I'm Valeria, this is my story, the story of Fast and Light.
The original Fast & Light mountain clothing - since 1989
I am Valeria, I was born and raised in Bormio in the Alps; when I was a child I dreamed of designing clothes, but, unlike my friends, designing them for dolls was never a source of satisfaction for me.
I was a young athlete, my favorite sport was ski mountaineering, but such an expensive sport was not within my reach, so I turned to cross-country skiing.
While practicing it, I learned the values that this sport transmits; dedication, sacrifice, determination, and I also made lots of friends among the people I used to train with.
I managed to win the Italian Junior Championships, one of my proudest accomplishments! After this win, I had to make a difficult choice.
Should I continue achieving sporting successes as a skier, or should I follow my path as a sportswear designer?
Well, if I’m here to tell you about it, it’s because I chose the latter.
At 20 I opened my own boutique in the old town of Bormio. My first customers were my friends: elite athletes of any mountain sports, such as Deborah Compagnoni and Alberto Tomba, came to me with particular and customized needs.
Among the athletes with whom I collaborated, two presented me a unique challenge. In those years the first races in the mountain were born: ski touring in winter and skyrunning in summer, but it didn’t exist any kind of clothing suitable for these new disciplines.
These athletes were Fabio Meraldi and Adriano Greco, the true pioneers in the fast disciplines in mountain.
Together with them I designed and created the technical solutions needed to run these extreme races. The first ski touring and ski running suit were born in this way.
Here is where the true Crazy turning point comes from! Taking notes from the innovations born by the needs of the ski touring and skyrunning athletes I started creating new products for those that want to live the mountain every day.
I focused on functionality and comfort: essential items, built and thought for a specific usage, items for everybody don’t exist.
Learning by the race world that I have known closely, I have removed what was superfluous, reduced to the essential the weight and the width of any of my products to allow my customers to live the mountain in an effective way with speed and lightness, a Fast&Light approach.
Hours of designing, cutting fabrics, trying to imagine myself in the moment in which I could present my collections at International Fairs, or in a catalog that would be distributed all over the world, displayed in the most prestigious sporting goods stores... the dream of a girl became reality, I made it thanks to those who believed in me!
When I was training or competing I lived personally the limits of the traditional mountain clothing: I always suffered from the cold, the suits were inappropriate, uncomfortable, too loose or too tight, the humidity got into my bones and remained stuck on me until I could take a shower, it was a tragedy!
I decided to totally change the standards, my goal was to create something functional, comfortable and, above all, to move the attention towards the style and the beauty produced, something that no company considered important, for no apparent reason.
I began to use unprecedented prints and colors for the mountain world of that time; you have to know that even today the mountain clothing are black or gray, while creativity and trend were reserved only for the world of fashion.
But who said that mountain clothing should look sad?
Specialization is needed, competence and clear choices are needed; only in this way, do the mountain and mountaineering enthusiasts know what to wear: they’re happy because they feel I have created something specific for them.
Be Crazy, be Fast & light, without compromises.
Valeria Colturi
The Fast & light inventors