Background: Luigi Ciocca is an Italian fashion designer consultant. This year he decided to work in China and he has his house and fashion design studio in Shanghai now. He needs to get in touch with good Chinese companies who want to have an Italian style both for the Chinese market and for
export. He thinks that the textile industry in China must now make a quality leap. He is sure that his experience can be useful both for the Chinese brand and for Chinese market.
Italian fashion designer consultant:Luigi Ciocca
Anny from China Apparel Net interviewed with Mr. Luigi Ciocca.
Anny: Tell me a little about yourself. Where are you from? What's your educational background?How did you get into fashion design?What inspired you to get into fashion design?
Luigi Ciocca: I was born in Milan in a family of antiquarian. I had a formation in art and I started very young my first steps in the work doing the arrangement in an attractive display the windows of the best apparel shops in Milan. I was bewitched by fascination of fabrics and forms, for me approach with fashion happens as a result of my artistic culture and my first work experience. I realized almost thirty years old my first collection of apparels, which was presented at Pitti in Florence. I brought the fashion collection of clothes-prototypes. In that occasion the fashion world had noticed my creativity and this was decisive for my future. Shortly after I received many proposals of consulting for fashion design collections. I opened my own fashion studio, in the heart of the quadrilateral of the fashion, in via Sant'Andrea in Milan where with a team of my staff, for more of twenty years, I developed the collections (for both men and women), from the birth of a concept through to the final fashion design.
Anny: Do you have your own fashion brand?
Luigi Ciocca:With an exception of my brand in Japan with my name, I have always worked as consultant with my own fashion studio collaborating with major textile companies in Italy, France, Austria, Turkey, Greece, Japan and others.
Anny: Which company do you work for before you come to China?
Luigi Ciocca: I make just some names like Mitsukoshi Department Store, Itochu, Descente, Les Coqs Sportiv and my brand Myuki Keori in Japan; then in Italy Sisley, Benetton, Hugo Boss, Allegri, Avon Celli, Coin Department Store, Fendissime Junior, Missoni Junior, Cerutti, Levis Italia & Levis Europa, etc.
Anny: Where can our readers find your works or buy your clothes?
Luigi Ciocca:I would not want this type of question, because I am a consultant of style and I do not be occupy for the distribution and sales and I not be able to know where are the stores in China of my costumer.
Anny: How would you define your personal style? Describe your philosophy about the art of fashion.
Luigi Ciocca: I think that the dress and therefore the clothing is a form of communication. I am interested in a communication with an image of a style that expressing a sensation of "Being in the world", in constant movement. A cosmopolitan and contemporary style, always with attention to the quality fabrics and new range of colors, fashion but not fashion victim. I love the contamination and mixing of styles. Certainly, I have an Italian taste, but also features of American comfort and of British tradition.
Anny: How many years have you been in the fashion industry?
Luigi Ciocca: 25 years
Anny: What are some of your accomplishments as a fashion designer?
Luigi Ciocca: A collaboration lasting between major Italian and foreign textile firms.
Anny: Where do you get your creation inspiration?
Luigi Ciocca: One of main interests is the world of art and also that of cinema. I am a collector of contemporary art and a film lover. These two worlds helped me to have the new sensations. I make this sensations actual with my creativity by creating trends, colors, shapes and what will become the new collection. Of course, behind every collection there is also a search. I have a library of thousands of books purchased in the years: art, graphics, textiles, history of costume, etc.. I have in my archives "Vogue", from 1915 to 1923, and I have collections of various fashion magazines such as "Elle", "Grazia", "Vogue", etc.. from years 60 to years 80.
Anny: What are some of your fashion goals?
Luigi Ciocca: I always thought that we can "educate" the people to the beautiful. I try to take my part in this objective.
Anny: What are some of your favorite fashion websites, magazines, or books?
Luigi Ciocca:
VOGUE ITALY (FOR MAN AND FOR WOMEN)
http://www.vogue.it/en
http://www.vogue.it/en/magazine/l-uomo-vogue
PREMIER VISION
http://www.premierevision.fr
FASHION MAGAZINE ITALY
http://www.fashionmagazine.it
STYLE
http://www.style.it/moda/sfilate.aspx
BLOG THE STYLE ROOKIE
http://www.thestylerookie.com etc.
I have subscribed to most important fashion magazines like Mood, Fashion Magazine, Elle, Vogue etc. and I have a library of thousands of books purchased in the years: art, graphics, textiles, history of costume, etc..
Anny: What are your favorite colors to work with and why?
Luigi Ciocca: Every year I follow very closely the trends of color by visiting the most important textile fairs in Paris, Milan and Florence and I create my proposals related to general trends of the moment. However, my favorite color is red (that not always used for my work), because it is a color that in my imagination is synonymous with vital energy.
Anny: What other experience do you have in the fashion industry (stylist, retail, marketing, etc.)?
Luigi Ciocca: I created the corners of trends for the textiles fair in Istanbul, so to highlight the trends of the new Turkish fabrics. I made new colors with a design team for Premier Vision in Paris. For the rest, I have always done my work of fashion designers.
Anny: Why do you want to work in China?
Luigi Ciocca: Because I believe in a great future for Chinese brands both on the internal market and also in an international environment, including the need for fashion companies to have a stable Italian fashion designer with his own fashion studio in China, for developed the collections and to follow the fashion product from the birth of a concept through to the final fashion design.
Anny: Why do you select Shanghai as your working place?
Luigi Ciocca: Because Shanghai is a city that reminds me Milan, not in the urban sense, but for his energy and because Shanghai is a city projected into the future.
Anny: Can you speak Chinese?
Luigi Ciocca: Really is not easy, in the future I will try to understand it more. Logically, for my work I use Chinese assistants.
Anny: What is your design studio' s name? Where is your office?
Luigi Ciocca: The name is Studio Luigi Ciocca and my office is located in the heart of the French Concession.
Anny: Why do you want to cooperate with Chinese company?
Luigi Ciocca: Because I think that my experience and professionalism will be useful for their projects, thus creating a combination that could lead results to both.
Anny: What kind of Chinese company do you want to work with?
Luigi Ciocca: I want to work with Chinese companies that have their own brands or who want to create it, for both men and women, for the Chinese domestic market and in the future for the international market. Thus creating in the world an image of the Chinese product like a fashion product with quality content and not only low cost.
Anny: What is the collabration mode do you want?
Luigi Ciocca: To collaborate in the creative part where I propose more current trends that include the new colors and research of the fabrics, design of the collection, vision prototypes. I have great experience in both the men's clothing such as women. That what usually is creative director of a company.
Anny: Finally, do you have any fashion advice or styling tips you could give to our readers? If we invest in one thing this season, what should it be?
Luigi Ciocca: There is a return to the formal elegance, the items of clothing constructed and the quality of fabrics and clothing. Lines vaguely 80s. I think that is better invest more on quality, because it is a quality product that shows the style. In the world market exist a plus products with low quality goods, but the same word "investment" mean an product that lasts.
Anny: If a Chinese company wants to cooperate with you? How to contact you?
Luigi Ciocca: I can be contacted at my e-mail cioccaluigi@gmail.com so that we may define a possible collaboration.
The Chinese version of the interview: http://www.efu.com.cn/data/2010/2010-08-31/321960.shtml
Any interview requirement, please email: anny2004@yeah.net
