"Fashion is not art but it needs an artist to exist". Words by Yves Saint Laurent, fully shared by the Sicilian couturier Flavia Lecci who, thanks to an artistic career that saw her graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts specializing in painting and restoration, decided to put in her high fashion and wonderful Bridal collections all that savoir faire learned in her passionate years of academic study.

This is the reason why her creations are quite exceptional: unlike her colleagues who find inspiration in the art world, inspired by all the various currents and styles that have followed over the centuries, Flavia Lecci puts Art at the service of Fashion, using in her creations all those manual and craft techniques that are typical of a painting and sculpture atelier, naturally adapting them in a totally innovative way to create clothes that combine comfort and functionality with an ineffable and ethereal beauty.

The wardrobe of a woman who loves high fashion, in fact, should never look like a museum stand, with hanging hyperbolic and spectacular clothes, to be admired yes, but on rare occasions. Not to mention they are hard to wear unless the occasion is right for it too must be obviously hyperbolic and spectacular.

Show and fashion show. There is a world of difference between these two words and each couturier through his collections clearly demonstrates which of the two he feels closest.

Fantasy is never to be repressed, every creative has his own imaginative universe from which to draw inspiration, as well as a precise message that he wants to launch through his works. However, once the spotlight has been turned off on the catwalk, an enchanted place where everything is allowed, above all the unusual iconoclastic Impossible often sold as  pure visionary genius, it is necessary to return to the world of the Possible and think of the market. Otherwise you risk only proposing installations that, as such, will never come to life outside the catwalk, remaining a mere exercise in style. High fashion is craftsmanship and in it, rules are categorically valid, such as, for example, in architecture: it is clear that you cannot make a sand castle that, however beautiful, is not functional. For Flavia Lecci the same is true for fashion. The real one.

Artist or couturier? Even between these two words there is a world of difference.

Although they define themselves as stylists, many couturiers are more performers who use amazing fabrics and sartorial techniques to try to create something that they crave to be defined artistic because just as artists they want to be universally recognized.

They do not forget at all, but rather deliberately overlook the crucial fact that a dress is a garment, that is, something that more than aspiring to the glory of an art gallery should be designed to be put on display in a boutique and be sold.

Which implies being functional, perfectly and easily wearable and washable in all tranquility, without ruining it in any way, accompanying us over the years without ever losing anything of its irresistible charm.

A true masterpiece of style, on the other hand, is conceived to last over time both as a material and as an idea and to exist in space, in the world in which we live.

It must be true because life is real. It is not a fashion show, a premiere, a show. Even the big stars, once the red carpet spotlight is turned off, love to dress in a sophisticated manner in real life which is not over the top as opposed to when under contract they have to attract the attention of the press and photographers at prestigious international events. In those moments they are there to show off and show themselves to promote their latest artistic effort. But, once the spotlight is turned off, there is no woman who does not like to feel chic and refined wearing creations that are high fashion but not unnecessarily fanciful and transgressive.

The goal is to feel and be style icons wearing sophisticated garments in which just one marvelous detail makes the outfit unique. Nothing is left to chance and, as always, the rule of less is more is a winning one. Focusing on a cleverly used detail as a catalyst for attention and admiration is all that a woman needs to feel elegant and feminine.

And in this art of subtle balances Flavia Lecci is a sublime expert thanks to her creations that live precisely in dazzling details that make every collection truly unforgettable with an authentically timeless beauty.

Her passion for fashion dates back to childhood and the realization of her dream of becoming a fashion designer has gone through a course of study that today allows her to be one of the most interesting names in the new wave of Italian high fashion. Artisan craftsmanship and in-depth knowledge of both historical and experimental art techniques learned at the Academy have given her, with respect to her colleagues from the most classical fashion training, different tricks up her sleeve that the stylist promptly uses with amazing ability, leaving behind cliche and the already seen, and giving us authentic masterpieces of style in which art and fashion, tradition and experimentation are combined in daring solutions that have the immense value of being perfectly wearable because they are pure fashion to the nth degree. There is no need tinsel or extravagant stylistic solutions for her creations to reach center stage. Essential essence. The great turning point of her career took place in 2000 thanks to the collaboration with the famous Sicilian couturier Marella Ferrera who wanted her, admiring the passion for craftsmanship that translates into a decidedly extraordinary savoir faire. It is her top dress in the high fashion collection that the designer from Catania presented in Piazza di Spagna to "Donna sotto le Stelle".

It is a dress-masterpiece built through the mosaic technique. To realize it, she used many micro-glossy acetate cards that she personally carved and glued on one by one. The dress gained incredible success, it was a triumph in the newspapers, but, above all, for Flavia Lecci it was an jolt, the awareness that she could experiment in fashion, that is on fabrics, with all the techniques that at the Academy she had learned to use on other materials.

Hence the decision to open an atelier in Catania to best express and in total freedom her poetry, continuing to study the idea of the mosaic applied to high fashion, a study that brought her, thanks to its innate ingenuity and inventiveness, to refine her technique, moving on to embroider every single tile on her clothes with their bon ton and refined silhouettes, realizing extraordinary works in precious and impalpable fabrics, such as silk, often taking months to finish a garment, given that every step is rigorously crafted, in the name of true, great Made in Italy.

Her elegant atelier, where she can count on the precious collaboration of Nicoletta Lanieri, Miriam Nicolosi and Vera Pennisi, is frequented by a cultured and demanding clientele that loves and seeks that uniqueness and exclusivity and that only true craftsmanship is able to give. And it is always an emotion because Flavia Lecci for each of her clients knows how to design bespoke clothes that are tailored not only to their silhouette, but above all to their personality.

Intellectually cosmopolitan and studious of all the techniques in the world that make a dress absolutely unique and precious, and therefore timeless, as most Sicilians she loves the age old tradition of embroidery, to which she adds a touch of contemporary chic, in a blaze of brightness, glamor and refinement that is impossible to resist. Flavia Lecci, in fact, has great respect for tradition, but loves to go beyond it and show that she doesn’t only belong to a crystalized past, but that she also has something new and charismatic to say in the world of today.

Couturier as well as an all-round artist, she walks in the steps of the tradition of the great and true Made in Italy where luxury is synonymous with high craftsmanship, lighting her clothes thanks to the fire of a single detail able to give light and sense of completion to her creations, as in the case of the decorations with gold foil whose technique is based on the ancient one of gilding restoration in the past.