O is the umbrella name for the young brand born in 2010 from the collaboration between two Romanian born Rome based artists. O is a letter, a shape, a sound, an allusion,
flowing along with the shapes proposed by the brand. All O bags are hand-made, in limited editions, with a propensity to hand-sewn details. We who stand under O think of our bags as objects, with a distinctive presence and a rigorous stature in space and time. We approach bag-making with a vision that is free of traditional rules. We start the process of creation by emptying our minds of all existent information of standard shapes, accessories, dimensions, materials. We take inspiration from states of mind or from elements in nature. We like to imagine our bags as growing out of the body. For most of the times, the O bags and jewelry take innovative shapes, following unique combinations of fabrics and forms. This multi-disciplinary operating mode stems from our art backgrounds that require everything to be invented or constructed from scratch.

We juxtapose materials that give a peculiar feel altogether when caressed with eyes shut. Texture is primordial. Hairy velvet, felt, carefully picked leather and suede, silk threads, sand-washed silk, flesh-like silicone. Our 2012 winter collection will be entirely constructed by using only two materials, felt and leather, and a restricted palette. We like to push creativity to the maximum through this reduction strategy, where the result is a collection of innovative shapes that re-contextualize and reinterpret leather and felt. The two of us met in Rome on a late summer afternoon, one wearing a recycled Ikea curtain converted into a dress, while the other was obsessively carrying her favorite almost disintegrated circular handbag. We shared ideas and the drive to make things by discovering and reinventing fabrics and materials. We started experimenting with making handbags and jewelry, slowly learning how to make our own simplicity patterns and how to work metals. We integrated these two aspects into one practice that is today even richer, where a necklace becomes a handle for a bag, a dress becomes a bag or a necklace becomes a belt. This propensity for multi-functionalism keeps a challenging balance with the minimalism of our design.

Our design is characterized by a play with antagonisms: invisible seams vs. very pronounced hand stitching, super smooth vs. enormously rough textures, strong concealed closures vs. no closures at all, delicate feminine shapes vs. incisive masculine cuts. This play of opposites is rooted in the coexistence of two cultural frames of mind: the Eastern inspiration of our Romanian origins, and the Italian style of our current context. The people wearing O bags are usually individuals interested in new materials and form, curious of research, innovation and avant-garde, lovers of minimalism, of androgyny or, on the contrary of the delicacy of feminine design. Our greatest achievement is that O is a distinctive brand with an image and a personality that is ours alone, and that people have recognized in its multi-faceted aspects. We quote our good friend at Perpetuum in Bucharest: “O stands for: Outrageously Obvious. Obviously Outstanding. Outstandingly Original. Our Owe to the Origins. Oligarchs on our Own. Oxygen for our Outfit. Originating in one's Outfit. Obsessed with Origins. Overdose of Origins. Our Obsessive Origin. Our outline of Origins. Obsolete-free shapes. Opposition to Obsolescence. On oceans of Opposites. Oracle of Outfits. Oceans of Occasions. Opposing Obsessions”.