Carolina d'Ayala Valva presents the Foulard Bamboo Silk project.

La painter of the decorative cycle that inaugurates the new exclusive line of silk and bamboo blend scarves recounts the evocative path that led to its creation. And addressing the many people who have already purchased the new designs, she sends them a warm message of thanks.

"To answer this interview, I went back in time and leafed through my sketchbook from the beginning, where there are all the pencil sketches and notes for the project. Looking at it again, it seemed to me to be a travelogue itself. Reviewing, for example, the first, tiny sketch: a 7x7 cm square, barely sketched. And realizing in retrospect that in there was already the essence of everything that is now a real project. I must confess that it has a certain effect."

Thus begins our long chat with Carolina d'Ayala Valva, executor of the project that led to the inauguration of the unprecedented and exclusive line Foulard Bamboo Silk.

An exciting encounter between our iconic bamboo yarn and the refinement of silk, sublimated into refined textile workmanship through a decorative cycle that makes the very encounter and contamination, with particular reference to the precious moments of enchantment that mark travels and the discovery of new cultures, its own irresistible hallmark.

And it is precisely from the theme of travel and discovery that we started to relive, together with Carolina, the stages of a creative journey that has already attracted great attention.

Carolina, what was your main source of inspiration for the Foulard Bamboo Seta collection? Are there particular themes or elements already present in your previous works?

From the very first conversations with creative director Piergiorgio Caggiari, who had introduced me to his idea of creating an exclusive and imaginative collection dedicated to orchids through my art, I was immediately at ease. Because I sensed his intent not to influence me, leaving me free to find the right way to interpret the theme.

Theorchid is a flower that has fascinated human beings since ancient times. In different continents, from the earliest times to the present day, this magnificent flower has embodied deep symbols and meanings, inspiring myths and legends of extraordinary beauty.

With this in mind, to create the four decorative designs I chose to adopt a different perspective than the symbolist one. To do so, I ventured on a journey, in the footsteps of European botanists, naturalists and artists who lived in the Victorian era, exploring faraway and exotic countries, discovering new botanical specimens. My story takes inspiration from reading their travelogues, and in particular from one account that, among many, really intrigued me.

It is "Recollections Of A Happy Life," an autobiography by botanist-naturalist Marianne North, which I own in an old edition bought by my father from a used book store in Brazil. Published in 1893, it is an account of her fascinating travels to countries then little or not at all known to Europeans, in search of plants never before seen.

And here resonated with my artistic background, because the great passion I cultivate for botany, as well as for animals and natural landscapes, has always led me to represent them in my creations.

What artistic style did you employ in creating the decorations? And from what creative choices?

Although I am a "serial" flower painter, from the beginning I felt a desire not to represent orchids with a realistic approach. I aspired to something more poetic and evocative, partly even surreal, that would have the power to stir the viewer's imagination.

For years I have specialized in Grotesque decoration, an extremely imaginative ornamental style. Over time I have learned its rules of composition and given it my own personal interpretation and inventiveness.

Generally, I tend to arrange the thematic elements of these compositions as if they were in flight: suspended in space and time, and connected to each other by thin threads. I also used this scheme in the Foulard Bamboo Silk project, with a level of inventiveness, detail and narrative never touched in most of the previous works. Still in continuity with my language, and at the same time evolving its canons, I adopted a classical ornamental style, much used in the Renaissance era but with even older origins, contaminating it with elements of my own invention, inspired by modern-day stories and cultures.

Finally, to all this I have added my passion for illustration. I have always collected storybooks and, moved by a constant curiosity I am inspired by them to experiment with modern techniques: from tempera, to egg, to digital painting.

In addition to figurative characters, different atmospheres, atmospheres of sounds and silences are captured in the decorations of the Silk line.How did you manage to convey these suggestions?

In Marianne North 's accounts, the descriptions of travels and landscapes are extremely vivid and real. When I started designing the decorative cycle, it came naturally to me to try to recreate those atmospheres, so wonderfully nineteenth-century and exotic.

I am happy to know that such ethereal sensations were felt. The Amazon rainforest, so noisy and full of animals. The slender Japanese female figure silently contemplating before Mount Fuji. The roar of elephants, the roar of lions-these were precisely the environments I wished to evoke.

Usually in my projects the elements stand out against solid-colored backgrounds, sometimes white, sometimes black. With this work, however, partly to fully account for this extraordinary sensory complexity, I wanted to take the viewer by the hand. To get him through the frame and project him directly into the scene.

Is there a particular scarf that you feel closest to your way of being?

Although Brazil represents an important part of my experience, I think I have an extra heartbeat for Japan. I worked for a time in this country, and everything enchanted me: the grace, the beauty of the details, the love and attention to the small things of everyday life, the gentle and discreet delicacy of every object, fabric and attitude. All this magic ended up in the decoration dedicated to Japan, with a color palette that is my favorite among those used in the cycle.

What has been the most significant moment in your collaboration with Innbamboo? Do you have an anecdote you would like to share?

I remember the beginning of the design. I was in Brazil and was telling Piergiorgio my ideas over the phone. At that time pure and simple theory. At the same time, however, I was already so sure of my vision that I began to draw nonstop, skipping the sketch phase to get straight to the final design.

I normally work in another way, but I was aware that in order to make sense of such a complex and layered narrative I had to offer a depiction of my idea that was already perfectly faithful to the final drawing and colors.

In the meantime, as I composed the drawings, I was writing in a continuous stream to keep track of the flow of my ideas-a sort of record of the story and the creative process.

The most exciting part was when I first printed my full-scale drawing on paper, realizing the impact. And the funniest one was our first in-person meeting, not even to mention at Rome's Termini Station, a place of arrivals and departures. It was me, my partner Walter, Piergiorgio and Barbara Marzella, another significant figure on the Innbamboo creative team.

I unrolled the drawing on the tables of a club and was so excited that I don't even remember their reaction. Silence spoke for everyone and accompanied the curious gaze of passersby.

But the way things later turned out, I would say it must have been undoubtedly positive.

What do you think you found in this new collaboration with Innbamboo?

As a designer and illustrator, I have already collaborated with other companies, creating designs to be applied to both textiles and wallpapers. These were always stimulating and very satisfying professional experiences.

With Innbamboo there was all this but also something more. Again, the work was challenging, fun and joyful, but I sensed a different quality. In the teamwork, in feeling an integral part of a creative project carried out by everyone with enthusiasm.

And, I can say, also in sharing a real feeling of friendship.

If you had the chance to tell us about another trip, where would you have taken us?

To Australia, or to California. Marianne North was a friend of Charles Darwin. It was he who suggested a new destination to her: Australia and New Zealand. And she took up the invitation, venturing on a second world tour that touched Borneo, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and finally California.

The Australian and New Zealand flora, so diverse and unusual, inspired as many as 300 works for her. On her return to England in 1881, North visited Darwin, showing him paintings that delighted him and bringing him as a gift the Raouliaeximia. A very curious New Zealand shrub, with rounded shapes and woolly leaves, which observed from a distance could be mistaken for a sheep. Not surprisingly, it was nicknamed "Australian Sheep."

Carolina, the Silk line is enjoying great success. People who buy it seem to really participate in this travel experience. Do you feel like saying something to these people?

I am overjoyed by this success. It is a tangible sign that all the design and communication work has led us down an unprecedented and countercultural path, but one that has had happy results.

Together with Innbamboo, I strongly wanted to create something that would impact on several levels: empathetic, emotional and narrative, to push the viewer of the scarf to go beyond the image, arousing the desire to know more aspects of the story. Just as happens in a storybook, where the illustrations are the engine to give even more drive to the imagination.

The Seta project is so accurate in this respect that even the scarf pack contributes to the narrative. It is in fact designed as a precious book that holds a story. The title of a necklace that one wishes to own in its entirety. To show it off in one's bookcase and decide, day after day, the destination toward which to set out.

Listening to more and more impressions of people who buy the scarves, I realized that this tale is also triggering more, going to touch personal chords and emotions, which have to do with memories of travel, discovering landscapes and animals, flowers and architecture.

All this is even more rewarding when we think that the scarves are purchased by people of various nationalities, triggering journeys within journeys: geographic and temporal.

This is why I metaphorically entrust the sea with a "message in a bottle" for each of these people, thanking them for their choice and their attention to the project. As well as for taking it around, to who knows what and how many cities. Journeys they set out on, leaving their imagination and creativity free to continue exploring, discovering, and stirring emotions.

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