Introduction
Maurizio Amadei is an Italian designer and pattern maker whose work spans leather goods, clothing, footwear, jewellery and objects. Born in Rome and largely self-taught, he developed an early interest in constructing garments directly around the body before moving to London and pursuing design independently.
Amadei later became a key designer within Carpe Diem, the label founded by Maurizio Altieri. Sources associate his contribution especially with leatherwear, bags, footwear, belts and pattern development, alongside involvement in the wider Sartoria and Linea projects. He left around the label’s mid-2000s closure and founded m.a+ in 2006, beginning with bags before extending the practice into apparel and other product systems.
At m.a+, Amadei has maintained a close relationship between design and atelier production. His work has been presented through specialist stockists, exhibitions and installations as well as seasonal deliveries, including the One-Piece Project at Lift étage, SPIRAL, and the ACROSS fragrance made with Meo Fusciuni.
Design ethos
Amadei’s practice begins with pattern and material continuity. He folds and moulds cloth or leather into volume, often reducing a garment, bag or shoe to one continuous piece with minimal seams. Anatomical cutting follows the body’s movement, while integrated pockets, spiral seams and displaced junctions allow function to emerge from the pattern itself.
Leather is selected for how it changes through wear. Vegetable tanning, visible grain, uneven density and restrained surface finishing allow jackets, belts, bags and footwear to acquire patina and adapt to the wearer. Sterling-silver crosses, staples and buckles sit at points of contact or stress, combining insignia, fastening and reinforcement.
Across clothing and objects, Amadei works through recurring systems rather than isolated gestures. One-piece jersey, folded footwear, origami wallets and bag forms are adjusted over time through proportion, thickness and material choice. This iterative method gives the work a quiet visual register while concentrating its complexity in construction and use.
Disclaimer
Career history
2019
2018
m.a+ introduced its first fragrance, ACROSS, through a collaboration between Maurizio Amadei and perfumer Meo Fusciuni. A launch installation at Contemporary Cluster translated the scent’s forest imagery into a spatial path and extended the label beyond clothing and leather goods.
2016
m.a+ presented SPIRAL at Lift étage in 2016. Built around a large bull-leather spiral reinforced with wire and red hand stitching, the installation made Amadei’s studies of proportion, folding and tension visible as objects in space.
2015
Lift étage presented a dedicated Room of m.a+ in 2015, placing garments and objects within a gallery context instead of a conventional seasonal show. The presentation continued the label’s long relationship with specialist Japanese retail and exhibition spaces.
2011
At Lift étage in Tokyo, m.a+ presented an installation devoted to one-piece construction. The project demonstrated how an entire outfit could be folded from one textile pattern and connected the label’s garment architecture to the idea of clothing as a skin.
2010
A+V, also described as Across Five, formalised a custom-order route within the m.a+ atelier around 2010. Clients could vary materials, dimensions, stitching and hardware around established patterns, bringing the label’s construction system closer to bespoke practice.
2007
m.a+ extended its bag-based construction system into clothing from the Spring/Summer 2007 season. One-piece folding, anatomical cutting and minimal seams moved from leather objects into shirts, jersey and outerwear.
2006
After working within Carpe Diem, Maurizio Amadei established m.a+ in 2006 as an independent atelier-led label. The project began with bags and leather objects, establishing the reduced-seam construction and cross-marked details that would remain central to the brand.
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