ABOUT THE FOUNDER

My story began long before WA:IT.

I was born into a family of travelers. My father looked westward, fascinated by distant lands and cultures across the Americas. My mother looked eastward, drawn to the philosophy, literature, and wisdom of Asia.

Without realizing it, I grew up between these two worlds.

As a child, I felt most at home in nature. Animals were my closest companions, and long before I could explain it, I sensed a profound connection between the natural world and human wellbeing.

Curiosity led me to study Management Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin. I was fascinated by mathematics and systems thinking, the idea that everything in the universe is connected through invisible patterns.

After graduation, my work took me across Europe and Asia. For more than a decade, I travelled extensively Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, China and Japan, experiencing cultures not as a tourist, but as someone seeking to understand how people live, think and find meaning.

Among all the places I encountered, Japan left the deepest imprint.

Its reverence for nature, its appreciation of imperfection, its rituals of presence and its quiet sense of harmony resonated with something I had always carried within me.

Over time, my travels became more than professional journeys. They became a search for balance between achievement and presence, ambition and authenticity, doing and being.

The lessons gathered along the way would eventually converge into a new path.

One that united my love for nature, my fascination with traditional wisdom, my belief in mindful living, and my desire to create something meaningful in service of others.

That path became WA:IT

Today, everything I create is inspired by the same belief that has guided me throughout my life:

that true beauty is not something we acquire.

It is something we remember.

​

Raffaella Grisa
Founder