Meet Laura, founder of ‘For Love of the Moon’
On a sleepy sun drenched property nestled within the southern Italian countryside, trees burst with olives, citrus and Acacia flowers. The summers are long with what seems like a never ending supply of sunlight, providing the perfect backdrop and inspiration for ethical clothing brand, For Love of the Moon.
For Love of the Moon is what Italian vintage dreams are made of. From earthy dresses that billow and flow, unique intricately embroidered blouses, to chunky oversized woolly knits. Laura’s dreamy collection of neutrals will summon a nostalgia from within that you never even knew existed.
Meet Laura, the vintage adoring, poetry loving, secret DJ aspiring human behind the beautiful For Love of the Moon brand…
Tell us a little about yourself Laura…
My name is Laura, I’m an American living in Puglia (southern Italy) and I run my vintage shop, For Love of the Moon, from my home in the countryside. I spend most of my days close to home, working on sourcing & shooting new vintage collections or sewing my Wear Your Values collection, which is comprised of 100% recycled pieces that I personally make out of discarded fabric. We have a big garden that provides a good bit of our food, lots of fruit trees to take care of and this was the first year we harvested our own olives for oil. So between my work, recycling for my shop and my day to day life, I feel pretty rich in my connection to earth.
I spend a lot… (a lot)… of time with music. I can waste hours listening to the same album over & over again and lose days combing through new playlists. I secretly wish I could I be some sort of DJ, curating music and moods for people - I find it’s one of the truest ways I can connect with other humans - so I’ve been pushing playlists on my new For Love of the Moon Journal trying to lure people into my fantasy.
Why did you start For Love of the Moon?
I started my shop about 7 or 8 years ago now, while I was living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was before Instagram was a platform for selling and it was tough to gain traction. My love of old things - worn and story-rich objects - is what drew me to vintage but the desire to actually have a shop came from some place different. Since as far back as I can remember I’ve wanted to alter the clothing in my closet to be different than it was.
I’ve always had this specific idea of how I wanted my clothing to come together & make me feel. I would buy XXXL sweaters to layer over bell bottoms, chop my grandmother’s vintage dresses (big awful, horrific mistakes were made!), and wear scarves as mini dresses. I think that strong sense of what works & doesn’t work made me feel like I had a style (good or bad didn’t matter, just having it was important), and feeling that in the first place made me feel like I could share it. It was just natural that I wouldn’t sell new clothing, my style is very much vintage.
How would you describe For Love of the Moon’s aesthetic?
Light, airy, sunshine pouring in on a Mediterranean day, warm colours. I like natural, mostly neutral tones and billowing dramatic silhouettes, but as I get older and more comfortable in my own skin, modelling and selling more intimate, fitted pieces doesn’t feel as vulnerable as it once did.
If I was going to sum it up: For Love of the Moon is meant to be comfortable, feminine and versatile. There’s a line I use a lot: “from the bedroom to the dinner table”, meaning the clothing is so effortless you can wear it lounging around the house and not have to change to go to dinner.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Italy’s dolce vita and music… music takes me to places, allows my mind to wander, gives me permission to create a mood, to fall in love and day dream. How would I want to dress or feel while this song was playing? What situation would I be while sharing this record? What would I want to be wearing while dancing if somebody turned this album on? It inspires me endlessly. I also love to read poetry and find that second to music, it opens my mind up the most to discovering new ways of looking at the world.
Tell us about your most memorable ‘unicorn’ find on your thrifting adventures?
Actually not a piece of clothing, but rather an old Japanese book of poetry I found in a small book shop in upstate New York for $7. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve read it front to back and how much I love it. If my house was burning down, it would be on the short list of things I’d grab. There’s something so beautifully delicate and natural about the rhythm of Japanese poetry and it’s opened up so much space in my mind.
Nothing haunts us like the things we didn’t buy, tell us about the piece that ‘got away’…
There hasn’t been one in a while… I’ve learned my lesson. There was a vintage, 1970s peach Indian, cotton maxi dress, with gold threading on a trip to San Franciscos’ Haight a long time ago, it still haunts me today.
What are your top tips for a successful day of thrifting?
I’ll give my best tips for thrifting the markets in Europe, since that is very different from thrifting secondhand shops in the states:
Embrace the chaos, be patient, have cash and coins ready & separated in your bag so you can access them without having to pull out your whole wallet, and know your audience - not every vendor wants to haggle, despite Italians being famous for bargaining, so if something is affordable and worth it to you, pay full price. I promise you won’t ever think about that $5 you could’ve saved in a few weeks.
What does the future hold for, For Love Of The Moon?
I would be happy continuing doing more of the same. I’m content and proud of where my shop is… it’s been a long, often frustrating, journey building up to this point.
Another pair of hands to help me get ahead of my Wear Your Values collection would be helpful, perhaps a pattern maker to help with a few silhouettes that are beyond my skill set is probably in the cards.
I’d love to work with female artists in communities that don’t have the same opportunities I have, to highlight their craft and elevate their independence. I’m sure a partnership of that nature will be somewhere in my future. A louder voice fighting for climate justice and exposing the perils of the fast fashion industry will definitely be there. Maybe somebody will offer me a professional slot on some radio show and I’ll be moonlighting as a DJ.
If you adore dreamy, feminine vintage, thoughtfully curated playlists from the yesteryear and sunny, nostalgic photography, then For Love of the Moon is the brand you’ve been unknowingly searching for your whole damn life.
Be sure to follow Laura on -
Instagram: @forloveofthemoon
Facebook: For Love of the Moon
Website: For Love of the Moon