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LCD SELECT JURY MEMBER CARLO BRANDELLI THE DESIGNER DUBBED
‘THE GERHARD RICHTER OF SAVILE ROW‘ ON TRANSDISCIPLINARY CREATIVITY
Carlo Brandelli is a creative polymath whose designs are in the permanent collections of the Design Museum in London and The Met in New York. He regularly lectures in Italy and the UK and is a design consultant for brands as diverse as Adidas and Jaguar. His very first project ‘Squire’ fused art, fashion and design into one concept space and gallery, and won him fans, such as Helmut Lang and Alexander McQueen. As a fashion designer, he has received several diverse awards, including the British Fashion Council’s Menswear Designer of the Year Award in 2005–the year in which he was also voted the UK ‘s most stylish man by GQ magazine. His work is regarded as a cross-disciplinary exploration into art and fashion, and for much of his career he specialised in contemporary Savile Row tailoring, often showing complex installations as part of the fashion work, not least at the helm of Savile Row brand Kilgour. His ‘Unstructured Suit’, for example, was recently shown at MOMA in New York as part of the seminal ‘Is Fashion Modern Exhibition’. Here, the 2018 LCD jury member, tells us about his undying passion for Turin, and why cultural innovation does not have to rely on technology.
If there was one piece of artwork you could feature in, which one would it be? Themes of reflection have constantly run through my work, so the idea of narcissus and echo seems painfully appropriate, I have often worked in glass and mirror in design, and lots of the installations I have worked on have focused around mirrors–of course, the idea of a mirror and reflection is so attached to fashion.
How do you believe museums will impact future cities?
Museums should always be institutions that present visual creative facts–inspirational places reflecting the artistic truths. I know they are trying to connect in more experiential ways, but I don’t know how valid that is. When I go to a museum, I just want the work to speak for itself, so I think a museum should really just be an archive that presents a very true and objective record of the artists and artifacts that they are talking about.
What is your favourite cultural city? Turin: Italy’s forgotten city, and the origin of so much design and art innovation. It is also the home of the Carlo Mollino Museum–Casa Mollino–the mysterious design legend’s old apartment. It contains a rare painting by his friend the design hero Ettore Sottsass– whose paintings are beautiful, but are obviously less known. Mollino designed the Teatro Regio Torino in Turin, which is recognised as one of the great unspoken reference points for architects. He was also known for taking very beautiful Polaroids of dancers from the evening scene in Turin.
Who do you think are the cultural innovators of tomorrow? Innovation today suggests progression through technology, and while I feel technology is a useful tool, it should not be the method by which art is made. A good example is Virgil Abloh–he has made ‘appropriation’ from art to fashion the acceptable modus operandi. But, although this works, to a certain extent, it will allow the ‘less intelligent’ element of the fashion design market to continue to copy the arts blatantly, as opposed to absorbing inspiration and taking their own work somewhere else.
Who inspires you and why? I am inspired by anyone who decides to make his or her living through creativity or art. So much of people’s lives are focused on selling something they themselves have not created. To walk through any major city to see the majority of the population in front of a computer screen constantly is heartbreaking.
What are you up to at the moment? I have just produced a series of 12 portfolio works on paper for art Brussels, 18-22 April, and through Spazio Nobile Gallery, Brussels. The work is a series of collages made from the drawings and ephemera of my last menswear collection.
Read more interviews with thought-leaders and cultural provocateurs at
leadingculturedestinations.com
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