Old Stone Trade is an online marketplace that brings together a few artisan workshops selected by the New York stylist and fashion editor Melissa Ventosa Martin – director of Departures Magazine, T, The New York Times Magazine or Glamor among other publications. On the OST website, no more than a dozen pieces from different countries are offered handmade-to-order. Buyers place their orders online which are then passed on to the respective workshop to handmake the piece.
This initiative, launchend in 2021, happened while the the editor and family moved to a house in the countryside that gives the website its name. The origin of the project was explained in an article in T Magazine—the NYT style magazine—with a mention of Aldanondo and Fdez:
The move has also led to a new creative venture for Ventosa Martin. This week, she’s launching Old Stone Trade, an online marketplace for handmade-to-order goods from ateliers and craftsmen around the world. “I met so many great makers and artisans in my traveling days and, as I got older, I realized that I was wearing their designs the most,” says Ventosa Martin. “I wasn’t getting sick of them the way I would with most fashion.” It’s fitting, then, that the first edition of pieces is dedicated to the idea of the uniform. It includes a button-down blouse with white-on-white embroidery by Loretta Caponi in Florence, Italy; a delicate lace shirt collar from the Lepoglava Lace Cooperative in Croatia; a navy apron dress from Atelier Bomba in Rome; a J. Mueser blazer and an Acme Atelier kilt both made from an exclusive greenish tweed from the British woolen mill and social enterprise Romney Tweed; a double-breasted, double-faced cashmere coat from the Paris-based designer Nanna Pause; and a pair of black penny loafers from Aldanondo y Fdez in Barcelona. There’s also a handmade rose perfume from Cultus Artem in Texas and a one-of-a-kind quilt by Emma Mooney Pettway, a third-generation Gee’s Bend quilter, who is offering a bespoke service through the site whereby customers can send in their most meaningful fabrics for her to make into a quilt.
Aldanondo y Fdez is part of OST with a black loafer that has been co-designed with input from Melissa Ventosa for her project.
