Photos – Barbara and Luigia de Felice personal archive, LEDEFF ©
“Authenticity and passion for everything that is antique, everything that carries a story. This is the heart of LEDEFF. The femininity, the past and the contemporary touch are mixed together in a luxury bag brand inspired by our grandmother Rosaria and our mother Silvia. Women with timeless elegance, who are and always will be our inspiring muses” – Barbara and Luigia de Felice.
Founded in 2017 by Barbara and Luigia de Felice sisters, LEDEFF brand proposes luxury bags and accessories (belts, key holders, shoulder straps, mobile pouches and belt bags), in which the contamination between ancient and modern, the constant search for precious fabrics, both modern and vintage, and the combination of leather and brass outline a new and very particular style.
Mamma Silvia
LEDEFF is the creation of a space where echoes of the past, essential lines and chromatic geometries, uniqueness, elegance and passion for manufacturing and craftsmanship converge. A vision that comes from the past and lives in the present with creativity and great attention to the smallest detail.
Barbara’s technical skills and Luigia’s keen eye for new trends give life to a refined product. The passion for their roots and values fuelled the sisters’ project, focused on the excellence of Made in Italy. Their products are the result of traditional artisanship and carefully selected materials. Research and experimentation are the heart of the LEDEFF creative process.
Italian tradition and Neapolitan identity are the main features, expertly hand-sewn on each bag and accessory signed by LEDEFF.
Manifattura borse
Mamma Silvia
Mamma Silvia
THE BRAND, ITS HISTORY
The brand comes to life from the trunks of a collector: those that the grandmother Rosaria, daughter of the art of a well-known Neapolitan tailor’s shop in the early 900s, leaves to her granddaughters, Barbara and Luigia.
Trunks full of history, of precious fabrics such as French silk velvets, golden borders and embroideries coming from ancient liturgical vestments, vintage buckles and buttons, ancient clothes and accessories, all perfectly preserved.
Barbara and Luigia decide to give new life to these objects and transform them into an exclusive line of bags. Unique, unreproducible pieces. In obsessive attention to details and finishes. They combine their skills: Barbara’s creativity in designs and shapes, Luigia’s meticulousness in the search for raw materials of the highest quality.
Fabrics that come from the world of interior design, such as velvets and silk shantung, are combined with fine leathers from the best Italian tanneries. The vintage-inspired brass decorations, handmade in the most ancient Neapolitan foundries, give uniqueness and authenticity to each bag.
The attachment to one’s land and the knowledge of the production network, deliver LEDEFF to a Made in Italy of excellent workmanship. The taste, the femininity of past eras and the modern touch come together in a brand that was born from two inspiring muses, grandmother Rosaria and mother Silvia to whom the iconic bag of the brand with the lion symbol is dedicated. Two women with a natural and timeless class.
Nonna Rosaria
Nonna Rosaria
DE FELICE SISTERS, THE FOUNDERS
Barbara and Luigia were born in Naples, in a house where they have breathed fashion and design since childhood. Barbara, the first of four children, lives in Naples and following in the footsteps of her father, becomes an architect and interior designer. During the university period, she devoted herself to the study of the Neapolitan period from 1600 to early 1900, in the modern reworking of these styles. She personally designs and manufactures fine leather rugs, which she sells in furniture studios. She loves strong contrasts. She ranges in contemporary minimalism by inserting antiques elements, blending styles and colours. Fabrics are her passion. She studies, analyses and re-elaborates them. They become the main element of her projects. As an architect, she conceives fashion as design, as a set of structures, geometries, harmonies and joints between volumes. Her hand is easily “lent” to fashion, designing a bag or a house is very similar to her. Today with LEDEFF, she expresses all her creativity.
Luigia lives in Milan and she is the last of four siblings. Graduated in Business Administration, she began her career in fashion moving from small and medium-sized enterprises to multinational companies, covering various roles, from commercial to creative. Passionate about vintage, she adores her grandmother’s dresses, which she wears and reinterprets, creating her own unique and personal style. Always on the hunt for bizarre pieces in the small markets of London, Paris, Berlin, wherever the vintage calls, she goes.
The two sisters combine skills and the brand becomes a tribute to the family. The naming is a natural evolution of the nickname given to the four very close siblings: “The Deffs”. LEDEFF stands for Barbara and Luigia sisters.
THE PRODUCTION, MADE IN ITALY EXCELLENCE
Firmly convinced that a product of excellence must start with the choice of raw materials, Barbara and Luigia are extremely careful in the analysis of their suppliers, which they select based on very high-quality parameters.
The precious and soft to the touch leathers come exclusively from the best Italian tanneries, known for the seriousness and quality of certified leather. The selection of the leather is increasingly oriented towards the use of production waste or leftovers, in the name of sustainability and enhancement of surpluses. In addition, the leathers are made through an alternative tanning process that does not involve the use of metals or chromium and ensures a lower environmental impact than traditional methods.
The luxury furnishing fabrics are chosen from the most well-known interior design labels, with a particular look at French fabrics. The buckles and decorations are strictly brass. Finding the right suppliers is crucial because the result starts there.
The production of LEDEFF is 100% Made in Italy. Choosing to work exclusively with Italian artisans is an ethical and certain choice. It allows you to have constant control of the supply chain at every stage of processing and, above all, to rely on skills recognized worldwide for precision and attention to finished products.
The refined manufacturing of every single bag, in the cuts, seams, joints, buckles is the synthesis of a process that comes from afar. Handed down in the artisan workshops and in the skills of those who still believe in love and meticulous care of their work.
The decorations are handmade in ancient Neapolitan foundries where the brass, the main metal, is worked with a traditional process called “a staffa” where the incandescent liquid metal is poured into the moulds. The following polishing and galvanic coating processes allow increasing the corrosion resistance.
This is how a LEDEFF bag or accessory takes shape: research and creativity, care and passion, tradition and future.
THE SPECIAL EDITIONS
In addition to the collections, there are the special editions by LEDEFF with unique pieces, for a concept of timeless and seasonless accessory where the exclusivity is the real difference. The fabrics used are out of production, archive or searched in antique markets to give an ancient and unique charm, a piece of unrepeatable history.
Bags were designed and made each with a particularity of fabrics and decorations, none alike. Extreme creativity and continuous research to give life to real collector’s items.
ICONIC: ZODIAC COLLECTION
Zodiac is the iconic and ongoing collection of bags dedicated to the signs of the zodiac signed by LEDEFF.
A vintage belt belonging to grandmother Rosaria, decorated with studs depicting the twelve zodiac signs, inspires the collection. Fascinated by this particular accessory, sisters Barbara and Luigia used the original studs as a mould to create new ones, to be applied on LEDEFF bags.
Each zodiac sign is hand-drawn and made of gold-finish brass in the ancient Neapolitan foundries. Subsequently, it is worked by specialized craftsmen who give the same antique effect of the original studs.
This leather bag capsule is highly customizable. In fact, the customer can choose between different colours and twelve zodiac signs. Then, the retro-inspired zodiac sign is applied like an ancient jewel on the ECLITTICA bag. The bag, made of leather and tone-on-tone velvet details, has a shape that resembles a constellation. Keyholders and belts, always customizable, complete the collection.
LEDEFF products can be purchased online. The showroom is located in Naples in Via Domenico Morelli 7, near the famous Caracciolo seafront.
