‘A walk in the forest’ with Antonio Femia

‘I’ve always had this idea that the longer you spend in the forest, the more it consumes you’. Running obsessed, every day he would run the same route, deep into the forest adjacent to his home. After Covid hit, Antonio would spend up to six hours in the forest. He spent so much time alone in the forest that a pair of ravens used to wait for him to pass by, on the same branch everyday for the best part of a year. Antonio describes being able to mimic the paces of the deers and despite being very wild they would walk up to him, curious as to who he was, ‘This deep connection with the forest is an integral part of my collection’.

A Walk in the Forest is Antonio’s personal interpretation of the forest and all the creatures, mythical and biological, within the trees. He describes the evolution of the six looks: “The further into the collection you go, the further into the forest you go, it gets more and more fantastical and metaphysical.” The looks embody different creatures: first a snail, then a spiderweb, then an insect, a secret garden, a corpse, and finally the forest witch. “The witch is a fabricated, theatrical character because she’s the epitome of being in the forest late at night in the dark. You want to go back but you don’t know where the way back is,” he says, putting a horror-like spin on the narrative.

Horror plays a large role in Antonio’s forest universe, the darkness of the Belgian landscape and the beauty he sees in the unknown. When asked what spookiness means to him, Antonio replies,

“Spooky is something you can’t explain, something uncertain.”

The collection blurs the line between reality and fantasy, or perhaps fear, and that is what is so intriguing about Antonio’s design ideology. It is his own world, inspired by nature, but we get to witness it through immersive, curious and intricate fashion design.

When studying BA Fine Art, Antonio did a project about insects that involved sewing sculptural garments which were hung as an art installation resembling an insect nest. He reimagined the lifecycle of a mayfly, making the adult with wings, the egg sacs, the caterpillar, worm and larvae. “I used stockings to make the larvae,” Antonio explains. Despite having never touched a needle and thread before, the project was a huge success and led to him studying womenswear design at CSM.

Antonio’s grandmother from Italy was a seamstress and his Peruvian grandfather was a tailor, meaning sewing was in his genes from the start, and you can see that in the level of detail and intricacy in all his work. Abzal Issabekov, Senior Women and Men RTW Designer at Ferragamo, agrees: “Antonio demonstrated exceptional skill in 3D design work, consistently producing high-quality visuals that exceeded our expectations” during his internship there.

Antonio continues, saying, “I realised I was creating a religion out of the insects,” from the religious silhouettes to the abandoned chapel as the backdrop for the final shoot. “It only made sense, for my final year at La Cambre to create an illustrative style pagan altar.” This really kickstarted Antonio’s signature forest insects philosophical investigation into nature through design. “The altar that opened up like a church triptych” is a beautiful amalgamation of fantasy and realism, modelled around Antonio’s attic room in his home, depicting himself in caterpillar form through childlike, abstract, illustrative techniques.

“It feels like every time I make a project it keeps on adding to the same universe. I’m exploring different characters of the same universe, first the insects, now the fairytales, maybe the people next if I do a masters. If I do a masters I would like to do a project about the people living in the countryside such as the baker, the beekeeper, the farmer, and exploring how that would translate into this universe.”

“Antonio’s unique world was very enriching for the studio teams who appreciated his personality and his approach to fashion,” said Maxime Delaye Augagneur, Head Tailoring Designer at Celine, where Antonio interned last year. Something that makes him stand out as a designer is that this universe and his previous work are the sole inspiration for this collection. When asked about his favourite designers he cites Jeanne Vicerial, a French textile artist, as a major inspiration. “She discusses nature, birth and, I don’t like to say liminal places because it feels like I‘m talking about the backrooms, but liminal barriers between life and death.” Jeanne has a mythical and almost pagan feel to her work, creating insect-like sculptural garments composed of tiny threads that resemble hair. Antonio says, “I was very young when I began following her work, since she has grown an intense cult following of people like me who adore her work.”

He also talks about European Catholicism influencing his work. “Paganism is very prevalent in my work as I was brought up in places like Africa and South America where it is part of everyday culture. Over there, if you go into a mine you must address the uncle, who is basically a pagan deity that turned into the devil when the conquistadors arrived in South America. It’s just a completely different world.” But rather than taking direct inspiration from these countries Antonio explains,

“I took the way these places taught me to see nature and applied it to the forests in Belgium. I started seeing nature through the ritualistic South American and African lenses.”

The mythicality of the forest aligns with religious practices because Antonio’s belief in the magic of the forest is akin to religious beliefs of gods and deities. Having lived in London since 2022, Antonio has realised there is a deep disconnect from nature when living in a big city. “London is a city that overwhelms your senses, there’s so much noise and flashing lights.” He talks about how much this has impacted his anxiety, noting how important your surroundings and environment are not just for working as a designer but for your mental wellbeing. Despite not running in the city, like he used to in the forest, sewing is one way Antonio tries to relax, but he says the best way is travel. “Travel gives you a better perspective and grounding in your work.”

He often visits friends in Denmark and tells me how he makes them go berry picking when the berries are in season. “It’s a ritualistic way of thanking nature for its fruitfulness,” something people rarely think to do anymore when it is easier to buy jam.

Of course, as Antonio’s collection is so heavily influenced by the natural world, sustainability is very important to him and plays a huge role in his design decisions. He mentions Hoda Kova as one of his favourite designers because she uses a lot of second-hand materials in her work. This resonates with him because in Belgium there is a huge culture of shopping at flea markets.

“Every weekend, me and my Mum would go to the local flea markets and buy second-hand trinkets and clothing.”

Many of these items he is now repurposing and using in his collection, a good example being the antique spoons he has adorned his secret garden look with. “I’d rather use polyester that is second hand from a charity shop or flea market rather than organic cotton, which has to be shipped from overseas.” Lots of the fabrics used in Antonio’s toiles and final collection are recycled, second hand and made from materials that otherwise would have been thrown away. “It happened very organically, without even realising, I naturally used second-hand items and to me it’s really special.”

As our conversation, aptly taking place on the iconic CSM roof garden, draws to a close, I ask Antonio where he sees his garments in the future. For his more sculptural insect pieces, he says the dream would be to have them displayed in a large, butterfly-cage-like glass dome in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. “I definitely want one of the designs to become a lamp in my apartment, maybe the secret garden one, other than that I haven’t really thought about it.”

For now though, the future is bright as Antonio will soon be interning with Jeanne Vicerial’s team in Paris, then he is considering doing a masters to further his design universe. And as authentically as his work, he offers me a banana, which I accept. We eat our bananas while listening to the flies and bees in the roof garden, slightly masked by the sirens and horns from the busy London traffic below.