Fashion Editorial: MANNEQUIN LIKE

The first time I had the opportunity to visit Valentina’s studio and see her working as a dressmaker, I immediately felt that I had just found the perfect location for my next editorial shooting.

The studio is only 15 sqm large. Its corners and the pieces of fabric left all around and some white mannequins arranged along the walls give to that place a very unique and quite mysterious atmosphere. A great creative energy fluctuates in that space, maybe because of all the hours Valentina dedicated to designing, cutting and adjusting new clothes. It’s well known that creativity gives birth to new creativity.

That room was clearly moving something deep inside me. I knew I had found the right place but not a real story yet. Back home I talked about my impressions to my girlfriend and saw her caught up in my enthusiasm and energy. I knew I was on the right track. The next days I found myself thinking several times about that place, always feeling very inspired. This is basically how this fashion story began.

I have been in contact with photography since I was a teenager. I spent hours and days admiring works of artists as William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Robert Adams etc. When I first grabbed a camera my purpose was to replicate the images from all of those books I had been studying, only at a later stage, my interest became to express something about myself through a more personal taste.

I have always been very passionate also about street photography, but my focus is still addressed more to urban empty landscapes than to people. That’s what brought me to Berlin to work on a personal project last winter. By chance one day I saw an exhibition of Helmut Newton’s fashion photography. For me, that encounter was love at first sight. I felt a strong contact not only with the beauty of his pictures but also with the provocative themes of his work. Once back in Italy, my interest in fashion photography grew and finally, I began testing different models with the aim of developing my own sense of aesthetics. The main message I want to communicate is that beauty often hides in the common contexts of everyday life, like city corners or messy rooms. I think in fashion photography dresses and models are only tools to bring attention to a wider topic.

This time, I had the luck to work with a quite experienced but still very young Serbian model. Her name is Alexandra and she comes from Belgrade. From the beginning of our shooting, I had a great connection with her. I am sure she felt the same attraction to that place as me because everything happened very naturally and spontaneously. I noticed Alexandra was very involved in creating a real communication with everything she saw in the studio, especially with the mannequins. I let her do whatever came to her mind. In the while, I just followed her with my camera trying to catch all of her energy. The shooting took a couple of hours and once done we felt very relieved and positively impressed with what we had just accomplished.

During the editing process I realized that the pictures were carrying some of the vibrations I felt when I visited that place for the first time. The color tones inspire stillness and silence at the same time and the movements of the model are not too intrusive. Everything came up as a balanced composition, even if the pictures have a non-rigid and informal structure.

FASHION CREDITS:

Photography by Sami Oliver Nakari www.samiolivernakari.com
Model: Aleksandra Zrilic, Wave Management Milano www.wavemanagement.it
Styling: Leda Marcolini, Le Marcolini www.facebook.com/LE-MARCOLINI-310401718983789
Makeup & Hair: Flavia Magazza www.facebook.com/flavia.emozioni
Production Manager: Roberta Beschi www.instagram.com/robertabeschi_

WARDROBE CREDITS:
LOOK: 1-2 – Pants Corinna Caon www.corinnacaon.com/Gilet GQuadro www.facebook.com/people/Gquadro-Pelle/100010700565972
LOOK: 3-5 – Jacket Nevada Love www.nevadalove.paris
LOOK: 6-8 – Coat Le Marcolini www.facebook.com/LE-MARCOLINI-310401718983789
LOOK: 7-9 – Blouse Jubylee www.jubylee.fr
LOOK: 10-11 – Jacket Vivienne Westwood www.viviennewestwood.com
Leggings Zara www.zara.com