The Italian company Mastro Raphaël  is a laboratory of home-couture which created and marketed – in Italy first and then abroad – bespoke accessories to ‘dress’ both a house’s rooms and seasons. The business, born with the ambition of creating a ‘total look for the home’, is now able to compete with top of the range brands in home furnishings and textiles. Its president and founder, Mario Arcangeli, began as a young boy gaining experience in a textile workshop. In 1966, that natural inclination, developed into a small craftshop which has since grown into a specialised business with international recognition.

President, what was the role of your domestic environment in the development of your business initiative?

The home has always been the focus of our attention. We aim to discover and reveal its personality, dressing it in items which reveal mastery, not without wishing to reinterpret it. Mastro Raphaël’s production, both in linens and furnishing textiles, develops into collections which are completed by a few accessories, such as carpets, curtains or small armchairs and beds from the «VictorVictoria» range.

How much are you able to reinterpret and modernize the accessories – also by using different styles and paying particular attention to design innovation – while respecting traditional craftsmanship?

More than any amount of words, our name exemplifies this respect. The business was born in Spoleto over 40 years ago as a homage to all those virtuous characters, called «masters», who populated the Umbrian textile manufacturing tradition, as well as my imagination and my childhood.

In order to compete in a highly competitive market, the intrinsic value, guaranteed by a traditional crafting style, plays a crucial role. Without an adequate promotion, however, there is a risk of failing to appropriately transfer one’s distinctive features to the consumer. How do you operate in this area?

Mastro Raphaël, which I currently manage with my children Simona, Raffaele and Gianmaria, presents its collections in its own-brand stores in Rome, at piazza Montecitorio, and in Porto Cervo, in the historic Piazzetta in front of the hotel Cervo, as well as through over two hundred authorised retailers whom we periodically supply, together with the latest collections, with merchandising guidelines in coherence with the broader business’ communications plan. This is how the «mastery» of the brand is revealed. We invest over 9% of our turnover in research and development of collections and related communications projects. We are thus able to supply the market, three times a year, with new unique samples.

Besides your Italian showrooms and authorised retailers, how is your domestic and - especially - your foreign distribution network structured?

Today there are more than 400 stores who distribute Mastro Raphaël creations in Italy, flanked by as many all across Europe, in the United States, the Middle East, Russia and Australia. In a few prestigious European and international locations, such as Monaco, Vienna, Madrid, New York, and Moscow, there are also specialised showrooms devoted to sector professionals and interior designers. In our headquarters at Santo Chiodo, near Spoleto, we set up an exports office with five multilingual operators (English, French, German, Russian), ready to provide any kind of telephone support to our clients.

Is there any more room to grow on the global market?

It is our destiny to develop ideas around living and all its lateral meanings of harmony, well-being, representation, conviviality, and attribute to them their aesthetic dimension. This is even more possible in a global community without borders, in which we operate and will continue to do so with passion and persistence, seeking the tailored which can add elegance to home surroundings.