The origin
La Sartoriale began with a simple observation.
After more than twenty-five years working in bespoke interiors, we began designing spaces dedicated to wine. It soon became clear that a wine cellar could not be approached as simply another piece of furniture.
It required bringing together disciplines that had rarely met before: wine preservation, refrigeration, interior architecture, craftsmanship in wood, glass and metal, lighting, and the art of presenting a collection.
It was no longer simply about designing a beautiful space. We had to understand how to make it work.
Project after project, we developed our own solutions, learnt how to bring these different areas of expertise together, and gradually devoted our work entirely to the world of wine.
We were, in effect, creating a new craft.
In 2014, that specialisation was given a name: La Sartoriale.
La Haute Couture
The parallel with haute couture goes beyond the idea of bespoke design.
It can be found in the way each piece is created: in the choice of materials, the attention given to proportions, details and assembly, and to everything that may not be immediately visible but contributes to the finished result.
A veneer may be selected for its species, its grain or the direction of its pattern. The leaves can be composed in a regular arrangement or in a more individual way. For certain projects, selected strips are stitched together like fabric before being applied to their support.
Metal, glass, stone, mirror and light then become part of the composition.
Each material has its own constraints, qualities and way of responding to the particular environment of a wine cellar.
Bespoke design is not about multiplying possibilities. It is about choosing those that truly belong to the project.
The Wine Cellar Tailor
When we created La Sartoriale, we were looking for a simple way to express what we do.
We did not want to offer standardised wine cellars that clients would have to adapt to. We wanted to begin with the place, the collection and the person who would live with it.
Just as a tailor observes the person they are creating for before cutting the cloth, we begin by understanding before we begin to design.
The parallel came naturally.
The Wine Cellar Tailor.
The name still defines the way we work today: designing each wine cellar around what makes it unique, rather than trying to fit it into an existing solution.
Italy
La Sartoriale grew out of our experience in bespoke design and a culture deeply rooted in Italian design.
All our projects are designed and made in Italy.
Around the workshop is an ecosystem of specialist expertise: woodworking, finishes, metal, glass, stone, lighting, refrigeration and engineering.
Depending on the needs of each project, these different skills are brought together to create a coherent solution.
The various elements come together at the workshop, where each project is pre-assembled and carefully checked before leaving.
This organisation allows us to work with different specialists without fragmenting the project.
For us, Italy is not simply a place of origin attached to a finished piece. It is part of the way we design.
Jean-Jacques
We created La Sartoriale with Jean-Jacques.
His background was in fine woodworking and high-end interior design. He had a deeply practical understanding of craftsmanship — the kind of knowledge that allows you to look beyond a drawing and understand how something will actually be made.
Together, we developed La Sartoriale by constantly bringing design into conversation with making, ideas with feasibility, and aesthetics with technical reality.
He had a passion for detail, materials and work beautifully done. He could return to something that appeared finished simply because he knew it could be better.
That exacting standard profoundly shaped La Sartoriale.
Jean-Jacques is no longer with us, but that standard remains. It continues to guide our work today. It lives in particular through the Vade-mecum he left behind, where the principles, details and solutions developed through our projects have been recorded. We continue to refer to it, and to add to it as new projects lead us to develop new solutions.
La Sartoriale was his signature.
Getting the project right
Over the years, our projects have become larger, more complex and increasingly international.
But the way we make decisions has remained the same.
A solution may be technically possible, aesthetically appealing or commercially attractive, and yet still not be right for the project.
We then look at the project as a whole: the place, the collection, the way it will be used, the materials, the technical considerations, and how each decision affects the others.
For us, this coherence matters more than an accumulation of effects or solutions.
We do not seek to do more. We seek to get it right.
And when a project reaches completion, one very simple question remains:
Does this project feel like us?