How Italian Nonna Chic Became The Biggest News In Interiors

If, in a post-pandemic era, our homes have started to say more about our sense of style than ever before, then nonnas are the new super-influencers. Whether it be a handpainted bowl from Puglia, a needlepoint tablecloth from Veneto, coffee cups from Sicily, or a pasta cutter from Umbria, items that have traditionally been associated with the home of the Italian matriarch are finding fresh cachet with the style set.

“It’s funny, because I think that a lot of people are seeing these pieces for the first time,” says Natalie Sytner, who founded Bettina Ceramica in 2020 and quickly found a niche with her ceramic Acquasantiera stoups, traditionally used in Catholic churches to hold holy water. “But they do still represent an era that people feel touched by… whether that’s their granny or something they thought they would never have on their table again.”

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Sytner credits her mother, brand namesake Bettina, with fostering her obsession with Italy; throughout Natalie’s childhood, Bettina would decamp to her native Liguria to tour ancient palazzi, returning with amazing trinkets from the workshops of local craftspeople. “She was so ahead of her time and created the most amazing and interesting home,” says Sytner. Some 30 years on, Natalie is continuing in the same vein.

For Bettina Ceramica, Sytner insists on working with family-run businesses all over Italy to reissue and co-design pieces from their archives, giving them intuitive updates by using new colourways, tweaking design details, and presenting them in an aspirational lifestyle context. It’s resulted in a full collection of ceramic jugs, platters, wall ornaments, and – most recently – her much-coveted Gigly Wall Lights and Punto Antico Tablecloths.

“I think people are more interested in the provenance of things and where they come from now,” says Sytner. “I get so many messages from people who want to know about our pieces, and I’m always so happy to let them know that something was handmade by, say, Stefano, the most amazing guy who has three daughters and is passing these skills down onto his kids.”

Sytner isn’t alone in bringing an updated take on nonna chic into our homes. Along with the likes of Gohar World, Hot Pottery, La DoubleJ, Casa Celva, and – the ultimate go-to for all things nonna-esque – Glassette, husband-and-wife Maja and Toby Gliszczynska-Findlay launched Artemis Deco as a side-gig to their legal and insurance jobs to immediate adoration in 2020.

“I think [this aesthetic] is having a comeback because it’s totally timeless and immediately evocative of a time and a location,” says Toby, explaining the thought process behind their tagline “bring your holiday home with you”. In keeping with the increasing demand to invest in pieces that will last a lifetime, their plan is to place desire in a domestic environment. “None of our things are delicate, they’re all solid and sturdy; it’s supposed to be like the everyday chaos that you would have in a nonna’s home,” adds Maja of their Buon Ricordo souvenir plates, floral Passerotto mugs, and Sicily Azzurro utensil holders. “We love the idea of people buying something that will stand the test of time and then it can be handed down, especially when it comes to big serving bowls and things like that.”

Like Sytner, the pair were inspired by the tupperware their parents collected over the years on travels to Italy, and are resolute in working with craftspeople on the ground to make sure they are rewarded for their talents. When they were able to travel after lockdown, they arrived in “the cradle of Sicilian ceramics”, Caltagirone, armed with £600 in their pockets and an Italian GCSE, and met their now-permanent suppliers Francesco and Tiziana, who opened their arms – and archive – to the couple.

After initial pieces sold out, the couple placed a huge order which would effectively keep the family business running while their shop was closed to tourists during ensuing lockdowns. “[Discovering] that was quite emotional, and since then we’ve developed the most amazing relationship with them,” says Maja with a smile.

If further proof was required of the nonna aesthetic’s allure, the online pre-loved interiors marketplace Vinterior has witnessed a 12 per cent increase in searches for Italian antiques since August last year. “We’ve really seen the tide turn in recent years from a minimal Scandi aesthetic to homes that are all about warmth, eclecticism and character,” a spokesperson says. “In a post-Covid world, we want to invite friends and family back into our homes and nurture them – and who is more nurturing than an Italian nonna?” Vinterior points to the popular Big Mamma restaurants and the Pellicano Hotel Group as big influences in everyone loving the “lived-in Italian look which manages to feel decadent and whimsical without being pretentious”. 

Vicky Bennison, the food author who launched the beloved Pasta Grannies Instagram in 2014 that quickly went viral after the Vatican played one of its videos, has followed hundreds of Italian grandmothers around Italy making their beloved home recipes in humble surroundings. If anyone can speak to nonna chic’s absolute unpretentiousness and origins, it’s her.

“Enough distance has passed [to celebrate it] because that generation, after the war, couldn’t get out quick enough; they wanted to work [but] they didn’t have further education,” says Bennison, whose bestselling cookbook, Pasta Grannies, brings these nonnas’ stories to life. “Someone we filmed [making pasta] in Sicily recently was a cow herd when she was younger; [she] helped her dad on the farm by day and wrote poetry in the evenings. The difference is that now we all make a choice about whether we make pasta, but for them, they had to learn it to get married and they were told they wouldn’t get a decent husband if they couldn’t make pasta properly.”

Nonnas were – and are –“the cornerstone of Italian gastronomy”, says Bennison.  After hearing enough chefs saying that they were inspired by their nonna’s cooking, she decided to find the women they were talking about and give them their moment. Many were surprised. “I mean, it’s like opening a can of beans [to them],” she says. “A wonderful woman, Pina from Genova, couldn’t work out why we came back to film her making gnocchi: ‘Surely you don’t have to come all this way to make gnocchi?!’ she asked.”

It’s clear that the appreciation of food and the comfort of Italian cooking is a big part of the allure when it comes to the nonna aesthetic in our homes. “Food is love, isn’t it?” says Bennison. “It nourishes not just the body but [can change] how you’re feeling – a big bowl of pasta makes you feel better.”

And it’s picking up pace. Recently, Zara Home contacted Bennison to ask if her Pasta Grannies could be the stars of its new homewares collection, having seen a feature on the cover of the Spanish newspaper, El País. Bennison agreed on the condition that actual nonnas would feature and be compensated, and so Maria Argnani from Faenza, Leondina Micolucci from Brisighella, and Nadia Bassignani from Genova are now the happy stars of an international campaign. For the record, their pasta utensils and copper pots have the three women’s approval, assures Bennison.

It is, of course, only apt that these women and their lifestyles are celebrated as the custodians of nonnacore. For her part, Bettina, now a nonna herself, is “hugely flattered” that her daughter’s generation is finding charm in her Italian traditions. “You don’t expect young people to be interested in old shapes and things that are still handmade, so I am incredibly proud and honoured that people want things which are true, which are real, and that we can all share,” she says. “People have always needed that familiarity and the comfort of things that are not necessarily old, but always full of love.”