About Us
NOSSO curates a kaleidoscope of art and décor pieces from Brazil
Nosso means "ours" in Portuguese, and it was the very first name that came to me when I imagined this store. It stuck immediately because it says everything I wanted NOSSO to be: heritage, culture and craftsmanship, made by hand, made with passion, becoming part of the homes they land in.
My connection to design started long before NOSSO. My grandmother opened her first interior design store when my mother was pregnant with me, so I grew up surrounded by that world. My very first job, as a child, was wrapping Christmas gifts at one of her stores in the mall. Design and craftsmanship have been part of my life from the very beginning.
I later built a career in fashion, studying and working in Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom, before moving to South Africa more than ten years ago. Here I ran a clothing brand exporting shweshwe pieces made by women overcoming very difficult circumstances, work that taught me how powerful it is when a product carries a real story and a real person behind it.
The idea for NOSSO arrived all at once. I was pregnant with my son and had started journaling, and one morning I woke up with an overwhelming urge to write. In that moment the whole concept came to me: the colour, the location, even the artists I wanted to work with. It felt like something I had been building toward for years without quite knowing it.
I had always travelled through Brazil looking for original artisans, at first just for myself. I would bring back décor and artwork for my own home, and clothes too, and friends visiting would fall in love with the pieces and ask me to bring more, to sell them some. That pull towards colourful, soulful, handmade objects was always there. It felt like NOSSO was simply waiting to happen.
Why Brazil
The world has been losing its colour. Homes, cars, everyday objects have all quietly slipped into shades of beige and grey, even here in South Africa, a country that has never needed an excuse for vibrancy. NOSSO is my small protest against that fading, and Brazil felt like the natural place to look. Brazilian design carries a warmth, a boldness and a sense of play that is hard to find elsewhere, and I believe it belongs alongside South African design rather than in place of it. The two countries share more history and spirit than people often realise.
Our promise
Every piece at NOSSO is chosen in person, through years of relationships with the artists and studios who make them. I only work with people I genuinely admire, and there is an inside joke at NOSSO that we only work with the nicest people in Brazil. If the work is beautiful but the person behind it isn't someone I can stand by, it doesn't make it into the store. I want every piece to carry the joy that went into making it, not just the object itself.
At home I have at least one piece from nearly every artist we carry. Ceramiquinho's animal vases still make me smile every time I pass them, and I have Voador throws in almost every room. Those are the kinds of pieces I hope you find here too, something that becomes properly, happily yours.
Get in touch
Curious about a piece, an artist, or want to talk trade pricing for a project? Reach us at shop@nosso.co.za.
X
Julia Franco
