{"id":3886,"date":"2015-06-24T12:37:19","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T12:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/notofu.com\/home\/?p=3886"},"modified":"2015-06-24T12:37:19","modified_gmt":"2015-06-24T12:37:19","slug":"barbara-bologna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/notofu.com\/new\/barbara-bologna\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbara Bologna: Restricted Knitwear"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barbara Bologna’s eccentric Fall collection embodies a charismatic yet playful energy. Once a sculptress and performance artist, the Italian designer applies fashion as a way of questioning her own artistic thinking and practice which originates from deep inside her conscience. We sat down with the idiosyncratic designer and conversed on her Fall\/Winter 2015 collection, and the pressure buyers place on young designers today.<\/p>\n

In your opinion, what differentiates commercial fashion from \u201cartistic\u201d fashion?<\/em><\/p>\n

Commercial has to be simple whereas artistic has to be deeper. What I try to do with my collection is combine the two together so that the result is unique, and in a way becomes everyday wear while exuding a more artistic point of view. Essentially, compromise between both sides. You have to, however, be careful to convey the link between the two in a way that is both clear and focused.<\/p>\n

Do you feel with FW15 you had to cater more to what the buyers want as opposed to your previous seasons, which were more ambiguous and sculptural in design?<\/em><\/p>\n

I think this season I have introduced much more of what I am in comparison to past collections, so it is not only a focus on the print or more wearable pieces but it\u2019s sort of looking at this new shape or idea of how I wish to approach my work. This season, accessories were a main focus for me as I chose to do pieces such as a two-headed teddy bear. My objective was for the public to get a strong sense of my work and establish the presence of Barbara Bologna.<\/p>\n

What have you learned about yourself while designing the new FW15 collection? <\/em><\/p>\n

I learned that I am like a baby \u2015 I like to play with toys like a child. I designed bags and print with humorous motifs on the clothing and, above all, I discovered that I can enrich the child spirit in me. Even though these are all amazing things, not everyone is responsive to such seemingly positive energy; you tend to come across people who are sad yet unwilling to open up. I want to reach out to those people \u2015 the possibility of getting someone to smile through my clothing is an extremely rewarding feeling that I wanted to convey throughout this collection.<\/p>\n

How do your collections represent you as a designer and person?<\/em><\/p>\n

My creations are a huge part of myself and I can’t live without them, so for me they span the emotional gamut \u2015 a pleasure made up of sadness, happiness and joy. In the same way, I hope every designer puts a huge part of themselves into their collection while remembering that the collection should always be a full and truthful reflection of the designer \u2015 that\u2019s the case for me. In fact, I hope that every designer has fun with their job and gets a sense of pleasure from every collection they design while putting their all into the work.<\/p>\n

Do you think that in the current fashion climate, buyers are influencing designers\u2019 choices or are designers still largely free and true to themselves?<\/em><\/p>\n

I think the buyer needs to see something special and when they see it, it should surprise them. This element of surprise is very important, and it has to provide depth and trigger emotion. I don’t wish to challenge the buyer, instead I want there to be a connection between us both so I can do something quite crazy and unexpected, which is where I feel the most beautiful things can happen. It is vital to stop thinking about the money and instead appreciate something that is amazing on its own merit. We are artists, we only can keep creating again and again, and that has always been my objective.<\/p>\n

Do you feel that even among \u201cavant-garde\u201d designers today there is an increasing lack of originality? Personally I feel that a lot of avant-garde designers all share the same cut and construction, and ideas are all stolen from each other. What is your view on that?<\/em><\/p>\n

I think that, right now, I am too tired of the term \u201cavant-garde style\u201d \u2015 for me it is often treated like a cage which on the inside \u2015 in your own world \u2015 makes sense and is all perfect, although when looked at from the outside, there\u2019s often a disconnect with the world it belongs to or was created in. So with my collection ‘Youthful: Open Unique Future’<\/em>, I wanted to challenge myself and the viewer to look inside the soul and everything that runs through our bodies and understand it with a mind open to the outside. It is not only black or avant-garde. My creative process is like an artist\u2019s \u2015 impossible to only look in one direction. My mind likes so many things and pushes me to do something different all the time. However, I do believe the term \u201cavant-garde\u201d has become limiting, and the designers all work in a similar way, which is a pity because we are all artistic people and we need to do something to provoke others. It is important we do something because bigger labels such as Comme Des Gar\u00e7ons and Yohji Yamamoto writing the story of the present, we need to do something to shape the future as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Restricted Knitwear<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_9765_1\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9676_1\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9734_1\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9788_1\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9799_1\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9896_1\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9936a_1\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9957a\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photographer<\/em>: Gautier Pellegrin
\nCreative Director<\/em> and interviewer: Keanoush Da Rosa
\nArt Director & Designer<\/em>: Barbara Bologna
\nStylist<\/em>: Emanuela Ippolito
\nStylist’s Assistant<\/em>: Tera Feng
\nMakeup Artist<\/em>:\u00a0 Yu Mascarade
\nHairstylist<\/em>: Guja Rigattieri (Atomo Agency Milan)
\nModels<\/em>: Sylvia Lajbig, Richard Blondel, Iva G and Andrew Bocelli (At 2morrow Models)
\nSpecial Thanks to Michael Ronsky for doing the Shibari<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barbara Bologna’s eccentric Fall collection embodies a charismatic yet playful energy. Once a sculptress and performance artist, the Italian designer applies fashion as a way of questioning her own artistic thinking and practice which originates from deep inside her conscience. We sat down with the idiosyncratic designer and conversed on her Fall\/Winter 2015 collection, and the pressure buyers place on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[258,259,260,261],"class_list":["post-3886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-barbara-bologna","tag-collection","tag-designer","tag-fw15"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paoQFa-10G","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/notofu.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/notofu.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/notofu.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notofu.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notofu.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/notofu.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notofu.com\/new\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/notofu.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notofu.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notofu.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}