DADAPUTÌA

Designing Art. Combination of modernity and tradition, designed in Palermo

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The DADAPUTÌA brand was born from the desire of two fashion designer architects, Ernest Graditi and Francesca Ferrara, to integrate art, history and design, parts of their cultural background, to offer unique products to fashion, each with its own history and its own personal soul. The acronym DADA, Designing Art Dress Architecture, contains the philosophy of the brand because components of art, fashion and architecture coexist in our projects and products. DADAPUTÌA, is a union between the word DADA, and the word PUTÌA. The so-called PUTÌA is a word in Sicilian that designates the so-called Sicilian shop. It is a real institution in Sicilian popular culture. In past centuries the putìa was the small shop of the shoemaker, of the seamstress for example, a place where people sold and bought but also where they went to exchange and talk about this and that with a trader in a friendly and informal spirit.

At our studio-showroom in Sicily, Palermo, our hometown, we plan, draw, compare, test new materials, and display our products. In DADAPUTÌA products, art floats in fashion, just as design marries tradition, in a mix of history and modernity, and in the name of research into quality materials.

The brand opened its first studio-showroom in 2016 in Palermo, Sicily. From its foundation to today, it has participated in various national and international trade fairs: MIPEL, the largest international event dedicated to leather goods and fashion accessories, 112th edition (September 2017) in Milan, FASHION WORLD TOKYO, in the November edition 2017, the largest fashion industry fair in Japan, MIPEL LEATHER GOODS SHOWROOM in Korea. From these events, it received widespread acclaim, both from the press and from buyers. On the occasion of the MIPEL 112 fair he was selected to participate in a contest for the creation of a limited edition bag inspired by Andy Wahrol and Pop Art during a photographic exhibition entitled "INSIDE OUT: MIPEL MEETS WARHOL" in which 20 copies of the photographs taken by Amendola and portraying Andy Warhol, at Palazzo delle Stelline in Milan. A selected jury chose the “Butterfly” bag designed by DADAPUTÌA among the 20 most significant products. The bag was on display for a month at the exhibition. In 2018 the brand participated in the winter edition of MIPEL 113, 11-14 February in which it was again selected for the SCENARIO area, a privileged and more alternative stage of the show dedicated to new brands and companies that stand out for creativity, innovation and research in the accessories panorama.

In our work, we cyclically design new designs and new variations for our accessories and limited edition thematic collections, inspired by art and the iconographic themes of art and also of Sicily. In the Royal mosaics collection, inspired by the Arab-Norman mosaic and decorative art of the Palatine Chapel and the Roger Room (a UNESCO heritage monument), clothes and bags "were dressed" in the muqarnas of the roof and the wall decorations of the Palatine Chapel, of the mosaic decorations of the Roger Room, and of the coronation mantle of Roger II. For a very chic and... almost regal look. Dedicated to our beloved land, we have designed the multifaceted Sicily tour collection: a journey through the history of art, from the historical-architectural pre- existences to its naturalistic and gastronomic beauties.

Sicily, our native land, in which numerous dominations have taken place, is in fact an intense source of inspiration for us. By responding to the common idea of design and integrating our creativity, which arises from a strong cultural background linked to the history of traditions, we transfer multiple ideas onto products that are always unique with a strong historical-artistic connotation. Our aesthetic vision is represented by a very bright, "multi-color" palette just as our land, Sicily, is multi-cultural. For us, differences and diversities are opportunities, not obstacles, just as the chromatic variety fascinates us. Each color arouses a different

emotion and if well blended, they can form perfect harmonious combinations like the different cultures that coexist in the world, enriching each other from their differences.

Our design inspiration moves from history to art and tradition to the architectural passion for materials. Art is also a central point of DADAPUTÌA: in its surrealist - cubist facets, where the human figure is always present in its relationship with architecture or the natural element; in its movements and styles, from art deco to art nouveau, and then architecture, with its history and its architectural elements: from Islamic style to Gothic, from Romanesque to techno-modern. From all these suggestions a chromatic rainbow emerges for us, ready to adapt to the different requests of the consumer.