________________________________________________________ About the designer, in her own words: I have a degree in art history with a focus in Italian Renaissance art, and a love affair with textiles. Perhaps this is why my eyes were always drawn to the gorgeously depicted velvet drapings in the paintings of the artists of that time period. Working with vintage cashmeres is something I truly love and enjoy every moment of. I hand-select each sweater based on quality (2-ply or more), style, and color. I find it invigorating to work with each vintage piece as each has inherent flaws to work around and with. It is a challenge I look forward to each time I pick one up. I incorporate Italian silk velvets, using embroidery, hand-beading and applique work. That is one of my other childhood loves-- raw silk and silk in its many forms and finishes. . . the texture and the raw edges. I even find the scent of raw silk to have a strangely comforting familiar smell that always makes me think of my niece, Rose--very strange, I know! Even more peculiar is the connection I recently uncovered while talking with my grandma about our Italian heritage. She shared with me that my great-grandma's parents were silk-worm farmers in northern Italy and that she lived and slept in the barn with the silk worms hanging over her each night. It is this connection and many others that enliven me, and lead me to believe I am exactly where I am supposed to be and doing what I am meant to do. If you're interested in hearing more please read on below. It is a collection of excerpts from a December 2006 article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, written by Cindy Bilhartz: "Fashion is such a fickle industry, we're such a throw-away society, and this makes me feel good," she says. "It's fashion, but it doesn't give me an empty feeling." "I come from a long line of women who would change things to make them new and fresh again," she says. Sertl's exquisite workmanship is a far cry from the doll clothes that she made as a child, using a stapler and fabric scraps that grandma Perina Pozzo would give her. Pozzo was a seamstress in a housecoat factory in downtown St. Louis during World War II. But it was Pozzo's mother, Sertl's great-grandmother Angelina, who provided the name not only for Sertl's daughter Giulina, 7, but also her blossoming cashmere business. Angelina, whose birth name was Giulina, emigrated from Italy to America during the early 20th century with a few meager possessions, and survived by being an avid recycler. Her first official step into fashion design began only four years ago, when she was talking to her sister about how strapped for cash she was because she's a stay-at-home mom. Her sister, being a fiber artist, understood this, and the two agreed to hand-make rather than buy Christmas gifts for each other. (check out the links page for my sister's website!) For years, Sertl had been collecting silk fabrics that she couldn't bear to cut up for fear she'd ruin them. Her sister had been telling her that it would be a bigger waste not to use them. So Sertl dug into her box of silks and made a patchwork scarf using the silk and scraps from velvet bridesmaid dresses, which she had no problem cutting up. Sertl also made scarves for friends and other relatives, who were so impressed with their gifts that they encouraged Sertl to shop them around to local boutiques to see whether they'd sell them for her. She did. Susan Lynn's in Chesterfield, bought three dozen,and Lusso in Clayton also began selling them. A short time later, Sertl's cousin, who works in the textile-recycling industry, inquired whether she'd be interested in a load of cashmere sweaters. Sertl set about incorporating pieces of cashmere into her scarves. Sertl's designs took their largest leap two years ago when she was invited to a wedding and had the perfect skirt for it but no top to wear with it. "I pulled this vintage cashmere sweater out of one of my boxes, and I thought, 'Hmmm, this is really boxy,' " she says. So she took up her scissors and began chopping. "All night long (at the wedding), I got compliments." Two days later, Sertl took the sweater and some others she'd made to Essential Elements Boutique in Ladue. The owner placed an order for a dozen. Recently, Sertl began donating 20 percent of the proceeds from her scarves to Amani ya Juu, a sewing reconciliation ministry for refugee women in Nairobi, Kenya. That, and the recycling, help Sertl feel like she's doing something more than just designing. Home |
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