Feature Friday: Donna Anita
With an enchanting sensibility and an eye for fine detail work, this month’s feature crafts a true fairy-tale experience with each corset she creates. In fact, she even calls herself “a fairy godmother, transforming fabrics into dreams!”
Tania Guarnieri, owner of Donna Anita, specializes in custom and bespoke corsetry—corsetry that tells a story in and of itself. “Most of my creations were/are inspired by books and movies,” Tania explained. “I love fairy tales and gothic literature, and when I'm creating I always try to visualize an entire scenario. Most of my imaginary characters are solitary creatures who find comfort, affirmation, and magic through the touch of fabrics, and affection and love through the embrace of a corset.”
And this magic translates to a belief that corsets should not only support a person’s form but also underscore their unique self. “I see corsets as powerful statements of individuality,” Tania continued, “capable of minimizing or accentuating curves to honor one's personal identity and worldview. Rather than symbols of restriction, corsets embody freedom—the freedom to be your true self. They enhance self-esteem and provide a profound sense of self-recognition, affirmation, and care. This transformative potential is what motivates me to continue exploring and innovating with corsetry, finding new forms of expression and performance that only a well-crafted corset can provide.”
Tania takes this core principle and applies to each project she takes on. “When I create a custom piece, I need to understand my customer's idea, enter their world!” Tania said. “It can be very challenging sometimes and I truly love it.”
“For example, at the moment I am working on a fairy costume for a live action game,” she added. “The character is a villain, and my customer wants it to be very colorful and full of details, which is a bit different from my usual creations. We talked a lot before the creation process started, we made a Pinterest folder, and all this helped me a lot to visualize her world and create the perfect costume for her respecting the DNA of Donna Anita…I am very thankful that most of the artists I worked with (including my customers) come to me because they like my work and trust me completely, which is very important since my way of creating also includes having different ideas during the sewing process.”
“I love the diversity within the world of historical sewing, and I have customers of different ages, genders, and cultures,” she continued. “Since moving to Germany in 2020, I have been able to send corsets to different parts of the world, Japan, Brazil, Norway, and the US, among others. This is a dream come true.”
When asked why sewing and why corsets, Tania shared that sewing has been a lifelong love that started with watching her mother make beautiful things and lead to eventually taking professional courses so she could create her own designs. “Corsets have fascinated me since I watched Titanic in 1998 (I was 12 years old) at the cinema, the same movie that made me very interested in the history of fashion,” she explained. “In 2006 I started taking Fashion Drawing classes and realized that it was very difficult to create something without having an idea of how patterns work, so sewing classes were necessary and fundamental…But it was only in 2011 that I started studying corsets and trying to produce them. Today I use the patterns I developed over years of learning and understanding how patterns and anatomy of the human body (for clothing) work.”
That depth of experience and knowledge shines through in all her work, which is full of fantastical details paired with classic historical shapes. You can see more of her fairy-tale creations on her website and her Etsy shop, and follow her on Instagram (@donnaitaatelie) for even more corset inspiration.