SO–LE turns leftovers into light with sculptures that carry a little sun.
Maria Sole Ferragamo turns scarcity into style. With SO–LE STUDIO, the Milan-based designer transforms leftover leather and brass from Tuscany into sculptural jewellery that looks weighty and precious but feels unexpectedly light. Her pieces play with illusion and contrast, built for longevity, dynamism, and everyday versatility; with just the right touch of provocation.
This season, she pushes the language further. The Fall ’25 collection embraces the sphere—full and half—shaped through thermoformed leather with minimal cuts, no stitching, and a strict discipline of reduction. Born from water, suspended in air, the new forms protect and elevate rather than simply adorn. It’s a cool, essential chapter in SO–LE STUDIO’s evolution—and the perfect moment for KHAMSA to sit down with Maria Sole in Milan for a conversation about process, play, and purpose.
١. Why the sphere, and why now? A “bubble of oxygen,” an indivisible form. What unlocked this shift for you?
The previous collection was inspired by water and underwater creatures, so I wanted there to be a sense of continuity between the two worlds. The idea of an oxygen bubble floating in water felt like the perfect visual and symbolic link. It’s light, essential, and ephemeral, yet it also holds this almost sculptural, indivisible quality.
At the same time, I was looking for a new challenge. I had never really worked with such a pure and complex form as the sphere. It’s deceptively simple but for my design process that always starts from 2D, it’s a real shift in perspective.
Exploring how to translate that into my design process was exciting and, honestly, a bit daunting which is exactly why I was drawn to it.
٢. ATOMO isn’t made to hold objects—so what does it hold? How do you imagine wearers “using” a bag for memories and intention? Any rituals?
To me, ATOMO holds your secret stories, your thoughts, dreams, intentions. It’s not about utility in the traditional sense; it’s about meaning.
I imagine the wearer forming a sort of personal relationship with it. It’s not just a bag, it’s an object.
When it’s resting, slightly tilted on a surface, it feels almost alive. It becomes a kind of presence, something that stays with you during special moments. I like to think it carries invisible things: a wish, a memory, a quiet strength. Maybe the ritual is simply in choosing to carry it, or in the way you place it down, a small, intentional gesture that turns it into something more than an accessory.
٣. No stitches, few cuts, hidden magnets: what was the hardest rule you refused to break? Tell us about one prototype “mistake” that became a feature.
It wasn’t so much a “rule” as it was a tempting shortcut: I could have hidden the point where the leather sectors meet – where the shape naturally starts to distort around the curve of the sphere – by covering it with a metal element. That would have made things much easier. But I resisted that instinct, because I felt that embracing the imperfection was more honest and more interesting.
Finding the exact geometry to make the pieces align as cleanly as possible was incredibly challenging and to this day, the assembly process is entirely manual. What started out as a problem became a defining feature:
The way the seams are left visible makes each bag unique, with a human touch you can feel.
It’s a reminder that something so minimal still holds complexity, and that beauty can come from resisting the easy solution.
٤. Your pieces look like metal but feel feather-light leather. How do you choreograph that illusion, and where do you decide to stop?
I’ve always been fascinated by illusions, by anything that invites us to look more closely, especially in a world where we’re constantly distracted. Creating that tension between appearance and reality is at the heart of my work. To achieve it, I avoid the usual techniques of leather-craft and instead develop alternative methods that allow the material to speak in a new way.
I love the idea of challenging leather, pushing it beyond its natural limits, giving the material unexpected qualities such as structure or elasticity.
٥. You build luxury from leftovers. When the starting point is “discarded,” what makes something precious, and how do you scale that without losing soul?
What makes something precious isn’t what it is, but what you choose to do with it.
It’s about the intelligence behind the gesture, the effort to see value where others see waste. That act of care and intention is what creates luxury, far more than rarity or price. Scaling it is a challenge, but also a creative stimulus as every limit is for me. It forces you to stay present, constantly ask myself questions and to treat each piece of the process with attention.
٦. Your designs “protect what’s intimate.” What are CLEO and SELENE protecting: sound, reflection, a secret? And for you personally, what would ATOMO guard?
CLEO protects sound: the silence before it, the echo after. SELENE protects reflection: not just what you see, but how you feel when you look. As for ATOMO, for me it holds something even more personal: for a little while, it contains the thoughts that constantly crowd my mind. It gives them a space, so I can find a bit of quiet.
To know more about this collection, click here.
