A bag can be much more than what it shows. It can hold objects, gestures, memories, and a part of the person who carries it. It is from this idea that Seilati is born, a brand of handmade bags made in Italy founded by Patrizia Almonti, an artist and designer with experience in the world of porcelain and a passion for fashion that has always accompanied her. The project arises from the encounter between art, material, and design and takes shape through an essential, intimate, and conscious language.
The debut is entrusted to Iconica, the brand’s first model. A rigorous, almost architectural silhouette, built around the hexagon, the distinctive sign of Seilati, which once opened reveals an interior made of color, design, and illustration. The linings, born from Almonti’s artistic research, thus become a private surprise, while leathers, colors, closures, and proportions allow for the creation of a personal bag. Handcrafted in Italy and produced on request or in limited quantities, Iconica tells an idea of luxury linked to choice, care, and the time needed to create something destined to last.
Where does Seilati come from? What was the intuition that led you to create a new brand of bags and how much of your story is in the project today?
Seilati comes from the encounter between my artistic research and a passion for fashion that has always accompanied me. In working with porcelain, I developed a great attention to detail and, above all, the desire to question the limits of the material. For years, I tried to make mobile what we naturally imagine as fragile and static, making it interact with wood, metals, furnishings, and installations. Fashion, on the other hand, I have always experienced as a form of personal expression, not as something to follow. The bag arrived at the meeting point between these two worlds: an object to be designed with precision, but then destined to become part of someone’s life.
Does the name Seilati have a special meaning?
Seilati comes from a linguistic and symbolic thought. The root is the number six, hence the hexagon: a perfect shape that encloses balance, rationality, and nature, which we also find in the structure of the beehive. However, in the name, there are also other meanings: “sei la” as presence and “sei” as relationship and belonging. We chose it precisely for this ambiguity, for its musicality, and for its ability to evoke without explaining everything. The hexagon then became one of the brand’s symbols and also returns in the design of Iconica.
You speak of the bag as an object capable of preserving memory. What does it mean to you?
I think of a mother’s or grandmother’s bag. Of those objects that, when you find them, seem to preserve something of the person who carried them. A bag lives continuously between a public and a private dimension. It is part of how we present ourselves to others, but inside it holds small and intimate things: a scented handkerchief, a lipstick, a candy for a child. Over time, it also collects other things: travels, days, people, moments. For me, preserving memory means this: creating something that can withstand time together with the person who carries it.
Iconica is the brand’s first model. Why did you choose to start with this bag?
For me, the bag is a very special object: it is visible to others but it holds a private part of our life. In few accessories identity and intimacy coexist so clearly. That’s why I wanted to start with a shape with a precise character. Iconica is born from the hexagon as a principle of natural balance, translated into an essential, modern, almost architectural language. It has a rigorous line, with a hint of retro, but an immediately recognizable presence. Then it opens and changes register. The lining brings color, design, and art into a part of the bag that belongs above all to the one who owns it, almost a small private gift. This contrast between what is shown and what is preserved is perhaps the trait that best tells Seilati.
Personalization and waiting are two key words of the project. How important is it today to be able to choose how your object will be?
Personalization for us is part of a broader idea: to bring value back to the choice and quality of the object. With Iconica, you choose size, closure, leather, lining, and monogram. Only after that, the bag is made. We are also interested in recovering the sense of a right wait: the time needed for something to be done well and for you. A bit like it used to be with a tailor-made dress when you first chose and then waited for that object to take shape. In a world accustomed to immediate availability, even this time regains value. Choosing a Seilati is therefore not just a simple purchase, but giving yourself an experience.
The illustrated linings are one of the most surprising elements of Iconica. How did this idea come about?
The linings are directly part of my artistic direction for Seilati and stem from my previous path. Some designs are recent, others derive from works created over the years. The choice to bring them inside was deliberate. Outside, I wanted a clean and controlled form. Inside, I could leave more space for color, line, imagination. And I like that this part is not immediately visible. It is only discovered by opening the bag and belongs first and foremost to the one who chooses it.
The hexagonal brass zipper took over two years to develop. How complex was it to transform Iconica from idea to finished product?
It was a long and difficult process because we chose not to adapt the project to existing solutions when they were not the right ones. The hexagonal zipper is the most obvious example: a 360-degree zipper in gold-plated brass, designed specifically for Seilati and developed through over two years of trials and corrections. The same approach concerned the thermoformed structure, proportions, and many construction aspects. For me, quality mainly arises from attention to every element, even the smallest one.
What future do you envision for Seilati?
I would like Seilati to bring back the value of a well-thought-out and well-made object. An object that does not arise to follow the pace of a season, but to have its own identity, last over time, and become personal through those who choose it. I imagine the future of the brand like this: a few products, developed when there is truly something to add, with the same attention to form, materials, construction, and the possibility of making them one’s own. I would like Seilati to be recognizable without the need to show off. To have character, but always leave space for the person wearing it. Because in the end, for me, refinement is never in the object itself, but always in the encounter between that object and the one who chooses it.
