Five years ago I was sitting in my room on a hot afternoon, looking out at the backyard in silence. I wasn’t sure what I was building yet. I just knew I wanted to make something authentic, something that had my name on it and meant it.

I grew up obsessed with old photographs. Especially the ones of my mum at my age, big hair, shoulder pads, glitter, completely herself. She worked in fashion her whole life and she dressed like she meant every single bit of it. That image never left me. Neither did the old 80s editorials I kept returning to, the softness, the light, the way everything was so considered. Nobody makes things with that kind of care anymore. I wanted to change that.

Forbidden Fruits came to me almost on instinct. And the moment I said the name, I saw a garden. A place with different rules. A place where the things you were told to tone down are exactly the things that are celebrated.
Every piece I design is slow and intentional, small batches, chosen fabrics, nothing accidental.

I design for the woman in her bedroom, alone, before anyone else sees her. I want the piece to find her there and just turn the volume up on what was already there. Not change her. Just make her more herself.

That’s why I started. Forbidden Fruits is a reminder that art begins in the body.

Giulia