|
 |
Home > ÖSTERREICH > Rampenlicht
A DREAM WHICH HAS BECOME A SUCCESS: RD LAB
Rome (Ign) - A group of friends that works with passion 12 hours a day. This is the main ingredient in the success of Rd Lab, a company that manages three completely different product lines united by a single feature: creativity. "We are fortunate to be able to follow a design from the beginning to the end of its creative process. This is stimulating because all the members of the team work in close contact with each other, making sure that nothing is left to chance", says Giuseppe Iaconis, fashion designer and creator of the company. His aim is to provide an extremely personal "form of communication, a message that is clear, clean and simple, like the commercial for a washing powder... to give shape to an idea."
RD LAB is a company set up to develop projects in the field of fashion design. What is your creative hallmark?
RD LAB is a company that creates, develops and produces three brands of clothing and accessories. These represent three completely different lines aimed at covering different sectors of the market and targets. The first, "2 periodico design", dates back to 2001 during a period of study in England. The desire is to create accessories, communicative bags and one-off pieces made using waste material, which is found around us in our daily life: newspapers, CDs, comics, food packaging, x-rays, transformed into something else. They become sentimental items, to be worn to remember, provoke, or astonish. Each piece is distinguished in terms of the shape and packaging used and is made by hand to increase its value. The products have been available for almost five years on the Italian market, in prestigious showrooms such as Fiorucci (Milan), Fabrica Features (Bologna), and Explora (the children's museum in Rome).
The "Restart nautical" line of clothing was set up in 2005, designed for the body in movement and made using technical fabrics with features of comfort as well as tactile and functional quality in mind. The line is designed for outdoor life: for coexisting with water, sun, wind and rain. The third, "Poison Tree", was set up in 2006 from an idea of mine. The line brings together a passion for illustrations and drawing with the intention to create a refined, unique and innovative range of clothing. "Poison Tree" is a tree in an enchanted world.
Can you tell us the story of your company?
The idea was to make a dream concrete. My products had been present on the market for various years (2 periodico), I had worked with some companies in the sector, but I really wanted to develop my own designs. Bringing together and enrolling the help of some of my friends and colleagues in the sector, Francesco Rapisarda (project manager) Alessia Cutrera (graphic/web designer) and Fehmi Hadji (production), we decided to give shape to the work which I had been working on for years by creating a new line of clothing and setting up a limited liability company. Even though we are a small young company (we opened our offices/showroom on 27 May), we can already boast important successes. The Restart line, for example, has been chosen by the Sheikh of Qatar for his offshore team in the 2007world championships.
RD LAB deals with design, graphics, fashion and marketing: you follow the entire supply chain of a product from beginning to the end. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this?
The disadvantage is that we have to work 12 hours a day in order to manage to develop all three lines, and we clearly dedicate a great deal of energy and research to the design and commercialisation of our products. I cannot deny that this is tiring, but our satisfaction always outweighs the fatigue. We are lucky that we are able to follow a design throughout the creative process, which is stimulating, because all the members of the team, with their many different points of view, work in close contact with each other, leaving nothing to chance.
Is there a particular product that you consider a "success", and why?
Starting with the premise that we are proud of all our products, insofar as they respond well to the market, particularly on an international level, the Poison Tree line for women - introduced almost as a game and revolving around one-off hand-painted items of clothing - is perhaps particularly successful. It is selling very well and has an extremely wide target group. With a selected sales point in Rome (Urban Tales, in Via dei Fienaroli), we have decided to widen the currently basic line to create a complete range including accessories, bags and maybe even shoes …
|
|
|
