Success story London - Meeting with Francesca Rosella

"Italian, I first worked as a stylist for major brands such as Valentino. But I always wanted to create interactive clothes, with 'intelligent textiles' that could light up, heat up or allow you to make phone calls. To do that, I had to launch my own brand. That's what I did in 2006 with my partner Ryen Genz, also a designer but also an anthropologist.

Since then, we've been inventing clothes that are both elegant and technologically advanced. For example, the "hug shirt", which allows you to send hugs from a distance. Imagine you're in Paris and you want to hug a friend in Tokyo. All you have to do is activate the sensory garment on your mobile phone and set a specific time. At the set time, your friend's garment will mimic your body pressure and heat up. But that's just one example. Initially, we set up in the United States, but we soon realised that London was THE city for this kind of product. Of course, we sell all over the world. We have customers in Germany, France and Los Angeles, and we take part in New York Fashion Week. But London is a city that is very open to creativity and inventiveness. Celebrities like Katy Perry are now commissioning stage clothes from us. And because we create everything in-house, both the fashion and the technology aspects, we can really satisfy our customers. In the beginning, we tried to work with engineers, but they weren't at all concerned with the beauty of a piece. So I learnt to do everything myself, and it works really well!