Why bag brand Medea, loved by Beyoncé and Rihanna, is here to stay – ‘We don’t compromise on quality,’ say the twins who founded it

An Instagram post by Rihanna in 2019 of her holding Medea’s signature tote shaped like a shopping bag helped put the brand on the map

The label’s founders, twin sisters from Italy, say they are set on gradual growth and perfecting the product rather than rushing into other categories

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Published: 7:45pm, 14 Dec 2021

On February 14, 2019, as most of the Western world was celebrating Valentine’s Day, Camilla and Giulia Venturini – the twin sister founders of handbag label Medea – were in for a big surprise courtesy of singer Rihanna.

Celebrities can do wonders for a fledgling label, putting it on the map just by being photographed wearing or holding its wares. What Rihanna did for Medea, however, went much further: she artfully staged an Instagram shot in which her hand appeared holding Medea’s signature shopping-bag-shaped tote with a rose inside – a subtle, carefully curated way of paying homage to Valentine’s Day.

While Medea had been around for almost a year by then and counted stores like London’s Selfridges among its stockists, that was the moment the twins realised that what started on a whim was now a real brand, as they explain in an interview from Milan, Italy.

Camilla and Giulia both studied fashion in Italy and moved to New York after graduation. Giulia spent two years there before returning to Milan, where she joined Toilet Paper, an irreverent publication founded by artist Maurizio Cattelan. Camilla, on the other hand, stayed in New York for almost a decade, and worked with photographer Ari Marcopoulos.

Their art background defines their brand, which they established in 2018 after meeting the owner of a leather factory based in Verona, Italy. Their idea was to make a leather version of the ubiquitous shopping bags from luxury stores. They named the company after Medea, a 1969 film starring opera singer Maria Callas as the mythical sorceress.