Diana Franco Designs - Handmade Italian Handbags.
Florence, Italy. I'm two floors up in the Academia Riaci with Diana Franco. Sunlight falls in through the window from the courtyard in a way that would remind Vermeer of home. The bustling streets full of tourists, vendors and the occasional Florentino are silenced and all you can hear is Diana and I chatting as she works.
Diana, a Brazilian native, when not learning the world-renown Florentine leatherworking arts, calls Utah home where she designs handbags. A smiling and carefree woman, she eyes the patterns laid out on the leather before tracing and cutting. My camera and I study the scene, noting the confidence and steadiness of one who has certainly done this before. She moves from step to step, explaining the process as she does so in between questions from me like the current price of a hide of leather.
The pattern is first traced onto the hide before being cut by hand. A liner and the outer leather must be cut exactly the same. Glued together, then sewn by hand on the, Diana is quite proud to say, state-of-the-art industrial sewing machine, the edges are then cut and filed to perfectly match before being painted with a rubber paint to give it a nice edge. She does this all effortlessly and with the touch of a master. I am still wondering how it went from a piece of leather to a beautiful bag - I'll have to scroll through the images to find the magic later.
We step outside to take a few lifestyle and product images. Tourists pause as we take a few frames and we wave them through. I swear that Italy has the best light. The Masters knew what they were doing when they painted in Italy. I wish I could take it everywhere with me. We shoot at a few locations - all within a stone's throw of the school. I wish all location changes were this simple. A mirrored window, a café, some greenery and some clean backgrounds for product shots. The shoot ends with focaccia and Fanta.
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