Chiara Pizzinato

Chiara Pizzinato

With its new DesignWorks software set, BERNINA is adding three new techniques to sewing and embroidery: PaintWork, CrystalWork and CutWork allow you to easily turn any image, pattern or shape into a fabric painting, rhinestone motif or decorative cutting. In collaboration with Italian designer Chiara Pizzinato, BERNINA has designed a collection of dresses decorated using DesignWorks, to be presented in a fashion show at the European Patchwork Meeting in Ste-Marie-aux-Mines, France.

«I love fabrics.»

“I love fabrics,” declares Chiara Pizzinato. For this designer, who has a master’s degree in environmental science and who has worked for many years at a nautical hydraulics company, her creative work with fabrics is intimately related to processes in nature. She has been designing high fashion and accessories since 2002 using natural textures for creative expression and to weave connections with influences from her own life experience. DesignWorks software has opened up new possibilities for her. “DesignWorks software is a fabulous tool that allows me to transform one fabric into a completely different one.”

Together with a team from BERNINA, Chiara Pizzinato designed new dresses for the fashion show in Ste-Marie-aux-Mines, using and applying the three DesignWorks techniques in a wide variety of ways. The DesignWorks collection was developed over nearly six months. One result is a sheath dress with appliqué gingko leaves that were drawn with PaintWork, cut with CutWork and then appliquéd and highlighted with stitching. A sheer white summer dress was ornamented with large PaintWork designs in shades of red and purple. A painted and richly stitched family tree grows up the back of a silk dress, with roots reaching nearly to the lower seam. Blossom tendrils are picked out in rhinestones on a dark cocktail dress. “The results are amazing,” says Chiara Pizzinato of the fashion show. The audience shared her enthusiasm: The show ran three times daily on three separate days – always before a full house.

Born in 1961, Chiara Pizzinato received a natural science degree from the University of Padova, completed her master’s degree in environmental science at the Fondation Universitaire Luxemburgoise in Belgium, and worked for a hydraulics firm for ten years. A patchwork class led her to fabric work, and she founded the company Le Tessiture in 2002. Since then she has been creating handmade fashion and accessories that combine her family heritage with her botanical knowledge and artistic flair. In 2003 Chiara Pizzinato won the World Quilt Textile competition in Michigan, USA. In 2005 her work was exhibited in the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art. Today she lives and works in Treviso. Her brands are Chiara Pizzinato (high fashion) and Chiarindi (prêt-à-porter).