Editor's note: this interview was conducted in 2022. Since then, Orlando has continued to publish biannually and Antonella has expanded the project into a wider publishing company called Tessiore. We stock a good range of Orlando issues in the shop.

Orlando is a luxurious, playful, experimental magazine from Italy. It's a magazine about culture. Literature, art, design, gastronomy. In fact, it's a place where all these things meet, in an imaginary hotel with a delightful old-timey decadence.

Maker Antonella Dellepiane Pescetto's enthusiasm for her subject matter is present throughout, and while at first the many layers of design and theme can be a bit overwhelming, it soon becomes a charming place to be. An escape to a world of exquisite art, buildings, people and places, which is fun to luxuriate in for a little while.

This is a pricey magazine, but it's also a weighty one, with beautiful paper that adds to the magic.

We asked Antonella to tell us a bit more about Orlando.

Hello Antonella. Can you tell us a bit about yourself. How did you come to make a magazine?

Antonella: I love paper. I always have. I studied literature and art at university, violin since I was nine years old and I'm a sommelier. My multifaceted education reflects itself in Orlando. I wasn't able to choose and follow only one of my passions and create a career from it. I wanted to find something that could unite all of them in one container.

I spent a year in Milan, working in a Japanese concept store, and there I curated the wine list first and then the books and magazine selection. I have always been an avid reader, but I wasn't aware of the marvellous world of indie magazines. I spent hours reading them in this beautiful Reading Room we had in Milan. After all these studies and reading, I started to plan my own magazine. I have tons of notes regarding the topics, the aesthetic, the structure.

The structure of Orlando is unique. How did this come about?

Antonella: Right from the start I knew that I wanted to characterise the magazine with a unique structure. After infinite brainstorming with family and friends, and after a particularly brilliant conversation with my husband Alex, I came up with the imaginary Hotel Structure.

I wanted the reader to feel warmly welcomed, going up and down the stairs of this imaginary hotel, being entertained by its fascinating guests. Artists, creatives, visionaries. The Orlando imaginary hotel is a place to lose yourself in. It's a cultural journey that wants to inspire and stimulate its readers. The imaginary hotel is a frame story, as Boccaccio did with the Decameron. It's a tale itself.

We love the imaginary hotel and all its little details, like the lift attendant to take you between floors. Now that's the structure, but each issue also has a theme.

Antonella: My creative process begins from literature. Each issue of Orlando is guided by a literary theme, a novel, which is translated into images by my art direction and in the editorial. We create also unique Short Art Movies (Our Tales) inspired by these novels. We have reinterpreted Orlando Furioso and Woolf's Orlando, Dorian Gray, Alice in Wonderland, the myth of Pandora and the One Thousand and One Nights.

I chose the name Orlando for my beloved literature. For the sixteenth century's Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto and for Virginia Woolf's Orlando.

Orlando plays around a lot with text, design and even paper and texture. Can you tell us about your design process?

Antonella: I have to communicate through literature the themes that inspire me. Each novel carries different themes. Like in One Thousand and One Nights, the themes that I wanted to enlighten were Sherazade heroine against the tyrant thanks to the power of narration, and the frame-story structure. In Dorian Gray, the eternal power of art, beauty and death.

Having chosen the novel makes me enter a specific aesthetic. I research old movies, covers of manuscripts, fashion editorials. I take myself fully inside the mood and I try to communicate it to my readers with the choice of the cover, the special paper and effects we use, the texture, as you said. It has to be a complete sensorial experience every time. It has to enclose each and all of your senses.

You feature lots of different artists, restauranteurs and other interesting people. What makes a person or place worthy of an Orlando story?

Antonella: When I choose the people and artists to interview, I search for a pure celebration of beauty, craftsmanship, sophistication and passion. I have a strong instinct and I know immediately when I find any artists or places that I feel fit into the Orlando style.

Can you tell us a bit about Musword and the playlists you create for each issue?

Antonella: Musword is an immersive cultural experience. You have to let yourself go and be transported by the power of music, words and images. Musword means password, but it is also the union of Music and Word. The images will inspire the words you have the chance to read, and the music.

For each issue I create a special playlist which matches each single article of the magazine. I recommend listening to each track with the matching article. The music amplifies the intensity of the words. I was raised by a sweet melomaniac father who lullabied me with Tosca, Turandot and Bohéme. Music is so important for me and every important moment of my life has a soundtrack. The memory is much stronger thanks to music. The Orlando playlist is another magazine written by music.

How would you describe Orlando and who do you think would enjoy reading it?

Antonella: Orlando is a container of beauty and inspirations. I think the ideal reader for Orlando is a person who is truly curious and fascinated by arts and culture.

What other magazines do you enjoy reading? Are there any that have particularly inspired Orlando?

Antonella: I love magazines, of course. I love Sindroms, Blumenhaus, Luncheon and Cabana. Sindroms for its mono-colour theme, Blumenhaus for its elegant and refined aesthetics, Luncheon for the peculiar structure, and Cabana for its wonderful interiors.

And finally, we ask all makers this question. In our digital age, why make print magazines?

Antonella: Because "Scripta manent". The written word remains. It's our little mark in this life. I wanted Orlando to be my first business card, to present how I approach culture. I want people to know me as Orlando's creator. Print is alive.

Grazie, Antonella. You can browse our current stock of Orlando in the shop.