Oltramar

Valen­ti­na is the foun­der of Stu­dio Oltra­mar. She is an Ita­li­an-Croa­ti­an inte­ri­or desi­gner from the Istria regi­on of Croa­tia. After living, stu­dy­ing and working in dif­fe­rent places in Euro­pe, in 2019 she moved to the south of France and the­re she dis­co­ver­ed the world of natu­ral dyes, and the ances­tral tech­ni­que of indi­go dye­ing that imme­dia­te­ly fasci­na­ted her. After 2 years, thanks to the peo­p­le she met, the app­ren­ti­ce­ship with gre­at dyers from all over France, and her hard work, in Sep­tem­ber 2022 she crea­ted the first Oltra­mar gar­ment collection.

Alt­hough today in her stu­dio in Pro­vence (France) she works alo­ne, behind the Oltra­mar brand the­re is the pas­si­on, the skills and the smi­les of many pro­fes­sio­nals, fri­ends and col­le­agues of Valentina. 

Oltra­mar garm­ents are dyed with pig­ments from Pro­vence, grown in the South of France by Lau­ra and Aman­di­ne of Le Champ des Cou­leurs. Two sis­ters who grew up in natu­re, clo­se to the work of the far­mers, and who today are hap­py to repre­sent the group of far­mers who pro­du­ce enti­re­ly in France. They fol­low the tra­di­ti­on of their ances­tors and cul­ti­va­te dye plants in the Pro­ven­çal vil­la­ge of Roque d’An­the­ron in an eco­lo­gi­cal and respon­si­ble way.

The garm­ents are made by Anne and Cora­lie, two fri­ends with a com­mon pas­si­on and the same ethi­cal visi­on of the sewing craft. Tog­e­ther, they deci­ded to crea­te a small arti­san work­shop in Mont­pel­lier cal­led Ate­lier Cats, whe­re peo­p­le are at the heart of their acti­vi­ty and whe­re they main­tain a clo­se rela­ti­onship with each other. 

Natu­ral indi­go dye­ing is what makes Oltra­mar a spe­cial and dif­fe­rent brand.

For Valen­ti­na, indi­go dye­ing is a won­derful team­work whe­re the arti­san, her dye bath and the envi­ron­ment around them col­la­bo­ra­te wit­hout pre­vai­ling over each other, but in balan­ce and in con­ti­nuous listening.

Orga­nic indi­go dye­ing is a vivid colour that needs pau­ses and time to rest bet­ween the dif­fe­rent dye­ing acti­vi­ties. Tech­ni­cal­ly the skill of the arti­san dyer lies in kno­wing how to con­trol, mana­ge and mas­ter all the fac­tors that affect the dye bath and being able to repro­du­ce the same tones regu­lar­ly over time. But Valen­ti­na loves to work with varia­bi­li­ty, enhan­cing the con­cept of eph­emeral and unrepeatable.

Only cel­lu­lo­sic fabrics (cot­ton, linen, hemp, nett­le, etc.) and pro­te­in fabrics (silk, cash­me­re, wool, etc.) can be dyed natu­ral­ly due to the affi­ni­ty bet­ween their che­mi­cal and phy­si­cal pro­per­ties. For this reason, Oltra­mar works with nett­le, hemp and linen fabrics. The­se mate­ri­als are hard-wea­ring, requi­re no pesti­ci­des to grow and feel won­derful against the skin.

Some­ti­mes, they also use cot­ton, espe­ci­al­ly when sourcing fabrics from Ita­li­an and French upcy­cling sup­pli­ers.

At Olta­mar they don’t was­te lef­to­ver scraps of clot­hing. Valen­ti­na uses the lef­to­ver scraps to crea­te new pie­ces and the smal­ler pie­ces are given to a fri­end who uses them to make the felt/​capote paper and crea­te new pro­ducts, such as cushions or tapestries.

In addi­ti­on, some of her garm­ents are made from unu­sed stocks of fabrics from the most exclu­si­ve French sewing hou­ses, thus encou­ra­ging the crea­ti­ve reu­se of exis­ting resources.

Oltra­mar is a mul­ti­cul­tu­ral and Medi­ter­ra­ne­an stu­dio, sup­port­ing local com­mu­ni­ties!

All fabrics are sourced from Ita­ly and France in a con­scious way to sup­port qua­li­ty pro­du­cers and are dyed with pig­ments from Pro­vence, grown in the Pro­ven­çal vil­la­ge of Roque d’An­the­ron from eco­lo­gi­cal­ly respon­si­ble dye­ing plants. The garm­ents are made in a small arti­san work­shop in Mont­pel­lier, a vil­la­ge in the south of France. 

Curr­ent­ly Oltra­mar does not use ani­mal mate­ri­als in its coll­ec­tions. Perhaps in the future it will start to use ethi­cal silk or wool from nati­ve sheep, but always kno­wing very well the pro­cess used to obtain the fabric and respec­ting the wel­fa­re of the animal!

Oltra­mar’s garm­ents are not limi­t­ed to trends or sea­sons. They want to be worn all year round, to last for cen­tu­ries and to deser­ve to be cared for.

They crea­te limi­t­ed garm­ents and each gar­ment is num­be­red. In addi­ti­on, each gar­ment is available upon request and can be cus­to­mi­sed. They also give you the pos­si­bi­li­ty to have the gar­ment total­ly adjus­ted to your body, with their made-to-mea­su­re ser­vice.

As we are all uni­que, so are the garm­ents and objects offe­red at Oltramar!

Oltra­mar is a trans­pa­rent brand! On their web­site you can find infor­ma­ti­on about who dyes and manu­fac­tures their garm­ents, and even more infor­ma­ti­on about their dye­ing pro­cess.

COSH! has spo­ken to Valen­ti­na, the crea­tor of Oltra­mar, and with total trans­pa­ren­cy she has pro­vi­ded us with the name of her sup­pli­ers, so we can assu­re you that Oltra­mar is a trans­pa­rent brand.