What Does It Mean To Be A Creative In Milan? A B&A Interview @ Artefact: Part Two
Last November B&A hosted an aperitivo at Artefact, gathering different creatives in Milan, mostly still students or just a couple years older. During the event, we’ve collected insights on what inspired them to create and how Milan has influenced their work. Even when coming from different backgrounds and by using different media, the artists share the same passion.
This is the second and last part of the thoughts we’ve collected from our last event :)
Mira Perini
Can you introduce yourself and your work?
My name is Mira, I am 22 years old and I’m from Stockholm. Right now I’m doing my masters at Istituto Marangoni in Fashion Design. I work mostly with upcycling, I usually use old couch coverings and table clothes and I die them in organic tints like onion peel, different roots to create a chemical-free colouring process. I usually do stuff that’s a bit more avant-garde, not really ready-to-wear.
Is there a difference in your creative process between your personal work and commissions?
Definitely. When I do my own work I take a lot of inspiration from biology, animated movies, and I’d say I’m freer when I do the stuff I want to do. When people ask me to do something for them, I sketch up ideas for them and then they get to choose. The inspiration doesn’t usually come from the same place because then I have more restrictions in what I can do and how I can do it.
How would you describe Milan, the arts scene, or how it’s impacted you?
That’s a hard question. I like Milan definitely for the fashion, but I’d say it’s more classic fashion here than what I maybe would like. I feel like sometimes when I walk on the street here and I’m dressed in some of the pieces I do, people look at you weird. In Los Angeles, I could go out in the craziest outfit and no one would even notice me. But Milan is a very good place for fashion, the fabric stores are amazing, and the school I am going to is also really good.
How would you describe how each of the places you lived in has impacted your creative identity?
Stockholm is the dullest of the three. Everyone there is usually wearing the same stuff as everyone else, which put me in a very difficult creative space when I used to live there. A lot of people there wouldn’t really appreciate the fashion that I would appreciate if I can put it that way. Milan is in between. I meet a lot of people here who are interested in the same things as I am and it puts me in a more creative mode than when I’m in Stockholm. LA I’d say is the craziest of the three.
What would you like to change about the fashion industry?
I’ve been having a lot of doubts recently about if I even want to work in the fashion industry because I feel like it’s so hard to change the un-environmental ways that fashion works in. It is I think the second most wasteful industry in the world and I don’t want to do anything that could contribute to destroying our environment and our world even more. So I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently. But if I want to work in fashion I would definitely want to work with an upcycling brand. There’s a Swedish one called Rave Review (you should look into it!). It’s amazing clothes, everything is made from furniture materials and up-cycled. If I work in fashion I definitely want to do something like that to contribute to a more sustainable, zero-waste way of working.
Any new projects coming up?
Yes, I am doing my personal collection for my Master’s degree which is very exciting. I’m very happy about the outcome so far. I didn’t bring any pieces from it today because it is very much in process. The collection is called ‘The Freak’ and talks about being a misfit in society, it takes a lot of inspiration from biology and anatomy. It’s a lot of construction and deconstruction to resemble abnormality in human bodies.
Giulio Plodari
Can you introduce yourself and your work?
I’m Giulio, I am 22 years old and I’m from Milan. I study at the Academy of Brera in my last year of painting studies.
I was introduced to art when I was a young boy by my mother. She used to make my sister and me draw on the walls of our house and this was my introduction to art. My creative process is related to that: I work based on my own experience of life. My family is an important part of my work too. I usually paint experiences of my younger life or my today life. For example, one piece I’m showing today is titled ‘Home’ and is a portrait of my mother and sister. It represents a dialogue between them and the relationship between the two. Another one is titled ‘Sei già venuto’ and is about the experience of hook-ups and sexual experiences.
I usually work on wood, start with a concept, I develop that, and I try to finish it trying to respect the time limits. I’m really influence by art from Chile and Viennese artists. Also I’m especially inspired by Egon Schiele, I really love the way of representing the traits in the body, and the colour of the skin.
How do you feel about Milan?
I think Milan is a good city, there are many opportunities but I think we can do a lot more, especially for young artists. I don’t think there are many and strong events or spaces for young artists and I think we should include them more.
Any next projects or dreams?
Long term, I wish I could do a personal event, that’s a big dream of mine.
Theo Choquart, TOJC
I’m Theo Choquart, I used to study at Bocconi in BEMACC, technically graduated now. I started this project named T.O.J.C. based on my initials (TJC), but in most countries I lived in so France, the US, and now Italy, my name really is Theo/T.O.
I have always worn Carhartt pants and liked the workwear rugged aesthetic. I enjoy having clothing that is pretty heavy on my body. These kinds of pants come in a canvas material that is different from linen or silk that are light and soft. It feels like you get weighed down by the pants, but it makes you feel warmer.
What I figured with these pants is that a lot of the times, they’re very old. Carhartt has recently started to re-introduce these pants under their WIP line and they’re different, lighter material. They have very solid colours which I don’t really like, I’m really into the gradients and aged stuff (whether it’s shoes, pants or hoodies). The interesting thing about these pants that I made is that they look like a gradient colour. The truth is that under the second panelling is the original colour of the pant. My goal is to be able to reveal to the outside world that the pants that you’re wearing are very old. So they passed the test of time and still do.
Originally the second panel comes stitched on the bottom of the pant so you don’t see this underlayer. I removed the stitching and placed buttons so that you’re able to remove the second panel if you wanted to or keep it on. It gives versatility to the wearer. I was inspired by this pair of New Balances I had as a kid which had this Velcro N on them and two other variants of this N. So whatever mood I was in, I would fuck around and maybe take off the N, switch it to a Z. That’s what I wanted to do with the pants.
All 10 pants that I have are carefully sourced curated from the US. I brought them over to Milan and did the work here in order to bring this workwear over to Italy. I know a lot of young Italian designers who caught on to this workwear trend. I was able to get my hands on some of their pieces and realised the material was way too light and didn’t really embody the essence of what workwear was. I made that my mission – if people want to wear double knees I want to make sure that they are actually putting on the right stuff and not getting a clouded idea. They’re supposed to be heavy and protective, making you feel protected.
A lot of them came with holes in them. Any default whether it’s paint holes, whatever it may be, it came with the pants when I bought it vintage from the US (all second hand). So what I did was to start filling the holes with this bandana from a Japanese brand that does a lot of restructuring and repairing clothing called Kapital. I cut up this bandana and sewed it underneath the holes to have a pop of colour.
