Roberto Mellino is one of the craftsmen who come every Wednesday to the little market. ROMEL is his artistic name, formed by the first syllables of his name.
Fashion, art, and design are the three pillars that give life to their products. Roberto worked for 20 years in the fashion world, when it was still a form of making art. He sadly confesses that today art has been relegated to the background, just like quality, because nowadays what matters is doing business.
After a period of personal crisis in which she could not find her place, she realized that what she really wanted was to continue creating, but creating things that came from the heart. Now he makes his art and his own fashion. He does not consider himself a painter, but an art designer. He did not want to lose his passion for fashion and has continued to put all his artistic side into the products he sells at the flea market.
Everything he sells is not only handmade by him, but also created and invented by him. He transforms light bulbs, keys, or buttons into works of art. He is passionate about giving new life to things and he confesses the following: “What some see as garbage, for me is a treasure.”
He admits that maybe you don’t get rich selling what he does, but he has such a great time and people are so crazy about what he does, that he loves it.
What does it mean for him to be a craftsman?
Being a craftsman or an artist is not something you choose, for him it is simply a path.
He realized that fashion was no longer made in stores, but on the street. That’s why he left fashion 6 years ago to devote himself to craftsmanship and be able to create his own ideas. He has always liked breaking with the traditional and the established, and he has put it into practice.
What do you feel about being able to sell your product at the flea market?
He chose to sell at the flea market for two main reasons.
The first is the environment. Being able to work outdoors and in nature is a luxury for him.
On the other hand, because without realizing it, I have felt identified with a hippy mentality. He tells us about his surprise when he discovered that he had been a hippie all his life, but he didn’t know it until he arrived at the flea market, where everything was so easy, so normal, so like him… he had found his place.
“When you see 100 people going in one direction and you go in the other, it seems like you have a problem, and when you arrive at a place where everyone goes like you, you realize that you are not strange, but that you have simply found your place.”