Cover Image: Still from Kenzo Memento by Thomas Traum
In a few weeks, the annual Fashion Film Festival Milano will present its sixth edition of screening since its establishment by Costanza Cavalli Etro five years ago. Set to take place from November 7th – 10th, at the Anteo Palazzo del Cinema, the festival will showcase a selection of 200 films from over 50 countries divided by curator Gloria Maria Cappelletti into categories under themes such as feminism, social diversity & inclusion, and environmental sustainability.
From this selection of 200 films, the festival’s jury will be tasked to select winners for 16 categories including Best Fashion Film, Best Director, Best Green Fashion Film and the newly added category of Best New Italian Designer/Brand. The association has also partnered with Istituto Marangoni on The Gaze of The Future Fashion Film Contest, which will set an evening for the screening of films by emerging talents as well as a conversation, giving advice on pursuing a career in the industries as a young creative.
This year’s jury is lead by Giorgio Armani, and features fashion and art industry executives such as photographer Cass Bird; founder of Brazilian brand Osklen, Oskar Metsavaht; top model and human rights activist Waris Dirie; founder and creative director of Petronio Associates Ezra Petronio; actress, creator and producer Cristiana Captondi; Artistic Director of Pirelli HangarBicocca Vicente Todoli; Fashion Critic Angelo Flaccavento and Vogue Japan Editor-at-large Sissy Vian.
Apart from the screening of films, additional festivities will also include conversations discussing topics such as Independent Publishing from a Female Point of View and issues surrounding female rights and female genital mutilation and a special screening of The Times of Bill Cunningham — a film directed by Mark Bozek honouring the memory of the later fashion photographer Bill Cunningham. The four day event will then conclude with the Italian premiere of Peter Lindbergh: Women’s Stories, a film directed by Jean-Michel Vecchiet documenting some of the works of the iconic fashion designer who recently passed away while some of his muses including Naomi Campbell, Astrid Lindbergh, and Helga Polzin discuss his legacy. For more information about the festival visit Fashion Film Festival Milano.
Milan-based photographer and creative consultant Piotr Niepsuj is best known for his raw portraits of urban scenes. Born in Lodz, Poland, Niepsuj first arrived in Italy to study architecture before working for PIG Magazine, the Italian equivalent of Dazed or ID. It was at PIG that he was first given a camera and sent on assignment to photograph people anywhere from the streets of Milan to music festivals. He now shoots campaigns for brands like Off-white and Perks and Mini who he photographed for issue XX of Twin.
Most recently, Niepsuj presented a photo magazine called Spreads at Artifact in Spazio Maiocchi in Milan. Spreads features images of Tokyo inspired by Moriyama, which Niepsuj took on a digital camera on his recent trip to the Japanese capital city. Here, we speak with him about his practice and evolution as a photographer, his thoughts on contemporary photography, and his new work Spreads.
Image by Piotr Niepsuj
What is your first memory working as a photographer?
My first assignment ever. It was an interview and portrait of Jeremy Scott of Moschino. I didn’t even know what I was doing. It was very courageous of the magazine PIG, and it was a very good time for me. I learned everything. I learned about magazines. I learned about photography. A lot of hard work, no money, and good parties.
How have you evolved as a photographer since then?
I grew up in a very vice school of photography. You would go with your camera and photograph whatever surrounded you whether it was a party or a festival or a trend on the street. It’s basically what everybody does now, but it’s what anybody from Ryan McGinley to Juergen Teller who’s kind of father of this style was doing when I started. The approach doesn’t really change. I just go with my camera and shoot what I see and what I like.
I think the world changed more than I did. In the beginning, we photographed parties, trends, and us being young. Then, us being young turned old and boring. It’s also much more difficult to take pictures of people now because of how much more aware we are of being photographed. The naturalness is lost. This changed about the world.
Image by Piotr Niepsuj
Have you changed cameras? What are you working with – digital or analogue?
I change cameras from analogue to digital. I shoot a lot with my phone also, because it’s the easiest and the fastest way. I think it’s like the contemporary equivalent of point and shoot.
When I first started, I used to love analogue. Then, I didn’t approve of it. You realize all of your pictures look the same as the pictures of people twenty or thirty years ago – but they are not as good. When you think about how they’re going to be seen in the future, you wonder why a picture from 2019 has to look like a picture from 1980?
I think the iPhone picture is the picture of 2019, and when someone sees in 2050 a picture from 2019, it’s a bit strange to see it like a fake picture from 25 years before. I became bored, too, with the graininess of it. Then, it became commercial.
When I started working for real and shooting commercially, I realized film is the way not to get crazy. I produce so many images that my hard drives are exploding. Even mentally it’s too much. With digital, you can be shooting all the time – 2000 shots per day. I arrived to the point I understand film again.
Image by Piotr Niepsuj
Why do you like photographing urban scenes?
I studied architecture, so it’s always somehow inside me, this interest in cities and urbanization. Cities are the same everywhere you go, the same elements exist. They’re temporary and permanent. Temporary things eventually stay, and permanent things get old and change. Old and very new always clash, because the old is still functional and still works. It’s a documentation. Cities are like living structures in the end, and urban scenes are like a proof of history filled with layers, evolution, communication, advertisement, stratification, development.
I always think and hope every time I take an image that it’s not for selling a product, that it will have a value in 20 years. Even if I shoot the backstage of a fashion show for a brand, I always try not to show like a perfect image. It’s always like trying to find the mess, what’s human.
What is your new work Spreads?
P: It’s at Artifact, the store space Kaleidoscope shares with Slam Jam at Spazio Maiocchi. The work is about Tokyo and Moriyama. Last October, I went with some friends to Tokyo. I’ve always wanted to go to Tokyo, and I brought this little point-and-shoot digital camera and just went down the streets and took pictures of everything from little homes in the streets to the trash. There’re thousands of images of this trip. I also went into all the bookstores, looking at old and new books to add to my collection. I found this one about Record Magazine that Moriyama founded. It’s the magazine he made for himself with only his pictures. I was reading this and looking at thousands of his images and realized it’s the same. I want to have my record now. I’m presenting it for the first time. 150+ prints from the magazine and outtakes were also “exhibited” during the launch.
Image by Piotr Niepsuj
Spreads reminds me of your Instagram @spreadingspreads where you post images of photos in books, often two-page spreads. Are the images in conversation with each other or intended to create a dialogue?
Not necessarily, but when there are two images next to each other, you always try to find a dialogue. It’s important to me to think about. Even if you look at the Spreading Spreads Instagram, I very rarely put a spread that is only one image. With spreads, sometimes there’s no conversation. Sometimes, there is. Sometimes, it’s a joke. Sometimes, it’s aesthetically working. That’s the fun of making a magazine or a book.
For the first time in a very long time, Italian fashion house Fendi stepped off site their routined Milanese show space and headed for the gardens of an 18th century villa in central Milan for their SS2020 show. A switch that had been prompted by creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi’s need for a break from the virtually infested world we live in as she takes a minute to appreciate the fruits of Mother Nature . This collection was a version of the Fendi man that goes fishing on weekends and gardens in his spare time. Sartorial workwear pieces were presented with a casual elegance that allow their wearers a sort of relaxed eased approach towards life.
From khaki cotton overalls, to striped beach slips, to fishmerman style vests and cargo pants. Throughout the collection, the house also revealed their collaboration with renown “Call Me By Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino who drafted a few botanical prints for the collection. These were brought out through digital prints and cut out knit wear. The colour palette was one that blended with the habitat ranging from beiges, to greens , browns and whites. In regards to accessories, the house debuted a Pequin printed Fendi watering can, garden baskets, big totes, pouch bags as well as versions of the Fendi baguette and peekaboo bags. This collection was a breath of fresh air for the house, one that in some ways allows for a sort of reset, and more than anything conjures the desire for a vacation.
Salone del Mobile is the one time of year in Milan where one can discover the most interesting, jolting exhibitions and installations around the city. One of the most essential installations to see was that of Dutch designer Maarten Baas. Although not considered as design, the designer staged an exhibition in collaboration with Ventura Centrale entitled “I Think Therefore I Was.” Set in one of Ventura’s exhibition spaces in Centrale, the installation featured hundreds of monitors, playing fragments of videos in which the words ‘I think’ were cut from hundreds of random Youtube videos. This compilation of information is one that creates a great cacophony of words and moving images that hits you upon entrance. Leaving one in awe with an overflow of feeling. There is no single screen to focus on, or single audio to listen to, there are hundreds being played simultaneously and what all that information does to the brain subconsciously is quite exciting.
Images by Claudio Grassi
“Having an opinion is once claim to existence. By placing the installation in reference to a catwalk set-up, the first impression is rather intimidating. The screens are like an audience, proclaiming opinions about you, as a visitor. Yet the other way around, it shows a colourful variety of people who have thoughts and therefore therefore are individuals,” comments Baas. The artist has been know for blurring boundaries between art and design using the element of surprise. The exhibition, which has already closed it’s doors, marked the artist’s 10th year in collaboration with the Ventura Projects in Milan.
Milan has quietly become a stealthy art hub. Its fair MiArt, which takes place the week before the city becomes obsessed with furniture and design in April, is like the Goldilocks’ porridge of art fairs. Its not too big, not too small. It has emerging names, big historical works and lesser known discoveries. The fair also is the catalyst for Milan Art Week when institutions like the Fondazione Prada, ICA Milan and Frigoriferi Milanesi open new exhibitions. These are examples of why you should book your ticket next year.
Saskia Te Nicklin At Vin Vin at MiArt
Danish artist Saskia Te Nicklin won the prize for best emergent booth at the fair this year, with her inventive Vienna-based gallery Vin Vin. Her paintings, installed against a metal wall installation, played with art historical themes such as still lives. Her refreshingly scrawled pieces touch on nature, the digital and the real. vinvin.eu
Five heads or masks executed while thinking of James Ensor, Saskia TeNicklin, 20194 plastic bags with drawn faces, Saskia Te Nicklin, 2019
Leigh Ledare at Office Baroque at MiArt
Brussels gallery Office Baroque brought some new large panel collage-like works from the always subversive Leigh Ledare to MiArt. These pieces felt more like disturbing scrapbook pages, which exposed Ledare’s own fascinations with sex, identity, history and social meaning. officebaroque.com
Leigh Ledare
Plot I: Pre-existing Conditions, 2017
Leigh Ledare
Plot III: Immune System, 2017
The Unexpected Subject. 1978 Art and Feminism in Italy
It is well worth travelling to the outskirts of Milan for this exceptional exhibition of Italian feminist art from the late 1970s. Discover artists like Ketty Le Rocco, Tomaso Binga, Lucia Marcucci, Maria Lai and Giulia Niccolai in this truly fascinating comprehensive archive show. At least pin down the catalogue until May 26, http://www.frigoriferimilanesi.it
On theme with Milan Design Week, today Prada Milano launches a series of projects titled Prada Invites in collaboration with three outstanding female architects. The Italian luxury house has invited Cini Boeri, Elizabeth Diller and Kazuyo Sejima to give their takes on the brand’s signature nylon fabric. For the project they are presented with the task of creating an accessory item for women and each artist produces something of a unique item. Italian architect Cini Boeri has conceptualised a functional bag that can expand and reduce according to its need or occasion; Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima has crafted rather more playful designs with a long version dubbed the ‘daln’ and a curved version called ‘yooo.’ While American architect Elizabeth Diller’s designs — ‘The Yoke’ bag and ‘The Envelope’ garment bag cover a wider range of multiple functions. This new chapter of Prada’s venture is only a small display of their ongoing fascination with multifaceted representations of contemporary femininity. Prada Invites pieces are on sale with several different drops from the end of March until the beginning of May, in select Prada stores across the world.
Later this month Fondazione Prada will present a peculiar exhibition curated by Melissa Harris entitled “Surrogati. Un Amore Ideale” (Surrogate. A Love Ideal). Set to be opened on February 20th at their Osservatorio venue in the Galleria Emanuele, Milan, the exhibition will feature the works of American photographers Jamie Diamond and Elena Dorfman which will explore the notions of romantic and sexual love. Each of the photographer’s works create visual and oral discussions around the theme of emotional linkages between male and female with the notion of synthetic representations of humans.
“Together, Diamond’s and Dorfman’s work presented in ‘Surrogate’ vividly and non judgementally documents the interactions of humans with their lifelike, inanimate companions” says curator Melissa Harris.
The exhibit will showcase three subcategories of work, by Jamie Diamond: Forever Mothers (2012-2018) and Nine Months of Reborning (2014). The prior captures the lives of an outsider art community called the Reborners who are self-taught female artists who create, collect and interact with hyper-realistic dolls which help them fulfil a certain desire for motherhood. “Working with this community allowed me to explore a grey area between reality and artifice where relationships are constructed with inanimate objects, human and doll, artist and artwork, uncanny and real.”
Elena Dorfman’s segment of the exhibition features her series titled Still Lovers (2001-04) which highlights the lives of men and women who have relations and often devote themselves to life-size, realistic sex dolls. This series instantly ignites conversation about the power of lover and the value of an object that has the power great enough to replace human beings. Dorfman’s intentions behind creating the series was not to exploit or shun the deviancy of these unconventional relationships but to instead reveal the fascinating world of intimacy between flesh and silicone. “ My ambition is never to judge, but to allow the inhabitants of this secret world to share their daily lives with me. In familiar surroundings of their homes, I watch the scenes of domestic life unfold, the artist explains.” The exhibition set to conclude on July 22, will also carry an illustrated publication in the Quaderni series published by the Fondazione, which will consist of conversations between the curator herself, the artists along with some of the image subjects.
Forever Mothers, (2014) Jamie DiamondRebecca 1, Still Lovers, (2001) Elena DorfmanCJ & Taffy 5, Still Lovers, (2002) Elena DorfmanForever Mothers, (2014) Jamie Diamond
Emerging Italian brand A-LAB MILANO, conceived by Milanese designer Alessandro Biasi is a mark which plays on the lexicon of modernity and contemporaneity through the outlet of fashion design. For his Spring/Summer 2019 collection, Biasi cooks up a mixture of his signature 2-D graphic prints combined with Japanese themed iconography and techniques reworked in an innovative manner inspired by street style from the Harajuku district of Tokyo. Varsity jackets, graphic printed t-shirts and oversized raincoats give direct references to contemporary street style while the designer pays homage to the Japanese culture by the use of things such as the Furoshiki — a traditional Japanese cloth, often with a unique pattern used to wrap bento boxes, gifts and other objects for enhanced presentation using knotting techniques. With this technique, Biasi has created a fashion story around the collection of which the protagonist is the art of knotting, used in both functional and decorative ways throughout wrap dresses and blouses. The collection is also accompanied by an accessory line which features fabric Japanese pinstriped bags with leather handles, pouch bags, silk scarves, and shoulder bags.
Italian streetwear label GCDS recently embarked on a new venture of branding introducing their first beauty line called The Bag Essentials. The line is set to feature a collection of products which hints at the brand’s playful ironic aesthetic while still minting it’s high end Italian quality. The first drop of items which launched at the beginning of November included a series of four lip products: Hype — a fresh mental transparent lip balm with deep idratation, Blinghoe — A flirty sparkling pink lipstick with a plumping effect, Marijuana — A green ph reagent that turns into a blushing tint with a natural cherry shade when applied on the lips and Velvet D.I.C.K — a rough red lipstick with a matte finish. The beauty line is set to expand on a wider scale in 2019 with a series of launches always to be accompanied by the brand’s twist of irony.
“Robeauty” — an ode to the beauty of robotics — was the inspiration behind Milanese brand Miaoran’s SS19 collection.
The label, run by Chinese designer Miao Ran, launched three years ago after intense collaboration with Missoni. Specialising in both menswear and womenswear, Ran often delivers collections inspired by ethereal subjects and incorporates them through structure, print and delivery.
For his latest collection, the designer uses soft silhouettes, prints, colour, broken lines and macramé embroideries to construct looks in alignment to this automaton aesthetic. He also teams up with photographer Marcello Junior Dino, to create a lookbook influenced by muses of the future. Twin met with the designer to learn more about his process.
What materials are your favourite to work with and why
At the beginning it was so much about natural fibres but for the SS19 collection I choose many synthetic fabrics. I can’t really say I have a favourite. Each season it’s a different intention and a different mood to portray.
I always pay attention to materials. A fabric can deeply change the look of a shape and make it something you would never expect. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t but it’s important to experiment. It is always worth it.
What has been your biggest challenge so far since the launch of the label?
The biggest challenge for me, as for many designers nowdays, is to stay original. It’s important to combine many different aspects when your passion becomes your job. You have to make something beautiful, something that could be different among the all other products, something that has a twist but will also work in the stores. It’s difficult but it’s also very exciting for me.
How would you describe the ideal Miaoran woman/man?
Someone who is confident and who can wisely choose a piece of clothing and give it life. I love people with great personalities.
What inspires you the most?
I am very open to the world, and what happens on a daily basis. You can take a picture, read a book, watch a movie… but it’s not just that. It’s your background and your own world that makes you see everything in a different way.
Why were robots your inspiration for this collection?
Robots are the future. Aren’t they? And so are children, which was why we decided to pair them both for the look book.
For his SS19 collection, N.21 designer Alessandro Dell’Acqua, opted to turn his head away from the fast-selling streetwear direction of the industry and focus on a more sensual side of the brand.
“I’m over streetwear and sportswear at the moment. I started from a desire for light and warmth, to rediscover the body’s natural physicality.”
Sneakers were thrown in for socks and sandals, t-shirts for button ups. There were also raincoats, the brands signature photo inserted shirts, nylon pouch bags and totes.
The collection had a familiar simplicity accompanied by a whiff of femininity which made you want to ask for more. It was a celebration of the sensual man.Was this the brand’s official proclamation towards a more permanentformal aesthetic? And if so, will he then give up the shorts for tailored trousers next season?
Whatever direction chosen the brand should look to exaggerate their inspiration. At times their signature simplicity might be mistaken for indolence and repetition.
For MSGM’s SS19 collection designer Massimo Giorgetti incorporated the spirits of the two most important cities in his life: Rimini and Milan.
“Rimini” the designer commented, “is the city where I grew up, it was about the beach, the club, the tourists and the energy while Milan is where I made my home, started my label and made my career. I would like to play with the two and bring them together.”
Giorgetti envisioned both cities to be on the opposite sides of a volleyball net, inviting guests to a high school basketball gym for the show.
The brand’s streetwear aesthetic merged perfectly with the sporty reference. The collection was packed with acid colours, silk shirts printed like multivitamin one-a-day packaging, volleyball tops, track suits,bombers and oversized tees.
Images of famous Japanese volleyball players were also imposed on the garments along with patterns influenced by the works of American photographer Roger Minick, widely known for his photography series documenting tourists.
Giorgetti’s intentions, though presented as a Spring Summer collection, gave strong hints of resort wear which allows for the flexibility to freely dabble between collections.
The show then concluded similarly to last season’s with a series of multi-patterned printed shirts and matching shorts during the final walk. Although a fairly young Milanese brand, the inspiration that Milan gives the designer has become a recurrent theme. Is it time for something new, or is this stilla part of setting his signature in stone?
Twin’s 12th edition is all about attitude. Edie Campbell talks to fellow model Saskia de Brauw about finding friendship and surviving the fashion game. Photographer Liz Collins explores the new rules of beauty (the good news is, there are none). Skinny Girl Diet, the London band with big ideas and a brilliantly bad attitude, let out a rebel yell. We get up close with talented multi-hyphenate Miranda July as she shares her singular views on middle age and motherhood. Then step inside the Milan studio of Nathalie du Pasquier, the French-born painter of Memphis fame, who extols the freedom of later life. Then another inspirational image-maker, Roberta Bayley, recalls Manhattan’s Seventies punk scene—the perfect accompaniment to 74 pages of scintillating summer fashion.
Prada has teamed up with their favourite director Wes Anderson again. This time, instead of directing shorts for their campaigns, Anderson has lent his unique vision to create a bar. Located in Milan, Bar Luce, which features a Life Aquatic-themed pinball machine, a jukebox and retro formica tables, is part of Prada’s new art and culture complex Fondazione Prada and was inspired by two Italian Neorealist films – Miracle in Milan (1951) and Rocco and His Brothers (1960).
“I think it would be an even better place to write a movie,” states Anderson. “I tried to make it a bar I would want to spend my own non-fictional afternoons in.”
Fondazione Prada and the Luce Bar is open now at Largo Isarco 2, 20139 Milano.
From 9 May, Largo Isarco, Milan, will be home to a pioneering new art space from the Fondazione Prada. Occupying a former 1910 distillery, the Fondazione has supplemented pre-existing buildings with three new structures to provide a cool 11,000m2 of dedicated exhibition space. Quirky director Wes Anderson has been enlisted to bring the air of old Milanese cafés to the on-site bar.
To add to the excitement, the activities which will accompany the site’s opening are sure to thrill art-lovers. Site-specific installations by Robert Gober and Thomas Demand will compliment the industrial architecture, while Roman Polanski will explore the cinematographic inspirations behind his artistic vision, translating into a documentary and a series of film screenings.
The Prada Collection will itself be presenting a series of thematic ancient art exhibitions, curated by Salvatore Settis. Rem Koolhaas’ OMA are behind the display system of the project, which analyses the themes of imitation in classical art and the reproduction of small-scale Greek and Roman sculptures from the Renaissance to Neoclassicism. All in all, an unbeatably cool artistic endeavour from the fashion powerhouse.
Although the fashion crowd will be flocking to Milan for its beloved MFW from the 17 September, the afternoon of Sunday 21 sees Marni presenting an entirely different kind of show.
The Marni Flower Market, to be held in the baroque Rotonda della Besana, will feautre bundles of flowers interspersed with house-like stalls showcasing their wares. This display of freshness and vitality, hustle and bustle, is intended to accentuate the brand’s Italian roots; fitting for a house that is often floral-inspired.
Carolina Castiglioni, Special Creative Director, is heading up the event with Stefano Rabolli Pansera, the architect and curator of the Angola pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
There will be a variety of items for sale, from PVC vases decorated with archive Marni prints and Japanese porcelain pots complete with flower seeds, to animal sculptures handcrafted by a group of Columbian women.
The Flower Market also marks a collaboration with the Museo dei Bambini di Milano. A series of children’s workshops will be available to the public, and exclusive items such as gardening aprons and tool bags, hand-painted in Zambia, will be on offer. The project underlines Marni’s commitment to philanthropy, with part of the proceeds from the sale of these limited edition products being donated in support of children’s organisations.
Twitter
Tumblr
YouTube
Facebook
Instagram
