NICOLETTA SARACCO
I’m thirty years old, I’m from Civitanova Marche, and I’ve been living in Milan for eleven years.
After Classical High School, when I was 19, I moved to Milan to attend the three-year course of Fashion Design at Istituto Marangoni and, after a master at Creative Academy in Design and Applied Arts, I started my working path within the fashion world, in Chloè, as a shoes designer.
On June 10, 2019, at the age of 29, my life is turned upside down by a diagnosis:
Metastatic breast cancer.
Since that day, I decided to leave the fashion world to focus on myself.
This new life has led me to create a project, with the name of NI.ART.GALLERY, which has become my new job. I tell my story and raise funds for the IEO Foundation (European Institute of Oncology) where I am currently being treated.
How would you define your style?
The adjective I would associate with my style is “colorful”.
Color is the medium and the message I want to get across: the joy of living.
In fact, as I say behind my creations, “there is nothing more beautiful than living in color.”
What does personalization mean to you?
In my opinion, the concept of customization reflects the process of making a garment unique.
With the term AD-PERSONAM, then “only for one person”, is expressed precisely the idea of uniqueness of something customized to the person.
...the process of making a garment unique.
What inspired you to customize the jumpsuit?
I wanted to customize the jumpsuit with the symbol of my project, the Virgin Mary.
I went to embroider the jumpsuit to bring together, in a metaphorical way, the universe of NI.ART with the workwear soul of Garage Italia.
How did you realize it?
The making-of was developed in two phases: the embroidery of the madonnas and the NI.ART.GALLERY logo on the back. The application of thermoadhesive rhinestones on the collar and to finish the embroidered patch.
Tell us your story and how Ni.Art.Gallery was born.
June 10, 2019 is the day I was notified of my breast cancer diagnosis.
A shock.
That day will remain indelible for the rest of my life.
I remember spending the next two days crying non-stop, not understanding anything of what was happening, with only one constant thought: the fear of dying. A fear I had to learn to live with.
This is because the word ‘tumor’ is instinctively associated with death.
The first thing I did was to cut my hair.
Hair represented another problem, as it was a symbol of femininity.
At 29, with a cancer diagnosis and then chemo to go, I ran to the hairdresser to cut it short, with the only request being to donate my hair to make wigs for someone in the same situation as me.
Suddenly I found myself spending my days between tests, pet scans, CT scans, visits, therapies, and even lung surgery.
From the world of fashion, my new reality was, and is, the IEO (European Institute of Oncology) where I am currently undergoing treatment.
A year after the diagnosis, in the midst of treatment, I found myself painting.
By pure chance, during the first lockdown, I decided to buy an easel, canvases and acrylics to keep me busy.
One painting was followed by another, then another and another. I could see that my friends liked them, so I thought it would be nice to connect it to my story and talk about it at the IEO.
It all came about by pure chance.
The name NI.ART.GALLERY, where NI stands for Nicoletta, was decided together with my friends.
I opened the Instagram page and, through the help and participation of everyone, everything started.
In two days I had sold fifteen paintings.
All so unexpected but at the same time excited to do something useful to myself and others.
The symbol-emblem of my project is a Madonna, purposely without a face, so that everyone can associate it with what they think is most suitable.
NI.ART.GALLERY today has become a registered trademark and has a website, www.niartgallery.com , where you can buy sweatshirts and t-shirts embroidered with my logo, and the painting as well, of course.
Has painting always been up your alley or have you suddenly discovered a talent?
Perhaps I’ve rediscovered my true passion for painting now!
I used to paint when I was little, but I haven’t done it for many years, maybe fifteen.
I’ve always drawn, even for work, but painting had been something left on the sidelines.
The techniques I use are various, acrylic only, acrylic pour and markers, on canvas.
I must say that for me it is a way to relax myself, while I paint I totally lose the perception of time and reality.
With your project you are doing an important work of awareness towards the theme of prevention. What do you feel like advising your peers?
My purpose, and dream, is to get through my project a message of energy, positivity and awareness of the theme of prevention.
I believe that today young people are poorly informed about certain diseases in general, particularly breast cancer.
It’s a very important issue because it can affect any woman at any age.
At 29 years old, I had never had a breast ultrasound, I didn’t know what a needle biopsy or a PET scan consisted of.
My intent is to tell my life experience so that young people like me can feel the importance of prevention rather than cure.
Life is so beautiful that we must take advantage of it and live it always in all its facets. And it is also thanks to prevention if today it’s possible to smile at life.
