For Founder and Creative Lead Jeanne Davies, lingerie is more than clothing: it is memory, craftsmanship, and cultural inheritance worn close to the skin. Rooted in Corsican heritage and Mediterranean tradition, Vellutini Lingerie blends vintage femininity with intentional, small-scale production, drawing inspiration from coral jewelry, family archives, and the sensuality of island life. We sat down with Davies to talk fashion, intimacy, craftsmanship, and the lasting influence of Corsican culture on the brand’s vision.
ELENA MAGAZINE: Vellutini feels deeply personal—from the name itself to the references to family history and Corsican culture. At what point did you realize you wanted to turn those influences into a brand?
DAVIES: Growing up on an island can be bittersweet. On one hand, you are surrounded by beauty so great nowhere else can compete. On the other, feeling trapped seems inevitable and finding oneself can be a delicate thing.
It wasn’t until I left Corsica that I realised how dear I held our customs and identity. While living in Rome, I fell back in love with what makes the Mediterranean region so unique: its colours, its scents and its traditions.
That’s when I started piecing together fragments of the island’s history, family photos from last century and jewellery made of coral collected across generations which would later become Vellutini.
ELENA MAGAZINE: There’s a strong sense of heritage throughout the collection, from the garments themselves to the archival imagery and references woven into the brand. What kinds of stories or ideas were you hoping to preserve through Vellutini?
DAVIES: Anyone from Corsica you’ll meet will tell you of how seriously coral is taken on the island. Its role as a talisman dates back to Ancient Rome, though we have records of it being collected all the way back to prehistoric times.
I cannot recall a single moment in my life where coral wasn’t omnipresent.
Its historical significance in helping the island grow economically, the jewellery inherited from my great grandmothers who made a point of not leaving the house without its protection and the knowledge that it links us all to a tradition alive long before we were, all make this gem a part of Corsican life whose importance cannot be denied. In the summertime, as the cities fill up with tourists, coral becomes a quiet recognition of who was born here and knows the island’s secrets. The deeply intimate link each Corsican nurtures with this entity (animal, mineral and plant at the same time) is exactly what I wanted to share with the world.
ELENA MAGAZINE: What first drew you to lingerie specifically, rather than another area of fashion?
DAVIES: The choice to create lingerie rather than clothing was a simple one. Exploring the notion of coral as an object of intimacy was what started this brand, and what could be more intimate than lingerie itself, after all? Coral as an amulet is meant to be worn close to our skin, so turning it into underwear meant it would be as close to it as possible.
ELENA MAGAZINE: Many brands speak about craftsmanship and sustainability, but Vellutini seems especially rooted in a slower, more intentional approach to production. What shaped that philosophy for you?
DAVIES: While building the brand, I decided there was no room for pretending.
Using Mediterranean culture as a marketing tool without giving back to the region and employing its very people would’ve felt like turning my back on a home that has given me so much. The environmental factor cannot be ignored when creating anything today either. Producing in Italy but also sourcing our fabrics here solely means we not only control how the people who make our garments are paid and treated, but also how far everything has to travel before the final piece gets to our atelier in Corsica.
ELENA MAGAZINE: What role does clothing play in how you express yourself day to day?
DAVIES: I have experimented a lot with my clothes and my style throughout the years.
Today, I find that the most important thing in my daily way of dressing is the materials I choose to put on my skin.
I am a big advocate for simple elegance, and that is best achieved through fabrics you can feel will last for decades. What is more chic than being able to wear a 20 year-old outfit in perfect condition, I ask?
ELENA MAGAZINE: Is there a piece in your wardrobe that you find yourself returning to over and over?
DAVIES: The many pieces I regularly steal from my grandmother, who has luckily kept everything from her extensive 1970s wardrobe. The quality and attention to detail in these pieces is formidable and inspires me in everything I create.
ELENA MAGAZINE: Do you think intimate clothing carries a different kind of meaning from other fashion pieces?
DAVIES:
What we wear under our clothes inherently occupies a different function to the rest of our wardrobe.
It is precisely because we could ignore that part of our outfit and opt for a bland, mundane option (nothing wrong with cotton briefs, but who doesn’t like a little more fun?) that lingerie makes any day feel more special. “Lucky” pairs of underwear, a red set for Lunar New Year, the bra you remember because you were wearing it on the day something wonderful happened to you… there are countless examples of how important lingerie becomes in our daily life, sometimes without us even realising it. I always keep that in mind when designing our lingerie and I hope every woman wearing it can feel that special kind of connection to our pieces.
ELENA MAGAZINE: Starting an independent fashion brand today can feel very trend-driven and fast-paced. How have you stayed connected to your own vision while building Vellutini?
DAVIES: When you design with a tradition dating back centuries in mind, you quickly forget fads even exist. Committing to craftsmanship leads you to reflect on what methods of production were available to our ancestors who did everything by hand, and once you start seeing the beauty in that slow, intentional pace, you cannot go back. I made it clear very early on that we would not follow seasons, release new pieces every few weeks or accumulate hundreds of new designs just because. As I said, I greatly admire my grandmother’s wardrobe, and I know what makes it so special is the time she spent curating it.
Beauty cannot be rushed and the generations before us knew that.
It is inevitable to compare yourself to brands who might develop faster following trends, but when I look at what I have created, I feel great pride in knowing I have stuck to my vision and to something my ancestors would probably feel connected to.
ELENA MAGAZINE: What inspires you creatively outside of fashion?
DAVIES: Recently, I have been very inspired by photography and the simplicity with which some artists portray our corner of the world. My good friend Frida Vasas, for example, creates incredible work around the Aeolian Islands for her project HAGNE STUDIO and even came to Corsica to shoot a few film rolls last summer. I have drawn so much inspiration from her photo series telling the story of the ancestral fishing techniques used on Stromboli and have a beautiful print of hers hanging in our atelier.
I am also very sensitive to scents and the story they tell. Corsica has plenty of amazing perfumers who make feeling at home possible with a simple spray. I love exploring the Mediterranean sensorially and I adore that a specific perfume can replicate the memory of a day on the beach or that of silk brushing against your skin.
ELENA MAGAZINE: What do you hope women feel when they wear Vellutini?
DAVIES: I hope our lingerie can take women back to the feeling one gets on a Mediterranean vacation. The simple, Great Beauty of it all (I dream of my lingerie one day being used in a Paolo Sorrentino film!!). When life gets overwhelming, the least your underwear can do is remind you the Dolce Vita exists.
