Twins Camilla and Giulia Venturini form MEDEA, a label that explores the nature of duality through surreal escapism.

Gianni Versace isn&rsquo;t the only Italian designer captivated by a Greek myth, a personal passion celebrated through his namesake that bears the Medusa head as an emblem of power and beauty adorning even the gates of his home. Sisters Camilla and Giulia Venturini found inspiration in the same literature, resulting in MEDEA, a project exploring the nature of duality through bags, which at initial glance, look like your ordinary shopping carryall. But like Medea &mdash; the sensuous sorceress turned woman scorned in Euripides&rsquo; tragedy &mdash; the seemingly simple appearance of the items disguises their elaborate make.
 Upon inspection, you&rsquo;ll find thoughtful touches here and there: a gold stamp of the logo, a busted texture reminiscent of old Herm&egrave;s shopping bags, an image from the legendary photographer Nan Goldin, a silver croc-print resembling tiny mirrors. No matter what shape it takes, MEDEA personifies the dichotomy between fancy and cool, thus changing the notion that highly coveted bags are mere status symbols without substance and soul.

That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s hard to miss the brand&rsquo;s spirited visual storytelling. In one of MEDEA&rsquo;s shoots, Camilla and Giulia transformed themselves into witches by wearing prosthetic noses that were paired with vintage pieces from McQueen, Galliano, and Givenchy. For their mini bag campaign, they collaborated with Maurizio Cattelan of TOILETPAPER, who artfully highlighted the size of the accessories by placing them next to similarly petite objects. With their fondness for detail, it&rsquo;s not surprising that it was Pier Paolo Pasolini&rsquo;s picturesque dramatization of Medea (1969) that lured them to their muse.
 These narratives shape and differentiate the brand from other newcomers. Giulia says, &ldquo;We try not to follow trends at all because when I see that something becomes hyped, I know that there are already probably 200 people trying to copy it. I don&rsquo;t want to be the 201st... I feel like I can bring something to the conversation.&rdquo; These dialogues were nonetheless interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic that struck Milan with force. The twins had no choice but to retreat inside their studio for a year &mdash; a time they spent for introspection and self-education. Camilla describes a day in the life, &ldquo;We were never hanging out with people, which for us is usually a very big source of inspiration... Our bag is inspired by a shopping bag so it&rsquo;s the most street thing you can imagine. [But] this time, we found ourselves being inspired by our most deep source which is art... we were spending a lot of time at some of the museums online.&rdquo; While their productivity increased, &ldquo;some days were a little bit hard to get through,&rdquo; Camilla says.

In their case, isolation didn&rsquo;t breed idleness; it motivated them to invoke the emotional aid of music through collecting the playlists of friends and collaborators. Among them were Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of Daft Punk and fashion designer Stefano Pilati. Giulia shares, &ldquo;Yeah, right! That&rsquo;s insane. We&rsquo;re always like, &lsquo;I know this is impossible, but we&rsquo;re going to try.&rsquo; Sometimes it really works. Most of the time, it doesn&rsquo;t, but I think it&rsquo;s a good message for young people that nine out of 10 will say no, but there will be that one person who is going to say yes, and it&rsquo;s really going to change your day or month, and it&rsquo;s really going to give you a lot of inspiration and will help you keep going.&rdquo;
 Such is the power of community &mdash; it makes people feel supported. The siblings realized that even if strict lockdowns can smother individuals with drudgery, the quiet moments can also become a source of joy. Giulia points out, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re presenting a new collection with this collaborator of ours that we really love. His name is Harry Freegard. He made videos for us for the launch of these lipstick cases and those videos were incredible; they were like parodies of Psycho and Breakfast at Tiffany&rsquo;s. We thought it will be great to collaborate with him again, so we&rsquo;re shooting a campaign this week in London, and the concept is really fun. We&rsquo;re like, &lsquo;We must have fun!&rsquo;&rdquo;

Despite these online efforts, they couldn&rsquo;t deny that there&rsquo;s still nothing quite like the thrill of real-life interactions. &ldquo;We want to travel. We&rsquo;re looking forward to seeing some of our collaborators that we didn&rsquo;t see for more than a year. We&rsquo;re looking forward to being able to show our collection in person, to see people&rsquo;s reaction in person, to organize a party,&rdquo; Camilla says. But regardless of how distant the world has become, Camilla and Giulia are lucky to be able to host and take part in a bustling scene. Most importantly, they always have each other in close proximity. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re inseparable for sure,&rdquo; Giulia affirms. However, that wasn&rsquo;t always the case.
 &ldquo;We were living apart for 10 years. I was in Milan and Camilla was in New York so we both grew. We both had our own lives on different continents.&rdquo; Throughout that stint, Giulia worked for TOILETPAPER while Camilla worked for photographer Ari Marcopoulos. They consider the experience necessary. Had they been together the whole time, they would have gone to the same shows, seen the same concerts, and met the same people. &ldquo;Now that we&rsquo;re together, it&rsquo;s really great because we know each other so well when it comes to designs and references,&rdquo; Giulia adds. So, maybe it&rsquo;s not just their bags that embody duality; it&rsquo;s a trait Camilla and Giulia possess themselves as a unit. They&rsquo;re like a jigsaw puzzle where gaps are closed by pairing complementary sides.

It Takes Two: MEDEA

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