«EVERY PROJECT IS DRIVEN BY PERSONALITY»

By Ollie in the category F-Dealer
Story date
11. Oct 2015
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Federica Gallo discovered FREITAG during a journey to Berlin. Ever since she sells our products in her store Tonolo Selezioni in Mirano.

Tell us about yourself?
I'm a Bottegaia, a shopkeeper. I've been selling projects for 29 years. Every project is driven by an interesting person or personality.

Do you do your own ironing?
No, never.

Digital or analog?
A bit of both. If I had to choose, I would be digital.

What do you think about cotton?
It’s a political question, but cotton certainly is practical.

Do you have a compost bin?
No, I don’t have a garden. But I’m careful with what I buy, so my composting starts with shopping.

Why FREITAG?
I discovered FREITAG on a trip to Berlin. I usually come back with something special after each trip and that time, it was FREITAG. It's an interesting project run by interesting people.

What's Tonolo Selezioni?
A selection of objects that are designed to last a lifetime. They never need to be replaced – that's the criterion. If they’re good enough for me, then they’re good enough for my customers.

What kind of music do you listen to?
Jazz.

What’s your favorite thing in your store apart from FREITAG?
A pot made of cast iron from iittala. You can cook for a whole family with it. iittala may sound Italian but it’s actually a Finnish project from the fifties and sixties.

What sort of people buy and wear FREITAG in Venice?
All kinds of people, from every age group. The first customers were older ladies - that was ten years ago. F-ABRIC customers are more environmentally-aware than customers that buy the bags. The funny thing is that the older clientele are enthusiastic about the F-ABRIC materials because they heard about them from their grandmothers! They deserved to be catered to.

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What's the biggest cliché about your town? Is it true?
That it’s a city of tourists! In our region, you live here because you were born here. The local economy is particularly strong, but that has nothing to do with Venice’s popularity with tourists.

What is the most innovative and impressive sustainability project in Italy?
This summer, I was in Briol, a family-run guesthouse with a legendary history in South Tyrol. The Settari family have lived there since 1880 and the great-grandmother of the current owner left each of her 15 children a little piece of the mountain – land in the Prioler meadows – and laid out three rules:

1. The land must be passed on to family members.
2. There must be no fences.
3. The nature of the mountain must be respected.

Family ties run deep in Italy and cross over into the corporate world, too. I find the Pension Briol's sensitivity to sustainability and its 1920s architecture particularly fascinating.

Do you have any restaurant recommendations for Venice and Mirano?
Breakfast: Pasticceria Tonolo, a bakery and pâtisserie with a branch in Mirano and Venice.
Lunch: A casa!
Dinner: A casa!

Where else outside Venice or Mirano?
Get on your motorbike and get away – avoid the cities. I rediscovered Italy on my bike.

What else would you like to see from FREITAG?
Materials for interior design.

Would you rather be Daniel or Markus' sister?
They’re a unit – I can’t imagine separating them.

Thanks for the pictures, Martina Scorcucchi.

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