated with a mix of glamour, and from the south (Italy), inherited a cultivated and aesthetic elegance”.
Using a technique she found from the 1930’s, which covered decorative pieces with leather, she adapted this into her own process, which she named “sheathing”. This being a symbiotic relationship with leather, she takes objects that have been fetished, or worshiped, such as pearl necklaces,skateboards, credit cards and domino’s, and transforms them down to their bare bones. This is a time intensive process demanding patience and meticulous craftsmanship ( pieces can take up to 4 days).
The leather is tanned in a very specific manner, “a secret ” and through this technique the worshiped object becomes ” monochromatic, transcending to one dimension, the superfluous disappears, leaving only beauty.”
Talismans are central to Brilli’s work. ” Unconscious remains of magical mentality linked to the sacred animal is a rather epic notion in all my work , all my collections tell a story, a myth, a legend.”
