Designer Interview: Michele Mangiacotti
Michele Mangiacotti
Letters
By Jennifer Kwok, Managing EditorWhen Michele Mangiacotti was asked to develop a personal care line for retailer Anthropologie, she found inspiration where she least expected to—in her attic. A few years earlier, Mangiacotti, who also owns personal care and home brand Mangiacotti Florals, had purchased a 110-year-old Victorian house in Attleboro, MA, for her office space. Among the antique treasures the former owner had left behind in the attic was a trunk full of love letters written in the 1940s by a man to his long-distance love.
“When I found the letters, I thought, ‘I can’t believe this. They are so beautiful,’” says Mangiacotti, who has designed packaging for 18 years.
Mangiacotti quickly realized that the lovers’ story would be perfect for Anthropologie, whose image she says is romantic and very much 1940s-inspired, as well as the other specialty retailers where the line launched last year. With the love story in mind, Mangiacotti created Letters, a collection of body washes, soaps, lotions, and candles.
Instead of modern-looking bottles for the body washes and lotions, Mangiacotti found bottles with a vintage look. “There are so many brands out there with the same type of rounded-shoulder bottles,” she says. “I wanted ours to be unique and romantic and feel a little organic, too.”
Mangiacotti researched the types of bottles typical of the 1940s and found that many were rectangular. She sourced similar heavyglass rectangular stock bottles overseas that look similar to olive oil bottles.
“Every bottle is a little bit different because of the way they’re made,” she says. “Because it’s glass and not plastic, it feels a lot more special. I think people have a perception that something in glass is more high-end than something in plastic.”
The bottles are topped with white pumps supplied by TricorBraun (St. Louis). A grosgrain ribbon supplied by Lawrence Schiff Silk Mills (New York City), strung with a medallion from Avery Dennison (Brea, CA), was tied around each pump.
To ship the glass bottles to retailers, Mangiacotti’s engineer husband, Mike, designed custom foam pads that hug the tops and bottoms of the bottles perfectly, locking each bottle in place. “It allows no movement,” says Mangiacotti. “It can withstand an 8-ft drop.”
To decorate the bottles as well as the line’s candle jars and bar soap wrappings, Mangiacotti took inspiration directly from the love letters. She scanned excerpts from the original letters, as well as the original postage stamps, and had them reproduced on the labels supplied by GS Inc. (Pascoag, RI). Mangiacotti also designed a modern postage stamp logo for the line.
Much attention was also given to the bar soap packaging. Each bar is hand-wrapped in paper printed by Doran & Ward Printing Co. (Burlington, IA). The paper has an antimicrobial coating that prevents the soaps’ vegetable-based glycerin and essential oils from chemically reacting with the paper and staining it.
Two slits were cut on the front of the paper wrap, through which a grosgrain ribbon was inserted and wrapped around the package. “I wanted it to feel really giftable,” says Mangiacotti. “The slits in the wrapping also let the soap breathe and allow the consumer to smell the soap.”
“I had a lot of fun creating this line,” she continues. “I feel like it was almost a gift. The woman who owned the house was 93 when she sold it to us, and she passed away last year. She was a lovely woman, and the letters were addressed to her. We restored the house and even got a restoration award from the mayor of Attleboro. After I found the letters, I told my husband, I’m not superstitious, but I feel this line was a gift from the woman for taking such good care of her home.”