Friends in the fragility of illness

«Take care of yourself» is the motto chosen by Evelina Rossi and Alice Tabacchi when they opened the page Wardrobe81, «more than a brand, a community to instill style and hope». I am two friends from Villongo, both in their forties, who had to face the same disease, breast cancer. They feel linked above all by courage, hope and creativity: for them these are the best weapons to resist and look to the future with hope.

«Armadio81» is their refuge: a space on social networks, where they channeled enthusiasm, social commitment, energy and light-heartedness. Scrolling through the photos you will find their creations, full of energy and colours: hair bands, t-shirts, accessories, accompanied by many stories of beauty, struggle and rebirth. It is a starting point for creating bonds, supporting people who have to face the disease like them, carrying out awareness-raising actions on issues related to prevention and research.

«We took our dreams out of the drawer – smiles Evelina – and gave them shape», to cultivate positive thoughts and outlooks despite the difficulties. «We met by chancethrough mutual friends – he continues – and then, while talking, we discovered that we had undergone the operation to remove a tumor in October of the same year, 2021, just a few days apart. We started exchanging opinions, advice and confidences, and we felt in tune in cultivating our hobbies and in the desire to get involved to invent a new project, an opportunity to express ourselves”. Attentive to the circular economy and recycling, they focused on the creation of accessories: « I have always liked painting – says Alice -, sewing and I dedicated myself to decoupage. I went hunting for old fabrics to reinvent them with new ideas.”

An important ingredient of the creations of «Armadio81» are personal stories: «We have never been interested in producing in series – explains Evelina – but in packaging unique and special objects, made especially for those who will wear them, based on the tastes and needs that we have. manifest, and that they can become a vehicle for a message, a memory, a bond”. It started as a hobbybut Alice and Evelina now dream of it becoming something more: «For us it is a precious opportunity to get back into the game, in the future it would be nice to transform this activity into a real job».

In recent years, both have faced the difficulty of reconciling their physical condition with daily activities and a full-time job. «Having a serious and debilitating illness on your CV doesn’t help», underlines Evelina.

Alice, originally from Pieve di Cadore, moved to Bergamo with her family shortly after discovering the disease: «I have two young daughters and when the diagnosis arrived I immediately thought of them. At first I was desperate, but then, with the support of my family, I found the impetus to react with courage. After the operation at the Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital I also had to face long cycles of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, to which hormonal therapy was added. I have not finished yet”.

There were many obstacles along the way: «I learned along the way to listen to my body, to keep the side effects of therapies at bay, to measure my strength. I realized that doctors often avoid dwelling on possible side effects. They were meaningful to me and impacted my quality of life. I would have liked to have met someone willing to talk to me openly right from the start, it would have been very useful to me. Some movements have become difficult, there are household tasks that I can no longer do. It’s an aspect that rarely emerges in conversations with doctors, but when I talk to other women who are going through the same journey it seems right to talk about it.”

These topics too are therefore addressed in the posts of «Armadio81», as if it were a kind of virtual «circle». Alongside these are also the very delicate topics linked to the physical integrity of patients, which breast surgery still calls into question: «There have been many steps forward in research and therapies – underlines Evelina -. Reconstruction with plastic surgery after mastectomy today gives excellent results, but our experience has shown us that there is still much to be done. Sensitivity, emotions and the aesthetic aspect are not always taken into proper consideration during the treatment process.”

Evelina, by nature very scrupulous in every aspect concerning health, noticed some “strange” signs which led her to undergo visits and tests: “In my case the tumor did not present itself in the usual forms, but I noticed an unusual change that pushed me to investigate further. I have three children aged 12, 8 and 4 and the youngest was only a few months old at the time.” Although the first tests had given negative results, Evelina was not convinced and decided to investigate further, until obtaining confirmation of the diagnosis from a biopsy: «When I received the result, my world collapsed, I felt lost and desperate. , but then I found within myself the strength to react and do everything that was necessary. In the end, prevention was providential, it allowed me to detect the disease at an early stage. After the operation I did not have to undergo chemo or radiotherapy, but only hormone therapy.”

It helped her to follow a blog in which a young woman talked about her breast cancer treatment journey: «I understood – observes Evelina – how important it is to share one’s story, to be able to compare oneself with someone who has had the same problems. One of my dreams now is to create a place where we help each other in the different phases of treatment. Since we opened the “Armadio81″ page, many have contacted us. When I publish a post, I take care of offering useful content. It seems important to me that other women can see themselves reflected in the stories we tell, share symptoms, anxieties, problems and find a way to play them down. For me it was essential to learn to accept the consequences of the treatments and move on. There is always a great need for comfort and reassurance.”

«Armadio81», present on Facebook and Instagram, is a colorful page in which Evelina and Alice express their most imaginative side: «I have always been a slightly bizarre person – jokes Evelina – and I really like hair bands. I have lots of ideas and I enjoy using social networks, even if I don’t have the practical skills that Alice does. Each of us has different characteristics and talents, we decided to put them together, compensating each other, learning from each other, to create a profile that stimulates women to feel beautiful again after chemotherapy. We started making themed accessories: hair bands and t-shirts dedicated to raising awareness of female cancers. Our motto “Take care of yourself” indicates an attention, an attitude that sometimes gets lost in the frenzy of daily commitments.”

Through this common work, the two friends have collected pieces of themselves and recomposed them, healing the wounds, to give themselves a new mission, also filling the fragility of the illness with meaning. Even the objects they make «have a history of rebirth, because they come from the fabrics of clothes left at the bottom of wardrobes, old scarves, recycled items to which we try to give a second chance».

In the history of every family there are people who offer models and inspiration, «Armadio81» makes them resurface both with artisanal work and with cheerful narratives in which you can smell scents, colors, smiles and jokes.

«Many women write to us for advice – comments Evelina -, for example they ask us how to be beautiful and elegant at a ceremony despite chemotherapy. In two years we have created a small network of contacts fueled by word of mouth, and perhaps for some we have become a point of reference; a result that gave us a lot of joy and satisfaction. We are interested in the sustainable economy, recycling, the transformation of old clothes. We dedicate time and care to reconstructing the history of the materials we use, an aspect that enriches them with meaning and feeling. We are interested in the care of the person as a whole, including from an aesthetic and emotional point of view, which is often overlooked and underestimated in the healthcare environment.”

Even the name was born from the desire to create an original and personalized space: «We had been thinking for some time about a place where imagination, play and personal resourcefulness could be expressed – explains Alice -, for a woman the wardrobe also represents all these things. 81 is my year of birth. Thanks to this project I have started to dedicate myself to my passions again, to bring back aspects of myself that I feared I had lost in recent years.”

Born as a game, «Armadio81» turned out to be a lifesaver for both. According to Alice «it helped us a lot to distract ourselves from daily difficulties, to rediscover enthusiasm and joy». A resource that arose from the desire to heal, to find ourselves, as Evelina explains: «We committed ourselves to doing something we liked, born from our initiative, and this gave us a spark of life in a very difficult moment. Our intent now is to create a help network that will take away negative thoughts and offer other women a bit of light-heartedness and entertainment, something that makes their worries easier and offers some playful moments.”