Stella
Stella Serpente is a creative maker from Sicily, now based in Leeds.
She lost her dad in 2014.
“As a kid, I was always between shops. My great grandma sold fabrics; my grandfather started out with her then opened his own shop selling suits. We’re a family of retailers.
My dad had a record store. He loved all sorts of music. His main thing was prog rock but he loved all kinds of music. I remember driving with him just after the Prodigy album came out and we were just going wild to Firestarter in the car.
Not everyone has so much fun with their parents. We were best friends.
He always wore 501 jeans. Lots of double denim. Sometimes a check shirt. A real American look.
He never said no to anything I wanted to do. When I left uni, he said “Why don’t we open a shop in Caltanissetta?” He came up with the idea of doing custom t-shirts.
They were vinyl prints, made with a plotter and a heat press. We bought the machines together. No one else was doing it.
He knew I was creative and I loved fashion. He always had the best ideas. He taught me everything.
We opened it when I was 19 in the ground floor flat of a building. We painted the door and the window frames yellow. We did everything ourselves. People were coming in, bringing CDs to play. It was like a pub, but it was a shop!
At night I’d go out with friends and I’d have my order book with me and people would still be asking me about t-shirts at midnight. “Can I get one of those in a medium?”
My dad brought me to a little factory where they did embroidery. He planted the seed - he said we needed to grow as entrepreneurs. We should step things up. Even now, my hand-embroidered pieces are the things that go first at fairs.
But I wanted to travel. My grandmother was an English teacher and I’d studied languages. I didn’t want to get stuck. Yes, the shop was successful, but I wanted to learn more.
I travelled back to Sicily when my grandmother died. We were so close. She loved languages and used to watch TV and crochet furiously.
I was back in the UK just a few days when my sister sent me a text. Dad was in hospital.
I took the first plane I could. He’d deteriorated so much. After just a couple of weeks, he died. He was only 55. I was devastated.
I spent a year in Sicily taking photos and singing. But back in the UK, I found myself wanting to make things again. Especially clothes and accessories - I’m always drawn to fabric.
Dad planted the seed when he took me to that little factory to show me the embroidery.
I lose myself in it. It needs total concentration.
“I lose myself in it. It needs total concentration.”
Today, my whole business is built around having an open space and mind for creating one-off things. That’s why the name is Made Once Creations.
We’re all unique. We’re all made once.
I don’t have much that belonged to him. A framed photo and his camera bag. And I had the plotter and heat press shipped over from Sicily.
It’s what he left me. The knowledge and the machines. ”
Find out more about Stella’s work at MadeOnceCreations.com
You can follow Stella on instagram @stellaserpente
Written by Laura McDonagh