Stockholm is taking notice on how Francesca is decorating her apartment. Especially when it comes to her innovative choices regarding graffiti art. The photo above is from an article in “Vi i Vasastan”

- It’s always been a dream for me to own an apartment in Stockholm with a beautiful view, fantastic balcony and that shows my sense of style and identity in it’s design. It felt like an impossible dream for many years, says Francesca Romana Correale.

- What makes the apartment unique is the graffiti painting which is absolutely central, both literally around the center of the apartment but also figuratively as a strong visual statement. It connects the clouds to the street.

- The graffiti totally makes the apartment. It represents me and my brand and my way of seeing things. Its technique is mesmerizing. It’s colors reflect on all the windows and it is never never disturbing or boring. Its just too beautiful to be true. While walking past it you keep on discovering little details. At times it seems as if it is moving and the letters one moment or the other may bounce out of the wall and start talking, Francesca says.

Most people who meet Francesca know her as a fashion designer or as someone who’s last name brings with it a lot of history and a certain level of respect and heritage. However, that wasn’t the case for me. When I met her six years ago I only knew her as a mother.

During our meetings around town I’d go on and on about online marketing, the amazing social media revolution and community management. As I did this she would smile, seem engaged and interested in the subject.

Little did I know at the time that she wasn’t understanding this world at all or barely even knew what Facebook was, Twitter or what pretty much anything online was! Her name didn’t appear in any search engine and I later understood that she had meticulously planned it to stay like that for the rest of her life. She proclaimed herself to be a ”space cadet” regarding everything digital or electronic. (tough syndrome in these times indeed!) I’ve never quite understood the expression but when you hear her say it in her own unique self deprecating and funny way, it makes perfect sense
She seriously asks questions like “where is the switch to turn this thing on?” Or “what is Spotify?” Or actually throws her iPhone against the wall or floor when it doesn’t respond to her commands (maybe because she hasn’t updated it in months…)

As time went by and I built Romana Correale presence on the web I learned more about her and that it would be a real challenge to get a person like this engage in social media or in the art of sharing her life. But her passion and dedication for Romana Correale made it happen.

Sure it’s incredibly frustrating when she forgets her passwords for the 10th time every six months or when she panics at aggressive, impolite and offensive comments or when she cancels meetings with only 30 or 15 minutes notice and I’m already on my way bicycling in the city through a swedish winter storm… but who can resist her disarming smile when we finally meet? Not even a swedish viking.
Francesca runs her life here in Stockholm pretty much totally independently of anyone and it is more than understandable that with a child of seven years old all kind of situations may occur.

It’s been a few years now since we started working together and I’m impressed at how well she has taken internet to heart. How deep her convictions and values run and how committed she is to ethics, loyalty, honor and her sense of duty.

If only more people would see persons and the world as she does we’d all live in a better world.
For now, we’ll have to settle with living in a more beautiful world thanks to Francesca’s beautiful creations.

I like this so much I wanted to share it on my blog.
Check out this post that combines leaves with fashion.

“I was very surprised to get those such beautiful leaves in a garden. I never thought the leaves can be so beautiful, some of them are full of structures, patterns and lines on it, different colors in a leaf, even is withered leaves.”

When I first saw Francesca Romana Correale’s “Le Forme” bags, what immediately came to mind was the two-dimensional (subsequently, three-dimensional) fantasy world of “Alice in Wonderland,” in particular its Queen of Hearts character and the Card Soldiers.

In their two-dimensional aspect, the Card Soldiers’ white surface –like those of FRC’s bags- reproduce various shapes (or “forms,” if you will), representing different meanings (hearts and spades, are not the same thing). By the same token, a white sheet of paper can collect our thoughts in writing and can be then “clipped” together to other sheets of paper that tell the same story. Moreover, in their three-dimensional aspect, like the Queen of Hearts herself, FRC’s bags are playful and cartoonish on the one hand, while being sturdy and reliable “cult objects/containers” on the other.

Hence, keeping these analogies in mind, I decided to write a poem associating the many thoughts that cross a woman’s head (in this case, FRC’s head) during the creative process, to the many objects that this same woman needs to constantly carry in her bag as a life ritual. Against this backdrop, the “heart-clipped” papers symbolize the bags in disguise, as they are white, they contain the many thoughts/objects, and they are “clipped” at the top, each with a different “form”:

Clipped By My Heart

Ideas move swiftly to the rhythm of my mind
And fly away into the vacuum of reality
Slowly aggregating, they ultimately bind
Through a mesmerizing and jocund insanity;

Like a sponge, the pristine sheet of paper is the last shore
That swallows frenetically my undying swirls of thought
Which, in graceful order, reassemble forevermore
Securely clipped by my heart, falling into the equilibrium that theyoriginally sought.

Rome, 10 October 2013

Stockholm is my second home and I’m excited about sharing my favorite places. I love Swedish design, I love Stockholm’s restaurants and cafes and I love the Swedish bakeries. My guide shows the best gems for you weekend break.

Read the guide here.