Who is Grimilde Malatesta?

Despite my presence on socials and on this website for years, I had not yet thought of making a proper blog post telling my story. Maybe I just thought nobody would care to read through, but given the interest you always show for the newsletter (scroll down and subscribe!) I have finally resolved to write something.

Not a classic bio in resume style. Something a bit more personal.

All images in this post are by Agnese Morganti.

This is the part where I tell you I was the artsy kid. Which sounds a bit of a cliché… but I really was. I loved drawing and I was always among the best at doing it, since a very young age. I sometimes ask myself if I would have been into arts without the constant praise of my parents and teachers for my results in that field. I guess we’ll never know.

So there was a lot of playing with things, colors, fabrics, play dough, crepe paper and all that stuff. And it was all nice, until the time came to choose the high school. Here in Italy when you go to high school you have to choose the subject of that school. You can then access all universities, but of course you’re more prepared if the theme continues.

So, while I was very good in English and French and my middle school teachers were begging my mom to send me to foreign languages school (where my mom actually sent all the papers at first), I decided otherwise, making happy my cranky and super stern art teacher. I still remember the tone of her voice, her flaming red shoulder length bob, her blue mascara and every single time she forced us to spend hours on a sheet of paper creating landscapes with pen dots or copying some painting with the most boring grid method. Which is still uttely boring, but I keep using today.

But before proceeding with high school, and how a “place for stoners and slackers” made of myself what I am today, I have to mention someone very dear to me, and which I miss deeply: my grandmother, on my father side. She’s no longer with us, though she’s always with me, as she passed before I started high school. Way before I started taking any interest into sewing.

Grandma was a seamstress. Her laboratory was her kitchen, and she worked until she could no longer hold a needle in her hands (and when that happened, she kept knitting, as she could do that blindfolded). So, despite the fact that she never taught me a single thing about using a sewing machine, drafting a pattern or assembling a garment… I have always had the chance to play with fabric scraps and yarn. Whenever I tried to sew clothing for my dolls, she kept frowning upon my sleeve drafting abilities. But she never drew back when it came to making costumes for us, since we were children, my sister and I.

I like to think she would be proud of what I do today.

At the same time I studied ballet since I was 4, and as ballet costumes are expensive, the last embellishment was done by ourselves. Because mom grew tired of attaching hundreds of sewuins quite soon: “If you want it, you do it yourself”. So I had to learn.

Mom taught me to crochet, grandma to embroider, and that if you’re working on lycra you either have to work with stretch thread or sew each sequin separately… I learnt by myself.

So, back to the stoners school. Let’s say that my school had quite the fame. Truth to be told, if a parent went to the building during breaks, there was quite a distinctive smell on the garden, where smoking was allowed. So my parents were scared I would not fulfill my potential and all those things and that I would have started smoking pot instead of studying. And also that art is not something you can make a living of. Apparently. But I did feel a call for that place: the huge classrooms with easels and giant tables to spread drawing sheets so big I had never dreamt of, plaster casts of famous statues, and the walls all covered in works from the best students.

Despite being a place that welcomed people who didn’t have the calling for studying hard, if you wanted to give your best there was always the right teacher to give you the knowledge you wanted. So I ended up enjoying those years immensely and learning all things I needed to be where I am today, and work of my art.

This is for you, if you’re a parent: don’t force your kid where they don’t feel right. If you trust they are smart and capable of things, they will do them. Despite the fame of the school. In fact later I succeeded in tests to get to medicine school, veterinary and physiotherapy as well. And here it’s quite the thing. Especially turning down med school because you did it just as an excercise and you know eleven years of that is not what would make you happy.

So yes, I was set to be a proper physiotherapist for ballet students. I did my school, got my degree, hating it half of the time.

During those years I had some acquaintances who had started doing cosplay, and became more and more fond of LARPs. I even met my husband during one, but it was back when I was sixteen. Anyway, I started making and selling costumes in order to pay for my own. And apparently I got good. So good that now this is my full time job.

The name is a nom de plume, my real name is quite boring, so I don’t like sharing it openly. Also because it helps detaching work from private time.

My brand’s name was a needed choice at some point, because my husband pointed out that doctors and teachers, for example, can have troubles for doing things like these, that could make perceive their profession as “less serious”. At least it was like this when I started. So I came up with a nickname.

Grimilde is Snowhite’s Evil Queen. My interest in that character is not about baing the fairest of them all, I have chosen her as a reminder of two things:the first is that one is not young forever, and that the right day to do things and to move to achieve your goals is today, not tomorrow. The second is that a fairer one is always around the corner, and I do not mean it in sense of beauty, as I don’t care much about that. It’s more about always improving yourself, always study, analyse what you could have done better, not to give achievements for granted: in a world where everything moves forward, standing still and idle is like walking backwards on purpose.

Malatesta is an Italian noble family from the renaissance. The historical figure that charmed me most is Sigismondo Pandolfo, who has had a quite intriguing life and a set of outstanding beliefs for the time. For example, he went against the Pope and built a church… to science! A visionary, under some points of view. He, as all historical figures, has both shiny elements and deep shadows. I will leave to you the joy of finding out more about him.