Gabriella Cortese was born in Turin where she enjoyed a well-behaved childhood there. Her Hungarian grandmother taught her how to embroider, while her mother represented a the model of eternal elegance.

As an eighteen-year-old art student in search of freedom, Gabriella discovered Paris and its wild nightlife. Then, like the artists who went off to study humanities in the 19th century, she parter for the silk road, following the last of the psychedelic dandies.

In Bali, the thousand-year-old batik technique fore printing silk inspired here to create her first range hof pareos. Taking the word batik, Gabriella added antik, ” for the rhyme and because it sounded good in all languages”.

Koco dress black

Having discovered India, she explored other types of technique: embroidery, bandhani: an artisanal dyeing process. In 1992 Antik Batik was born.

A traveler nostalgic for the times of cabin trunks, Gabriella invites us to fo back in time with pictorial references from the beginning of the 20th centruy. From Art Nouveau she borrows its decorative extravagance. Lustrous decoration, stylized floral pattern and geometric prints by the Russian avant-garde charge her creations with history. ” I’ve a desire to create the fashion of a voyager who plunges into his past and rediscovers treasured in an old trunk, pieces that evoke the childhood memories and he parties of the Roaring Twenties”.

Porti coat black

The explosion of colours from the summer collections evoke the bohemian elegance of artistocrats such as Talitha Getty in Tangiers and Marisa Berenson in Ibiza at the end of the sixties.

Married to the actor Marc Rioufol, and mother to little Nicola, Gabriella has been designing a children’s collection since 2001, and is now planning on one for me. Passionate about decorative arts, she also envisages adaptiving the richly colored universe of Antik Batik for home decor.

Sought after by celebrities and all women on search of authenticity, Antik Batik has become an emblem of a bohemian-chic art of living.

Jonis shirt black & Chiarina skirt black

Antik Batik accessories:

Accessories are at the origin of the label. In 1992, the first collection designed by Gabriella was a range of batik-print pareos. To which was added beach bags, city satchels, evening purses, Roman sandals, jewelry, ballet pumps, boots…

In leather, linen, suede, embroidered with pearls, paste jewelry or sequins, the range of accessories today is very complete.

Antik Batik pret-a-porter:

The Antik Batik collections are very rich, the Italian designer chooses the most noble of materials which are then printed or embroidered by hand. The daytime dress is made warm in winter with alpaca wool. it is lightened in summer with flowery silk and cotton. In the evening it metamorphoses into a sequined cocktail dress. The colors of the dresses are distinctly stamped buy the seasons. Open and energetic in summer. Dark and richly mysterious in winter. Pants take on the form of sarouels. Jackets and coat are offered in velvet, in suede, or more extravagantly in Mongolian lambskin.

Jonis gown black & Amarillo pouch multico

Antik Batik luxury:

Each year at the request of a number of actors, Antik Batik has produced a limited-series capsule collection of “red carpet” dresses for the Cannes Film Festival. Long or short, in silk chiffon or organza, these robes are always beautifully worked. The time and expertise involved in their embroidery makes them real pieces of jewelry. Each handmade piece is unique.

For more info visit  www.antikbatik.fr