Francesco Briggi & Anna Zappella

Atelier Pietro Longhi

Costume maker

©Atelier Pietro Longhi

©Simone Padovani

Dress-up made fancy

Francesco and Anna are partners in work and in life
They create costumes for historical events, cultural productions and for the Venice Carnival
The painter Pietro Longhi provides inspiration for their work

Francesco Briggi and Anna Zappella are the masterminds behind Atelier Pietro Longhi, which has roots in its founder’s love for dressing up. Francesco grew up on the mainland surrounding Venice. Tailoring runs in his family and his parents always encouraged his eccentric love for costumes, allowing him to play dress up whenever he preferred. Growing up, Francesco started ordering books online from England and Germany that described historical costumes and guided him through their reproduction. These books were not available in Italian as Italy had yet to start dissecting and studying old costumes. In 1988, Francesco met Anna Zappella, together they opened their first atelier, inside a small garage, 44 square metres. Today, in a villa in the outskirts of Venice and surrounded by vineyards, the duo create historical costumes for a worldwide clientele.

Interview

©Atelier Pietro Longhi

©Atelier Pietro Longhi

How would you describe your activity?: Francesco: We are costume-makers, I make clothes and Anna specialises in hats. Both of us are self-taught: I took a tailoring course to learn the basics of patternmaking, while Anna started making hats after we bought the machinery of the man who used to be our hatter.
Who are your clients and how are you connected to the territory?: Anna: We started by creating costumes for the Venice Carnival which is famous all over the world, people would come to us to bring their fantasies to life. Today we produce costumes also for museums, for TV shows, for theatrical productions and for all kinds of history-themed event and happening.
What fabrics do you use for your costumes?: Francesco: I mainly work with fabrics for home decors, velvets, brocades, damasks… Whenever I have doubts, I look at the painting from Pietro Longhi, the Venetian painter from the 1700s to whom we dedicated our atelier, his work gives me a clear insight of what Venetians looked like 300 years ago.
Do you a favorite historical period?: Anna: We both love the period that goes from the French Directory to Napoleon. The late 1700s and early 1800s have interesting sartorial peculiarities both in men's and women's fashion.

Francesco Briggi & Anna Zappella are master artisans: they began their career in 1994 and they started teaching in 1997