In a world of disposable fast fashion, AI everything and tech gadgets with seemingly built-in expiration dates, imagine surrounding yourself at home, and in leisure, with durable, handmade items with a human backstory — be it a wooden spoon, an Icelandic duvet, handblown wine goblets or a pair of wooden skis.
Via Arno, a new Richemont-backed service rolling out later this year, is making all that possible, connecting consumers, professionals and businesses with more than 300 artisans of useful, everyday objects, from candlesticks and tableware to cabinets and bicycles.
“Across many different consumer segments, you see this growing interest in provenance, in process, in storytelling,” said Annia Spiliopoulos, a serial entrepreneur and jewelry executive who is cofounder of Via Arno, which is launching in stages this fall, with B2B and B2C components.
The service platform is designed to connect consumers with a penchant for exceptional, original and long-lasting products to a global network of seasoned, independent craftsmen and women.
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While decorative crafts benefit from a distribution network of art galleries, artisans of more everyday objects often struggle to commercialize their wares, according to Spiliopoulos, whose passion for the perfect gestures required to create anything exceptional stretches back to her training as a classical dancer.
“It very much taught me a sense of discipline…this idea that you use your human dimensions to perfect something through repetition,” she said. “And I think I took that very much into everything else I did.”
Spiliopoulos worked in film and music (EMI Records and Universal), while the jewelry portion of her résumé includes roles at Links of London, De Grisogono, Fabergé and Shaun Leane.
“Also I grew up in a family where we would use things from the past and not necessarily throw them away,” she said, mentioning that chipped crystal would be properly repaired, and Dior dresses would be altered to more modern silhouettes. “I very much grew up believing in investing in things that last, not just kind of buying stuff and throwing it away — especially the beautiful stuff that you know was made with love and care and attention.”
While running travel businesses, she connected with Richemont shareholder Hanneli Rupert, who shares her passion for handmade things, and the idea was born to mount a commercial platform.
“The skills that are really disappearing are the ones necessary to make things for everyday life: furniture-making, textiles for bedding tableware, bicycles,” she said. “These are the things that people don’t make anymore, because you can buy them more cheaply and faster.
“Initially, we thought maybe social media would help the smaller players to have a voice more cost effectively,” she continued. “In the end, the way [social media platforms] evolved means they have even less voice.”
Via Arno aims to change that, capitalizing on heightened interest in bespoke products among high-end consumers — and broad appreciation among younger generations for durable, artisanal goods that are more planet-friendly.
According to Spiliopoulos, “sophisticated luxury consumers are less interested in the brand and more interested in the process and the making…and keen to put their personal touch on things.”
Meanwhile, the growth of sites like Etsy underscores that “there’s definitely a cohort in the Gen Z that are interested in sustainability, they’re interested in investing in fewer things, but better things.”
“Artisans usually use local raw materials, and they use mainly their hands, so de facto, it’s more sustainable.”
Via Arno plans to offer services via several channels: one for private individuals who wish to commission an artisan to create personalized, extraordinary items; a commercial and trade one for interior designers, architects, stylists and other professionals, and a consumer-facing web store offering lifestyle products for the home and leisure, with prices ranging from about 20 euros into the thousands.
The latter, not yet live, will also have an editorial arm that highlights the people, places and stories behind the objects.
Via Arno also plans to do physical pop-ups. The first just wound up at Homo Faber, the biannual cultural event in Venice that celebrates craftsmanship in all its forms.
Visitors to the fair could relax in Via Arno’s living room appointed with works by master artisans, learn more about their work and processes in its studio spaces, or buy souvenirs and gifts.
“We facilitate the sales between the artisans and the different types of clients,” Spiliopoulos explained. “We’re a service — we connect.”
To qualify for the Via Arno site, artisans must be independent, produce functional and not purely decorative products, and have at least 10 years of experience working on their craft.
Spiliopoulous and her team scout for artisans via the Richemont-backed Michaelangelo Foundation and via various craft events around the world.
Asked about her ambitions for Via Arno, she said: “We definitely want to raise awareness of artisanal being relevant culturally, commercially and in a lifestyle sense to consumers, as well as to younger generations of people who are looking for a profession. It would be great if more young people decided that that’s what they wanted to do, become an artisan.”
In addition, the platform hopes to exalt the “romantic side” to buying handmade things that last. “If you spend a bit more, you keep it longer, you have something that’s been made by another human, so there’s a different type of energy to it,” she explained. “It’s more than a transaction, it becomes much more of a connection. There is a way of life that comes with being an artisan: the human pace.”
There’s a preservation angle, too, since craft councils are forever expanding their lists of endangered practices.
Spiliopolous mentioned a boat-maker in Spain’s Costa Brava region who used to make 10 craft each year. He told her: “Now, I can barely make one. And my nephews are not interested so it’s going to die with me.”
But she prefers to take a positive outlook.
“I just love the idea that if you really look hard, you can find stuff for your day-to-day life that’s been made by people and made lovingly,” she said. “And what’s really lovely about artisans: As humans, they really make for others.”
