While the Made in Italy label has always been held in high regard, some time around the turn of the new millennium Italy lost its long-standing hip factor to a bunch of Brits and Americans. It had ruled the fashion scene for decades, starting in the sixties with Walter Albini and Elio Fiorucci and through the eighties with Giorgio Armani and Gianni Versace. By the time Miuccia Prada came onto the scene in the early nineties, the fashion focus had already started to shift to the rebellious creations of John Galliano in London and Marc Jacobs in New York. Milan Fashion Week, which is organized by the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, became a trusty place for buyers to stock up on well-crafted investment pieces, but no one was looking to Italy for audacity or innovation. Now, the country’s fashion industry is shaking things up, led by Alessandro Michele at Gucci and MSGM’s Massimo Giorgetti at Pucci. And a new wave of designers is helping Italy slowly but surely reassert itself as the epicentre of the design world.
The renewed interest in Italian fashion is not coincidental. The Italian government has made a significant effort to shine a light on its fashion industry. “We do have a plan to increase awareness of Italian fashion for the Canadian consumer,” says Pasquale Bova, the Italian trade commissioner to Canada. Last year, the Italian Trade Commission collaborated with Holt Renfrew on the cross-Canada Italian Immersion event, which featured established luxury brands such as Gucci and Ferragamo, as well as a trunk show by Stella Jean, the buzzy Rome-based designer whose vibrant prints are on everyone’s lips. A few years ago, Jean was the winner of the Who is On Next? competition for emerging talents organized by Altaroma and Vogue Italia. The yearly event, chaired by Silvia Venturini Fendi, is carefully followed by Sabrina Firman of Lambert + Associates, who acts as an Italian liaison to Holt Renfrew.
Firman’s latest discovery and former Who is On Next? finalist, Paula Cademartori, will make her Canadian debut at Holt Renfrew next spring. Brazilian-born and of Italian descent, Cademartori, who previously worked with Donatella Versace, started her eponymous line of leather goods in 2010, based in Milan. “I’ve always been watching her,” says Firman, who waited a few seasons for the brand to develop for the international market. “When you’re working with a big company such as Holt Renfrew, these designers have to be on top of everything: production, distribution, shipment.” She is confident that Cademartori’s vibrant, structured handbags will appeal to the Canadian luxury customer.
Former fashion editor Amina Muaddi launched her shoe line Oscar Tiye in 2013, and almost immediately began appearing on magazine pages. Her sexy magenta-lined heels have graced the feet of many streetstyle stars, including fellow editors Giovanna Bataglia and Sofia Guellaty. Muaddi, who is based in Milan, draws inspiration from her native Jordan, using the sacred scarab beetle as her logo and its wings as a recurring motif in her designs. The designer also participated in Who is On Next? and is “someone that is on the cusp,” explains Firman.
Now in his fourth season selling through the men’s department at Holt Renfrew is Marcelo Burlon County of Milan. A Patagonia-born, Milan-based Renaissance man, Burlon began his career as a DJ and art director before entering the fashion world with a series of graphic T-shirts in 2012. “He just exploded in the past two years,” explains Firman, “He does great capes and jackets.” The brand introduced women’s wear this season, with relaxed, urban silhouettes and graphic motifs serving as a perfect companion to its established men’s line. County of Milan is also stocked at Montreal-based online luxury retailer Ssense.
Arguably the buzziest young designer in Italy at the moment is Sicilian-born, Rome-based Marco de Vincenzo, whose celebrated lurex knits can be found at both Holt Renfrew and The Room at Hudson’s Bay. De Vincenzo worked at Fendi before launching his own line in 2009. De Vincenzo’s future as the next big thing was solidified when luxury conglomerate LVMH invested in the label last year. Aside from critical and commercial success, de Vincenzo has been picking up celebrity steam, and, with fans like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, there is no doubt he will become a household name. “He’s got a great, great talent. I love him,” Firman says. “And LVMH, unfortunately for us Italians, sucked him in,” she adds of his backing by the Parisian-based company.
Italian fashion isn’t the only design discipline experiencing a resurgence. Italian industrial design had always been championed, but experienced a slowdown during the recent recession. “It takes a little bit of time and these things go in waves,” says Bova, who cites the furniture fair Salone del Mobile and its SaloneSatellite rising stars exhibition as the leading showcase for young talent.
“We are experiencing a very intense crisis in Italy, which is not over unfortunately,” says Maria Cristina Didero, an independent design curator whose latest exhibition, a retrospective on the legendary design house Studio65, opens next month at the Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Turin. But the future of design is certainly not bleak. “I think that in the last couple of years companies started again to invest in design considerably,” she adds.
Marve Griffin Willshire, founder and curator of SaloneSatellite, agrees. “The interest toward young Italian designers is always bigger and bigger all over the world. When I started SaloneSatellite 19 years ago, it was the only event dedicated to young people. Now all the major furniture fairs and design weeks dedicate attention to them.”
Among the new wave of designers that caught Didero’s attention is Lanzavecchia + Wai, a design studio established in 2009 by Francesca Lanzavecchia and Hunn Wai in Milan. The pair exhibited at SaloneSatellite in 2011 and, since then, every year at Salone del Mobile. “They have a special twist” to their design, explains Didero, who curated their inaugural solo exhibition, titled Rock It!, at the Secondome Gallery in Rome last year. In just a few years, Lanzavecchia + Wai has created projects for iconic companies such as Cappellini and has picked up numerous awards including Young Design Talent of the Year at the Elle Decor International Design Awards in 2014.
Very quickly gaining steam is fellow former SaloneSatellite exhibitor and Young Design Talent winner, Verona-based Paolo Cappello, who has racked up more awards in the past five years than what most designers hope to receive in their lifetimes. “His touch is simple and sophisticated,” says Didero of his refined minimalist aesthetic. Cappello’s latest endeavor, a collection of intricate wallpaper for London Art titled Tangles, is inspired by 18th-century Japanese prints and has been constantly talked about in the industry since its release earlier this year.
Despite the recession, Italy is determined to maintain this momentum. “There is a certain energy right now,” says Bova. Milan is thriving culturally, thanks to this year’s Milan Expo, which has brought a lot of money into the city. The Italian design capital also saw the opening of three significant museums this year: Fondazione Prada settled into its permanent venue designed by long-time collaborator Rem Koolhaas; Armani celebrated his 40th anniversary with the opening of a Tadao Ando-designed Armani Silos museum; and a brand new Museum of Cultures, designed by David Chipperfield, was completed.
For centuries, people have flocked to Italy to experience its aesthetic savvy and the country is working tirelessly through public and private institutions to keep it relevant. The pursuit of beauty is essential to the culture, or as Bova explains it: “It’s something in the blood and the DNA of the Italians to create something that is fine.”