FASHION AS A REDEMPTION: LUCA BIANCO

From the ideas of the millennials, lessons can be learnt and predictions for the future can be drawn. The new generation of fashion designers is here, and they're just waiting for the right moment to bring out their winning ideas. Luca is part of this new generation, and will tell us about his vision and plans once he will have finished his studies at the IED in Milan.

My interest for fashion design was born from a desire of expressing my artistic side. It all came from the inside, and I felt the need to let my artistic alter-ego free.

Briefly present yourself.

My name is Luca Bianco, I live in a small town in the province of Como. During the high school I studied Informatics, and now this seems strange to me considering that I decided to study Fashion Design at IED University in Milan.

Where does your interest in this sector come from? And what does it mean to you?

My interest for fashion design comes from a desire of expressing my artistic side, something I could never express during my high school studies. It all came from the inside, I felt the need to let my artistic alter-ego free and so it was natural for me to choose this career. Fashion is the perfect vehicle to express myself, I see it as a redemption for all that I went through. To escape the environment I always lived in, to become someone and to redeem myself from what I did in the past.

I believe that dresses are not just something to cover your body with. They need to have an additional function.

What's your perception of fashion?

I believe that dresses are not just something to cover your body with. They need to have an additional function. My aim is to make dresses that are functionally useful for the human being, thanks to the use of micro-technologies. It all comes from the strong interest in technology and futuristic stuff that I cultivated during high school.

What inspires you when you design dresses?

Stylistically I'm inspired by a mix of Japanese culture, videogames, internet culture, anime, cyberpunk, all things that had a special role in my life. I'm also inspired by this quote by a painter: "All the greatest painters in the world did awful works. And these were their first 500 paintings.". It's important to remember that only a lot of practice leads to perfection, and that the most useful lessons come from failures. It's fundamental to keep generating ideas, and never loose the focus even after the failures.

What are the projects you're proud the most of?

Among the projects I created, my favourite is the so called "Kids Collection". The idea was to push kids to do physical activity, express their creativity and set free all their energy instead of losing time on the phone; thanks to a fitness-band incorporated in the dress, the data of the physical activity are registered, so that the parents can track the efforts of their kid. This idea was functionally and stylistically inspired by an anime cartoon called "Mairo Academia", where the characters have special dresses through which they could level up according to how much physical activity they perform.

Do you think that the current sanitarian situation affected the fashion sector?

I think that this pandemic crisis pushed all sectors to digitalize themselves, and so the fashion. All the biggest brands needed to give value to their collections even in a contest where they wouldn't be able to perform physical shows. So all the latest collections have been performed digitally, and it's fascinating to see how many original means the maisons followed to make it possible. Then, if we want to see the positive side of the current situation, definitely it helped to wake up the fashion sector and pushed it towards innovation.

Which is your daring factor?

I dare in the choice of the fabric. I really like to use textured fabrics, that is tissues with textured details, the so-called Jacquard style tissue. So I dare in very hazardous and elaborate textile choices.

But that's not all. As I previously said, I dare in the function of the dress, I dare in giving a meaning, a functionality to the dress, a feature that sometimes is not even taken into account because 'the visual impact is more important'. With the addition of this component, the outfit becomes useful in many ways, even those less conventional and that sometimes we do not take into consideration. In my way of thinking about clothes the aim is to make them useful in this sense.

Do you have any favourite designers you are inspired by? who have influenced you the most in your background?

At the moment my favorite designers are Demna Gvasalia and Kiko Kostadinov. In my opinion, Demna has completely turned the fashion world upside down, bringing to the stage an irony and a cheerfulness never seen before, and above all he was the first artist to introduce streetwear high fashion.

The second designer I'm most inspired by, Kiko Kostadinov, does something very similar to what I do. He starts with working uniforms, and then he creates very wearable, very special and very appealing pieces. I like his style a lot, and most of all I like the process he applies in making the clothes.

Which is the topic you always wanted to shoot but you didn’t have the chance yet?

I don't have a specific topic that I'm really waiting for shooting. I usually get carried away by what I want to do when I come up with an idea. Sometimes I want to send a message, but most of the times it is just art. Art doesn't necessarily have to make sense.

What are your plans for the immediate future? What style and objectives do you aim to achieve?

My next project is my university thesis. I don't want to spoil what I have in mind, but I can anticipate that in the future I would like very much to create a symbiosis between technology and dress. This is something I think is missing in today's fashion world, and I would like to be the first one to introduce this advanced and futuristic concept of textile.

To view more of Luca's work or to get in touch with him, visit his instagram.

Written by

Sebastian Schulten

Photos

Luca Bianco