A creative pursuit decades in the making.

Vianna & Co. was inspired by my grandmother, Vianna, who marched to the beat of her own drum long before it was cool to do so. A quintessential mid-1960s hipster, she lived in a bright orange house and drove a 1963 MG Spitfire. She was a seamstress, always creating garments on the cutting edge of fashion. She dressed stylishly, lived unapologetically, and loved to entertain.

Vianna was strong, independent, and courageous — in a world that didn’t often celebrate those qualities in a woman. I admired her deeply. The way she lived her life was inspiring — and I have to admit, sometimes a little bit intimidating. Today, her legacy and character inspire everything I create.

Like Vianna, I’ve always had the drive to create and have always had a project underway in the background. However, spending more than 25 years knee-deep in a corporate career left me little room for pursuits outside of work. In 2017, life events compelled me to leave my familiar, strenuous corporate existence for what I thought would only be a short break. I used this time to get back to the soul quenching activity of creating.

I began to flex my creative muscles. I sewed handbags and gave them away to friends. I bought a vintage dressform and designed a few coats. I also discovered metalsmithing — and began to forge different rings and jewelry out of silver and gold.

Eventually, people outside of my friends and family began to show interest in my creations. I found myself working on a larger scale to make my coats, bags, and jewelry available to more people. The seed of Vianna & Co. had taken root.

In 2009 I went to Africa for the first time. While I was there, I discovered and fell in love with mudcloth, a handmade cotton fabric that’s historically been dyed with fermented mud. Narrow strips of cloth are woven on narrow looms and stitched together to make larger pieces of fabric.

Cloth is dyed in a bath (traditionally made of mashed, boiled leaves) that turns the fabric yellow. Then the cloth is painted with a special mud that has been fermented for up to a year in a clay jar. A chemical reaction between the mud and the dyed fabric causes the brown color to permanently change the color of the fabric. Once dying is complete, the remaining yellow dye is washed out of the fabric, leaving unpainted sections their natural cotton color.

This long-ago trip and the inspiring discovery of this lovely textile was yet another seed taking root toward the creation of Vianna & Co.