Italy is currently lying in a dramatic situation on a political, financial and social level. Attempts at forming a stable government after February's inconclusive elections have failed, while more companies close their doors each day and unemployment rates are constantly on the rise.
Maybe inspired by Tomasi di Lampedusa, the Italian fashion system found its own clever way to save itself through what in Italy is simply defined as "sindrome del Gattopardo" (The Leopard's syndrome), that is changing everything to make sure nothing truly changes.
Italian fashion publications may tell you that there are young designers out there, but no young talents are really nurtured by the system that seems to be too scared to genuinely promote them in case they lead to more established designers being forgotten; showcases about up-and-coming designers often end up promoting foreign graduates or presenting as geniuses young talents who do not really seem gifted with the sort of bright ideas that may revolutionise fashion. Then there are the high profile bloggers invited to collaborate with established fashion houses or young British designers and stylists working with historical brands to make them look more hip.
In the meantime, Milan Fashion Week has turned into a marginal affair simply skipped by many prominent editors. But what do you do if you're stubborn, you still want to be a fashion designer and you also want to change the rules of the game? Simply jump off the fashion system bandwagon and go your own way. At least that's what Milanese designer Federico Sangalli decided to do.
After taking part in a few editions of Milan Fashion Week and discovering a system that doesn't seem to care anymore about quality and the true needs and desires of the final consumers, Sangalli decided to keep on producing his designs in his atelier located near Piazza San Babila, just around Milan’s Duomo, and to present them to his clients with intimate catwalk shows. The latter call to mind the early days of fashion with models slowly walking around the clients, allowing them to see - and more importantly, touch - the beauty of the construction and the quality of the fabrics.
Sangalli, who designs in his own atelier and produces his made-to-measure pieces with a team of skilled dressmakers and embroiderers, claims he's just going back to his roots - his aunt Maria owned indeed the atelier where he works now and created unique designs for Milan’s high society. Yet there is more behind Sangalli's personal reaction to a fashion system relentlessly going towards its own destruction: it actually seems to be working well with clients who, tired of quick and fast trends, are turning to his atelier to order more exclusive yet affordable creations. And what if he were right?
Why did you decide to abandon the Milanese runways?
Federico Sangalli: Little by little, I started disliking the fashion system in general and the logics and rhythms that regulate the ready-to-wear collections. I realised I wanted to go back to the more traditional ways of creating fashion. I felt I needed to get out of the established schemes imposed by a system that tends to block your career, especially if you don't belong to certain groups of people. Another reason why I recided to jump off the bandwagon was the fact that the current fashion system does not respect the designer, but doesn't care also about the clients.
How do your private catwalk shows work?
Federico Sangalli: I never liked 10-15 minute shows in which people watching don't understand anything. Presenting a collection to me means introducing the garments to my clients in a calm, quiet and elegant atmosphere, but, above all, in a slow way. The catwalk lasts around one hour/one hour and a half, the clients look at the garments, get to know the fabrics, look at the cut, and then order on the spot. All the people who come are our clients and among them there are quite a few journalists, because we don't give our garments as presents and we don't lend anything like other fahion houses do. In a way, I'm just following my family's traditions: these are couture shows, and I focus on my heritage - high fashion. I also started offering accessible prices - imagine a more accessible luxury and haute couture - to open the atelier to a younger generation of people. You may argue this is a very limiting system, but it is a system that works and that I like a lot because I feel the enthusiasm of the clients supporting me, that proves people are sick and tired about the usual things.
How many pieces are included in each show?
Federico Sangalli: Forty-five designs. There are quite a lot of garments since, like in the traditional haute couture shows, we offer a wide wardrobe choice for different times of the day - morning, afternoon, cocktail and evening.
What inspired the latest collection presented at the beginning of March?
Federico Sangalli: I decided not to set on a specific film, icon or colour to avoid the usual traps designers fall in. I concentrated instead on the quality of textiles, on the lines, the construction, the cut and the volumes and added a lot of bright colours and floral motifs that could act as an optimistic kind of chromotherapy.
Is there a design that has proved particularly successful with your clients?
Federico Sangalli: I have a special passion for jumpsuits and I create a few ones every year. At the beginning I had just a few clients with the sort of ideal body for such a garment, but the demand recently increased also because in the last few seasons I tried to offer a jumpsuit that can be worn also for the day. My personal passion remains outerwear though – I simply love the way a piece is structured and constructed.
So far, what kind of feedback did you get from your clients?
Federico Sangalli: When they return and they tell me they received a lot of positive comments about my designs I know that this depends in part from me, and in part from my skilled atelier team. A lot of the merit is to be credited to the customers who see something new and well made that is actually based on renewing a technically strong tradition.
Has your team grown since the last time we spoke?
Federico Sangalli: I still have a small yet marvellous team comprising 6 members - 3 senior dressmakers and 3 trainees who are learning from them. They work together on a design from the beginning till the end. I still have the sort of structure of traditional tailoring houses, so a dressmaker specialised in Spring/Summer garments, one on Autumn/Winter and another one for suits. As you may guess, my world represents a small niche in the fashion universe, but I like considering it as the last bastion of a world that is disappearing, this is indeed the genuine soul of made in Italy fashion.
What kind of textiles do you prefer?
Federico Sangalli: I prefer well-structured textiles to soft and relaxed ones; fabric is a magic material that can be sculpted and moulded and has an impact on the final structure and construction of a garment. The problem is definitely not the type of fabric, though, but the quality. In the last few years I found myself obliged to terminate my business relationship with specific manufacturers who had been working with my family for decades because they tried to sell me things that weren't up to their usual standards. I was born into this business and I can spot the difference between fabrics and I also know what you can or can't achive with different materials.
How difficult is it for a fashion designer to be completely sure about the quality of the fabrics they are buying nowadays?
Federico Sangalli: It's very difficult. You must have a great knowledge about your business and also about the products offered by the manufacturer. I perfectly understand that some of the choices of the manufacturers relating to the quality of the fabrics may be due to the crisis. In Italy there are a few textile manufacturers left, most silk is produced in China at the moment and a lot of manufacturers actually have it woven and dyed in China as well. China is also producing silk for itself and this will soon have an impact on the prices of silk in the West. There are a few manufacturers in Italy, among them Taroni who works with traditional manufacturing processes. There are bunch of heroic people who are selling their houses to keep the production in Italy rather than delocalising it and lowering their standards.
What prompts them to remain in Italy?
Federico Sangalli: History, traditions and the fact they were accustomed to beautiful things and want to preserve them.
What does fashion represent for you?
Federico Sangalli: In my opinion fashion is art and art is τέχνη, in the original Greek meaning of the word - so craftsmanship, craft and technique. A creation becomes art if and when the technique behind it is perfect. All my focus is on the final client and on offering her clothes characterised by a modern design that make her feel better. I also find very stimulating altering a piece on the body of a client to make sure that design empowers her and gives a new grace to her shape and silhouette. It's an extremely creative, but also humbling process that allows you to get in touch with the real people who then wear your designs.
Which are the biggest crimes committed by the fashion system nowadays?
Federico Sangalli: It's a crazy self-referential system with no logic, concentrating the market and the distribution in very few hands. The fashion system doesn't really have any respect for the final consumers, but conceives them as fools to con by selling them creatively dubious low-quality garments at high prices. In Italy the system has also been favouring designers from other countries over designers from Italy, and the former in some cases do not have the traditions, culture and experience Italy used to have; in the States instead the media support and push American designers.
What do you think about high street retailers?
Federico Sangalli: That they are more honest than the big maisons that sell low quality garments at high prices. Leaving aside the unfair logics of high street retailers that are based on an invasion-like policy, they sell low quality garments for low prices. In the case of Italy, they also represent the failure of the political system that passed rigid laws about textiles and toxic dyes in this country, but then opened the market to such retailers.
Do you feel contemporary designers are engaging in a cut and paste game, often copying each others rather than producing new stuff?
Federico Sangalli: It's not just about designers indulging in a cut and paste exercise one with the other, but also about big maisons feeding off young designers. My S/S 2010 collection included a lot of pieces and accessories - such as sunglasses - incorporating Viennese straw and a few months after it was presented, I realised quite a few fashion houses were reusing that specific material, some of them also in their sunglasses. But this is just one of the many examples. As a reaction, after spending a few seasons seeing some of my ideas being replicated on this or that runway, I stopped updating my internet site.
Would you like to see a proper law about designer copyrights being introduced in the industry?
Federico Sangalli: Laws are often made to be broken and big maisons have the money and the powerful lawyers to defeat you in court. I'd rather establish a simple rule – all fashion houses and designers should be obliged to reveal the source.
What was the latest edition of Milan Fashion Week like?
Federico Sangalli: I lived the fashion week as an insider up until a few years ago and I live it now as an outsider. When you do so, you realise that the people involved and gravitating around it are more or less talking among themselves. The latest edition seemed extremely empty, with the same faces and the same clothes.
Why has Milan lost it?
Federico Sangalli: While the paws of the big multinationals are all over the fashion system, Milan lost it because they didn't find people who had the backbone to defend the strategic interests of this city.
What is damaging the fashion system in general and what is having a negative impact on the Italian fashion system in particular?
Federico Sangalli: Many current collections are mixes, assemblages and pastiches with no context of mesage. The marked is also drugged: big companies enter into virgin markets that are tendentially ready to absorb anything and are happy of doing so as they see it as a way to access consumerism and capitalism. One of the biggest problems remains the fact that most brands do not understand the needs of the final consumers and I find my approach to slow fashion as the only way to reach out to them and recover this key relationship. For what regards Italy, there is a dual system that on one side has eliminated the commercial barriers allowing goods produced in other countries to freely circulate here, and that on the other has maintained a terribly high tax system for local companies. Year after year this has eroded the economy, the industry and the local manufacturing power, while allowing low quality items to enter the country.
Do you feel that slow fashion can have a positive impact on our lives?
Federico Sangalli: You see, quite a few foreign universities came to visit me, for example delegations from Philadelphia and Tokyo, while I also had students writing dissertations about my work. In my specific case I think that my work represents what contributed to make Italy strong and beautiful all over the world. The old chairs I keep in the workshop in my atelier, the sewing machines and, above all, the workers who form my team, all these elements represent the soul and the heart - in a nutshell the DNA - of made in Italy design.
All images courtesy of Federico Sangalli
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