Economist & Poet

—

Gallello Atelier is delighted to introduce Anna Seidel, Economist & Poet, who reflects here on identity as an ongoing act of authorship.

Taking its name from Bellini’s invocation to the moon goddess in Norma, the Casta Diva: Portraits in Taste and Temperament draws upon an image of femininity at once serene, restrained and quietly commanding. For the Atelier, it is a study of the woman — where softness, ambition and strength exist not in opposition, but in harmony.

On Identity & Instinct

—

Anna is an economist, poet and founder of The Napkin Poetry Review, moving naturally between economics, philosophy and creative practice.

Her portrait reflects a woman who is analytical and imaginative in equal measure.

01 - Identity & Becoming

Do you think we discover who we are, or simply grow into parts of ourselves that were always there?

—

I suspect we spend much of our lives becoming people we have, in some sense, always been. Certain curiosities and inclinations seem to announce themselves long before we have the language to explain them. But I am wary of the idea that there is some definitive, authentic self waiting to be unearthed. 

We are also the accumulation of places we've lived, people we've loved, chances we've taken and occasionally regretted. 

Perhaps the more interesting question is not who we really are, but which parts of ourselves we choose to cultivate. I like to think identity is less a discovery than an ongoing act of authorship.

02 - Poetry & Finance

You have built a life across both finance and poetry. How do you balance these different sides of yourself without feeling you have to choose between them? To what extent do they overlap?

—

People often assume there must be some great contradiction between poetry and finance. Both are, fundamentally, exercises in understanding human nature. Economics concerns itself with how we assign value, make decisions and organise our collective lives. Poetry is interested in much the same questions, though it tends to examine what escapes measurement.

There is something wonderfully instructive about moving between the two. Investing demands conviction in the face of incomplete information; poetry asks us to resist the temptation of certainty altogether. One teaches you to recognise patterns, the other to notice what doesn't fit them. Both require imagination, disciplined observation and a healthy suspicion of received wisdom. I don't particularly believe in balance as a neat division of one's life into separate compartments. I'd rather allow these different ways of seeing the world to complicate and illuminate, one another.

03 — Instinct & Conviction

What has given you the confidence to trust the quieter, more instinctive parts of who you are?

—

Experience, I suppose, and a growing suspicion that the things we cannot immediately explain are not necessarily the things we understand least. 

Some of the most consequential choices I've made began with a curiosity or intuition that seemed rather difficult to justify in conventional terms. Moving between countries, literature and investing has made me increasingly sceptical of the tidy narratives we construct around ambition and success. Writing has only strengthened that conviction. A poem often begins with an image or a sentence whose significance you cannot yet explain. You follow it because something in you recognises that it matters. I think life works much the same way.

 I've learned that instinct is often our most honest compass and that the most magical outcomes tend to emerge when we have the courage to follow it without knowing exactly where it leads. Some of the most meaningful decisions in my life began with a feeling and they have invariably led to the most extraordinary places.

Anna is wearing the Sofia Jacket and Chiara Skirt in Silk Velvet.

—

The quiet discipline of living beautifully.

A return to the 1950s couture atelier — an era when a woman had a couturier, a fitter, and a house that knew her; when couture was for life, not simply for occasion.

Gallello Atelier is devoted to the art of dress: building a wardrobe as a collection through individually commissioned pieces, conceived for one woman and made over time.

Crafted in noble materials and shaped through couture tailoring, each piece is intended to be kept, worn and returned to — valued for its craft, rarity and permanence.