Nena Officina Creativa, Enchanting Enchantress (Umbria)
Introducing Nena’s place - Courtesy Nena Officina Creativa
An unlikely beginning
Nena Officina Creativa opened its doors on December 1st, 2020, amidst the turbulence of the pandemic. Three weeks later, Umbria ordered retailers to close throughout the Christmas and New Year period – however it was not in Monia Sturiale’s attitude to give up at the first challenge. Throughout the months preceding the opening, she had worked tirelessly night and day at home creating her first Christmas decorations collection, cutting, sewing, assembling, discarding unsatisfactory designs, and then starting over again. Monia was no stranger to hard work and least of all to the trials and iterations required in the creative process, having previously fashioned custom-made bandboxes for vintage hats and the likes. Monia was also overcoming a personal loss, and the fulfillment of this project was to be her remedy by bringing solace and some form of peaceful outlet to her grief. She persevered, and today, Nena Officina Creativa is a blossoming business with a reputation for originality and quality.
“One of the gifts of creativity is that it allows you to mine from your wounds as much as your joys and actually alchemize your pain into beauty.”
Family is an omni-present theme in her modus operandi. She partnered with her husband and daughter to set up shop. Her daughter handles her marketing platforms. Even the brand’s name is in homage to a cherished family member: “Nena” is none other than the nickname for Monia’s grandmother “Nazzarena”, to whom she was extremely attached.
A unique brand promise
When asked what triggered it all, Monia declares her starting point was to personally create bespoke pieces using all sorts of natural resources. “For me”, she says, “everything can be used to make something. I mix many materials: silk, fabric, rope, hats. The stones that are for example in these necklaces are all real stones: coral, turquoise, onyx, mother of pearl and baroque pearl.” No two pieces are alike, which underpins the very essence of Monia’s approach: uniqueness. In fact, so spontaneous is her creative process that she never draws anything on paper; the design simply comes to life in her hands, taking shape as her inspiration sprouts, depending on the mood of the day – and making replication highly unlikely. “My customers know this and love my shop for this reason: they find their own gem, exclusively made for them”.
One-of-a-kind necklaces
Nena Officina Creativa’s products range from jewelry to accessories such as bags and cushions. I am amazed at the sheer variety of creations – which she fashions completely and utterly on her own. I ask her why. “Because no one can get inside my head at the exact moment when the creation is born”. There is no brief, no formula, no project plan, no mock-up. Her pieces are unusual and a testimony to imagination and resourcefulness. Monia mentions that she has no formal design training, yet her considerable arts & crafts and sewing skillset, manual dexterity and ingenious approach make her a true “craftsmith” in her own right. She even creates her own tools to support her in the manufacturing process.
“How does inspiration come to you?”, I ask. Monia is very clear about not chasing after stimulus. “I see something I like in the street, I buy it. I don’t know as yet what I will do with it, but I know I will use it to create something.” There’s nothing linear about her approach. “At night, I think about what I will create in the day”, she concludes.
I gaze at her workplace, her creative hub, taking it all in . “How long does it take for you to string a necklace for example?” I question. “I’m a firm believer that the more I make, the more I master what I do,” she points out. “Since I produce all items myself, I have no time to spare. These necklets take me half an hour to forty minutes. I’ve become very quick and efficient. ”
Monia is constantly in touch with her target audience since her boutique is also the setting for her atelier. She literally works round the clock, designing, selling, and chatting to customers throughout the day. I question whether she has a particular customer target in mind when working. “I imagine her as someone simple, down-to-earth, and humble. A bit like me! My design must appeal to me, if it doesn’t, I can’t make it appeal to others,” she declares candidly. “I don’t need 100 customers to enter, just those two to three important ones. I focus on quality, not on quantity.”
✨ BRANDING INSIGHT
There is certainly mastery in repetition - and yet despite the reiterated movements, there is no duplication. Each output is individual. In such a consuming labor of love, there are bound to be differences and inconsistencies. I will go as far as saying that handicraft is the only form that can truly celebrate discrepancy. That’s what makes it so interesting at a branding level. Over the past two decades, us brand professionals have been pushing for a consistent “brand language” in an effort to drive brand recognition and ultimately propel value and sales. How does that work for a local artisan brand like Nena Officina Creativa, whose equity lies in its freedom of expression, of creation? How do you brand what keeps changing? Or can you brand the very idea of freedom by becoming “the brand that creates singular pieces each and every time”?
The atelier
A labor of love & a love of labor
Monia collaborates with everything around her, from the luxurious to the most mundane. To illustrate her take on luxury, she shows me a quirky Burberry-pattern canvas tote bag (using original material) niftily encased within a bright green rope weave. "Reproducing this would be tricky, even I don’t know exactly how I made it”, she jokes good-naturedly. It took 48 meters of trimmings to produce the quasi-symmetrical knots. She constructed a wooden frame, added hooks across the top end and drew a couple of guides by pencil, thereby creating a tool to assist her with the arduous knotting process. Ingenious to say the very least.
Burberry-pattern tote bag & others
Wooden frame to support knotting process
Courtesy Nena Officina Creativa
Various types of bags are dispersed around the boutique. In the left corner, I see a set of elaborate clutch bags made of what looks like natural silk in a luminous bronze shade. They are handmade and seamless. The wrist version is particularly alluring. To the right sits another creation entirely made up of thinner salmon Thai rope. Again, impeccably handcrafted.
Each and every piece is cleverly put together: fabric-wrapped polystyrene balls create long colorful “sautoirs”, while others use wine corks and leather cuttings. The creations are cheerful and weightless. There is no use of plastic and hardly any metallic material.
Monia shows me a tube-like presentation rack, which is in fact a kitchen paper roll wrapped in cloth. “Everything, everything can be re-used”, she emphasizes proudly. She sources pretty much everything locally, making her carbon footprint virtually inexistent and lending her “Made in Italy” classification.
As we tour the shop, she grins mischievously and reveals: “There is a secret to all this. I must be in a good mood and happy enough [to create]”. Bad moments are a barrier to productivity. “In fact, when it’s like that, I send my husband here and I stay home!,” she jests, but I can tell she is fiercely protective of her little piece of paradise, which she has cleverly tagged “#unmondofelice” (a happy world).
Monia’s husband is Giuseppe Borriello, a Master artisan of shell cameo cutting from Torre del Greco, Naples. Giuseppe divides his time between Terni and Torre del Greco where he owns a cameo manufacture. He engraves the shell cameos while Monia sets them as exquisite pieces of jewelry. This creative partnership is the only one of its kind in Umbria, so when Monia suggested that I meet Giuseppe, I jumped on the incredible opportunity of learning about such a rare craft. I’ve included a selection of impressive pieces in this blog post, but to find out more, visit my upcoming post due out next week.
The enchanted forest
The location Monia selected for Nena Officina Creativa is nothing short of captivating. Whitewash stones and high ceilings combined with vertical arches create truly alluring architecture. The space feels like a modern grotto bathed in incredible lighting. There is such positive energy to this special place, no wonder creativity is flowing. Monia relocated from her original boutique in June 2021. She picked this second home because of the arches, and although she had to give up a mezzanine floor and her 3 meter worktable, she considers this locale far superior. “Such an environment is truly suitable for what I do”, she says, gazing at the arches with admiration. “And lighting is fundamental”, she continues. “They say you should use cold lighting, but I hate cold light and have chosen warm lighting instead. Even for outside. In the evening, when I turn on the light, it illuminates the whole street.” She smiles and confidentially says: “When you enter you must be enlightened, you must have a warm environment around you, familiar and welcoming. And clearly you must have the attitude to match it when a customer enters. Even if they are from [the other side of the world] you must understand each other”. I concur entirely. When you enter Nena Officina Creativa, you are no longer in Terni. You are perhaps in an enchanted forest. Most certainly in a happy place.
The visual identity
Taking a step further into this world, I question Monia about the Nena logo. Here, Monia’s daughter Desiree Amato dutifully jumps in as the passionate brand advocate she is. I learn that the logo has been carefully thought through, seeking to strike a balance between visual aesthetics and symbolic meaning.
“The [robin’s egg blue] color essentially comes from my mother’s passion for the world of Tiffany”, she says, while Monia clasps her hands dramatically in agreement. “It sits at the crossroads between a Tiffany shade and the color of a pond.” Monia no doubt chose a darker tonality for a better contrast with the golden frame, an important element reflecting the diversity of materials she uses: a bow to both antique (“everything that could be vintage, ancient or precious”), and recycled (“in a world where we throw everything away, repurposing is certainly a plus”). Within the frame sit four hearts, “for my mother is an eternal romantic”. The juxtaposition of linear and rounded typefaces represents “the two aspects of the brand”: creative freedom and a creative workshop all in one.
I nod enthusiastically as I observe the rounded dots above the “i”: there is, in this choice, a graceful curtsy to the agelessness of inventing. In fact, there is a youthfulness and positivity about Monia that these elements capture beautifully – creativity is about being able to go from rough to sophisticated and back, with the freedom and downright courage to keep reinventing a piece, simply dedicating oneself to the endless process of shaping things with one’s own plain hands.
✨ BRANDING INSIGHT
Here I will digress a moment and pay respect to the power of color in storytelling. Tiffany adopted the iconic turquoise color over a century ago, officially trademarking it “1837 Blue” with Pantone in 2001. The story goes that the owner Charles Lewis Tiffany may have picked it because turquoise jewelry was in great demand back in the day. It became the official packaging color, and no one could ever put their hands on a Tiffany blue box if they hadn’t purchased a piece of jewelry from the store, thereby conferring to the box a status of its own in the Tiffany story. As per Tiffany’s website, “[Tiffany Blue®] is more than a color, it signifies something greater: it recalls the magic of Tiffany and the assurance that what comes out of a Tiffany Blue Box® will always bring joy”. This potent promise has crossed a continent, all the way to Terni, Umbria to influence and inspire a local artisan. For me, this is brand storytelling in all its glory. For a product may evolve, be replaced, or even disappear, but no one forgets a good story, and what it continues to conjure.
Of scent and sound
As we continue our tour and Monia points out a limited edition line of earrings she had produced for Valentine’s Day - and the “infinite heart” emblem they display - I ask her two questions pertaining to sensory branding. I always love what this part of an interview reveals about a brand, sometimes in hindsight.
“If Nena Officina Creativa was a scent, what would it be?” I query.
“My grandmother’s perfume, Gocce di Napoleone”, is the reply. “It was a sweet and spicy scent, it makes me think of her and the cosiness of winter when I was a child”. I marvel at how much it describes the soul of this boutique so many years later.
Gocce di Napoleon, by Morris
I subsequently research “Gocce di Napoleon” on Fragrantica and discover that it was “launched in 1979 and represents “the tears of Napoleon”. The fragrance opens with mandarin, bergamot, orange, lemon, peach and clary sage. The heart is filled with black currant, basil, jasmine, rose, lavender and pepper, while the base features oriental woody notes of incense, labdanum, myrrh, oakmoss, patchouli and musk.” Typically, citrusy notes are often associated with feelings of energy, while clary sage helps boost hope and self-confidence, and lavender is well known for easing the symptoms of anxiety and stress. On a branding level, this could translate into such brand values as vibrancy, generosity, and a better world, for example, which fully embraces the Nena concept.
“And if Nena Officina Creativa was a song, what would it be?” I continue.
“‘Every little thing she does is magic’, by The Police!” Monia beams as she responds. With this I agree wholeheartedly. Her nimble little fingers can fashion anything from anything. A magician, that she is.
Although the Nena Officina Creativa name is a little over two years old, it already has several elements that more established brands can only envy.
Monia’s incredible imagination and agility means that there is “fresh” merchandise on a weekly if not daily basis! This seemingly endless stream of new items means each visit is a discovery trip unto its own.
I often struggle with “authenticity” as one of the most selected words companies pick in branding sessions… And yet here is a case where action truly speaks louder than words. Everything about Nena Officina Creativa is genuine: from the unpretentiousness of the owner, to the precision of the craftsmanship, to the adherence to recycling principles. This is as real as it gets.
If you’ve ever visited Terni, you will notice the usual provincial stores and a couple of well-appointed and tastefully sampled shops. I have yet to come across any boutique showcasing its own bespoke creations and transporting you to a land of marvels in the process, as Nena Officina Creativa does.
As we conclude, I sit back and wonder what is it about owning something for which no duplicate exists? To know that such an item was created by an artist directly from the heart, and that all along it was undoubtedly meant for you, since you picked it. Or perhaps, did it pick you?
Nena Officina Creativa
Via del Tribunale 23
05100 Terni
Italy
Tel: +39 0744 615 149
Instagram: nenaofficinacreativa
Facebook: nenaofficinacreativa
