Michela Loberto, is a fashion creative director from Italy.
What sparked your interest in fashion?
Each of us has an innate potential that emerges sooner or later on the path of life.
I’ve always had an interest since childhood, more for Art than fashion. I was fascinated by period clothing, the refinement of the fabrics and the richness conveyed by the meticulous details. More than an interest in fashion, mine is a way of expressing the Art that is within me. I create unique pieces because I believe in the uniqueness of each of us.
I would like to be able to create an unmistakable style in an age where there is a tendency to standardise the prototypes of equality.
What made you take fashion more seriously and make a career out of it?
I’ve had a fairly difficult life path, but I never gave up. I started sewing and creating 10 years ago, when I was in a deep state of depression. Creating helped me feel good, my mind was focused exclusively on what I could create, day by day and throughout sleepless but creative nights. It was an outlet for my feelings. This is how my first collections were born, expressing my philosophy of life and the conceptual significance that I associate with my Brand.
Are you self-taught or did you study fashion design?
I’m self-taught. I studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts (in Milan) graduating with top grades in interior decorating (trompe l’oeil restoration), a purely artistic course of study. As I said, I learned to sew day after day as if I had already acquired that art. I felt as if it only had to be polished, without ever giving up. Even when I was subjected to severe criticism.
Where are you getting your inspiration from?
The inspiration comes from the world around me, I love to drop into fabric shops and be inspired by colours, patterns, I adore second-hand markets and searching for buttons and trimmings in them.
I enjoy mixing something new with minutiae from the past. As for creating my garments, the images appear clearly in my mind and my hands take care of the rest.
I like to establish contact with my clients. I’m a strongly empathetic person and I try to understand their personality. The garment dresses the body but the body dresses the soul and I honour that body.
How do you describe your work?
When I create, I have a strong tendency to isolate myself from the outer world. I like to have my mind focused on the moment. After all, what matters most in that moment is to give the world the essence of an almost lost beauty and I simply express my being something more than a fashion designer. I like to think of myself as an artist. I’d like to cause an upheaval in the concept of fashion and its canons by transforming my creations into works of art, the art of dressing! The garment is transformed into an artwork. A timeless dress that embodies the canons of timeless beauty, beauty conceived as beauty of spirit and mind. Beauty conceived as ephemeral femininity.
Does your approach differ when designing menswear compared to womenswear?
It makes no difference whether I’m designing or creating men’s clothes or women’s. I put the same passion and the same essence into both of them.
What are you fascinated by at the moment? And how does it feed into your work?
It’s difficult to be fascinated by the outside world right now. What fascinates me most is always the meaning of life in all its forms. I love nature. I’m genuinely more fascinated by a flower blooming or the beauty of snow. By the harmony which manifests itself in nature, in its forms and its beauty, by life itself.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned since you started working in the fashion industry?
Only one comment comes to mind: all that glitters is not gold!
I’ve learned to find the courage to become happy and do what I like. I always suffered in the past when I was doing jobs that I didn’t care for but that enabled me to earn a living, but now I’ve learned to live by doing what I like.
What are your future plans?
My desire is to have an atelier in Paris, in Montmartre. An alternative, polyvalent atelier, where art, design and fashion mingle with each other, giving life to new ideas and new forms. I love France, I think I must have lived there in another life! I would like to continue to create and sell my clothing always with the same passion. I’ve written out a project for it. I would like to organise an exhibition dedicated to beauty involving photographers, a modiste and a designer.
I continue to evolve, life passes in an instant and I would like to end it without regrets.
Dress:@michelaloberto
Ph:@nicholas.fols
Model:@lidiacomini
Male_up:@vaniacesarato
Hair:@antonio_navoni
