Inside the Brand: How Fabiana Pigna Crafts Artful Tension within Timeless Silhouettes
Fabiana Pigna (est. 2015, Los Angeles) is a design studio run by Venezuelan fashion designer Fabiana Pigna and her partner, Miles Brandman. We spoke with the designer about the evolution of her California atelier, the influences inspiring her playful use of shape and form, and how she achieves artful tension within each garment.
Tell us about your first collection.
I spent years designing for other companies, working endlessly and feeling increasingly detached from the product around me. Los Angeles, in the mid-aughts, was driven by speed. It felt like a conveyor belt — fast, profitable, and completely devoid of soul. I knew I needed to dislodge myself from that system.
On a routine trip to the garment district, I stumbled upon a bolt of white cotton shirting unlike anything I had ever seen: a dense, tightly woven fabric treated with an enzyme wash that gave it the texture and presence of paper.
Something shifted. The purity of that fabric felt like a reset. I decided to create a limited series of nine blouses, designed to let the material speak. I drafted every pattern myself, cut each style by hand, and worked with a trusted sewer to build the first samples. With my closest friends, I photographed the pieces inside an art gallery, printed a small book, and carried it door-to-door to my favorite stores in the city. That’s how I landed my first orders. And that’s how SS15 was born.
How has your use of that signature crisp cotton poplin changed or evolved over time?
A crisp, structured paper-cotton is my personal Shangri-La. It will always remain a protagonist in my collections; however, the silhouettes have evolved significantly as I’ve gotten older. When I started I wanted something different, very feminine, with some unexpected curve or detail.
Now, I gravitate toward more grounded shapes and find the luxury in the comfort, grit and handsomeness of a piece. I want my pieces to feel like a hug and a suit of armor at the same time. Timeless, sophisticated, unpretentious, earnest and elegant all at the same time.
A decade later, how has your design philosophy evolved?
The focus has always been thoughtful design, excellent craftsmanship, great fit and finding the best materials I can get. I wanted to build a product here in Los Angeles that could rival European quality. It has not been an easy road, a lot of factories will say no because it is a very slow process.
Shortly after launching the first collection, my husband Miles started working on some aspects of the business as things got challenging very quickly. His involvement became full time and has been pivotal to the evolution of the brand. We both focus on how to build the best garment we can with the resources we have. We use each other as sounding boards and have become essential partners in shaping both the creative and operational heartbeat of the brand.
Your brand often blends sculptural silhouettes with wardrobe staples – can you tell us more about your influences?
My main source of inspiration has and always will be Japanese fashion, and one of the common threads that runs through it is their playful use of shape and their sculptural forms. I grew up devouring books about Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto, they are the pinnacle of real fashion to me.
I knew that I wanted to incorporate some element in my design aesthetic that nodded to those influences, so I like to play with the shape of my sleeves, or the leg of a pant, or the back of a jacket. Something that feels slightly out of the ordinary and adds an element of artful tension.
Was there a specific inspiration for your Fall/Winter 2025 collection?
Most of my inspiration comes from a pastiche of imagery I collect and fabrics I encounter throughout my development process. In the case of Fall / Winter 2025, I found this incredible technical rip-stop organza in a dark indigo hue from a very small Italian mill. This immediately reminded me of some imagery I had of blue plastic bags floating in the air and an artwork consisting of x-rays performed on silk garments that I found so odd and beautiful.
That was a great starting point. The rest of the pieces came in the form of crisp Italian yarn dyed stripes, a buttery Italian techno taffeta, a very rich velvet and a glorious French jacquard that was used to craft one of my favorite jackets, the Romi.
Interview by Geneviève Beaudoin
Photographs courtesy of Fabiana Pigna