Meet Serena Fanti | owner or owner of Stradora Los Angeles

We had the good fortune of connecting with Serena Fanti and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Serena, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Linda, my partner and best friend, and I have always lived for fashion and clothes. She successfully runs two women’s clothing stores back home ( Stradora Rubiera and Stradora Formigine) and once I moved to LA, and was done with business school, we decided to do it.. we wanted to open a clothing the products that we carry.

immediately we realized the crazy expenses we are going to face in opening a store in prime locations around LA.

one day, during our usual sunset beach walks, full of disappointments we were trying to figure out how the get the funds necessary to start building our dream.. talking and talking, throwing out the most random ideas, still to this day we don’t remember the exact though process, but we got illuminated!

we are going to create our mobile pop up shop on a van.. not any van, a Piaggio Apecar to be precise, the most ‘Italian’ vehicle ever created, and we want it to be pink with flowers all over, and we will sell directly from it anywhere we want!

and that’s how it all started..it was right before the pandemic started, so the process of getting everything ready and on point was much longer and difficult than anticipated, having to import a vintage van from Italy to California has been challenging to say the least, but we did it! The Apecar turned out to be exactly what we had envisioned that day on the beach!
We are now able to move our shop were is needed around LA. We organize private events and home sales , we participate at markets or simply street vending and bring our amazing one of a kind clothes around the city.

and now a little bit about the stars of our busness, ‘the clothes’! We have a very restricted selection of sartorial hand made women’s clothing. Our style is modern, fun and chic with always the Italian craftsmanship and quality behind it.
Our main focus is to give our clients the best fit for every body shape, age and occasion.
Most of our products are one size fits all, and more importantly every piece we have is unique, one of a kind. When we select the garments we pay much attention to the quality of the fabrics.

We wanted to bring a little Italy to L.A. !! and that is the exact feeling you have when shopping from our little van these amazing Italian garments.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Nowadays, with a click on your phone you can get anything delivered to your door, fast fashion and online shopping are changing how we buy and how we dress! Unfortunately, this new way of shopping is making us even more conform to certain standards and looks and its ruining the beauty of fashion and the excitement of shopping. I have to admit I am guilty as well, I used to shop online all the time and the pandemic really didn’t help!

This is why, we want to bring ‘it’ back! The excitement we used to have getting in a store and feeling the clothes, feeling the textiles and seeing the colors, and trying stuff on.
But even better, you don’t have to go to a store anymore, we can bring the store to you!

At Stradora we are very versatile and we do offer many different services, you can find us on the streets or a markets as a little poposhop, or you can book a private sale session, in which you will be able to do a private viewing of the collection and try on the clothes in the comfort of you home or our showroom.
We can even organize private events, how fun is it to shop with your close friends in the comfort of your backyard while sipping an Aperol Spritz!

In short, the all idea behind Stradora is that we like to bring to the table not only our high end products but the full experience of shopping, and shopping with a personal shopper !
We love to shop with our clients, we love to help them style our clothes and even merge them with their own closets and styles.
Plus, with our one of kind pieces, uniqueness is always our main focus!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m a. pro at this, with all my fellow Italian friends that come to visit.. here are some MUST DO when in LA.

– first and foremost, the ocean! bike ride or walk from Santa Monica beach to Venice, my favorite!
– surf in Malibu and eat by the pier
– hikes at Griffith park at sunset time are the best
– and why not a cool night out in Downtown LA , rooftop for a quick ‘aperitivo’ and then drinks in a cool speakeasy hidden somewhere.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I must say a big shoutout goes to us, Linda and I, believing in this project and having the resilience to push trough it all and never lose hope. being able to trust each other even on the opposite side of the globe was a great deal in the succeeding of our busness. As we like to say when everything goes wrong, in the end we are just two Italian trying to make it in L.A. that’s already a big deal on it own isn’t it?

but the biggest shoutout goes to our clients! These amazing women all over the city that love our work and support us time and time again. they love what we do and help us get better every time. We are able to tailor to their need and request since we have such a close connection with them.

Website: www.stradoralosangeles.com https://www.stradorala.com

Instagram: @stradoralosangeles https://www.instagram.com/stradoralosangeles/

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