The Importance Of My Archive

Sometimes, when I go in the basement of my office, and I see a load of old military and workwear garments on the shelter I ask me what I will be now without the knowledge provide me from all these old garments.

My archive is not so wide, few hundred pieces maybe. I know some other "colleague" that have thousands of items stored! But is funny to see that many of those designers and so many other product managers from the company love to buy clothes from other brands just to copy.
They don't care to study and discover what's inside a old garment, they just prefer to buy the competitors items and copy as well they can. In the school where I have teached for more than a decades I have try to teach to my student the importance to learn from past, to catch what's is inside the details of a old garment, they love to discover how many ideas there's inside a old Field Jacket, they love to see how many inspiration they can get from a pair of old work trousers… maybe from a mechanic of R.A.F or a specialist of LUFTWAFFE.

Archives are the real ace in the hand of a designers, but to build a good archive is not easy.

First of all, you need the knowledge. It's not enough to go around the world, load of money and buy all the things that catch your eyes, or, going in the best shop and buy the latest fashion news.
The knowledge comes from a deep research in books, other archives, not necessarily about fashion…but, the most important, the knowledge is something you have to feel inside of you, somebody call it "poetry", other call it "romanticism"… I don't know.
I have build my archive in about fifth-teen years, many of the items was personal second hand clothes that i have buy for myself, others comes from common thrifty stores and markets.
The best Items I have are the military garments from the second world war, especially from the D-DAY, that I have buy in Normandy, last June... apart form the rarity, they have a special feeling coming from the place they are coming, some are impossible to find, some are more common, but the place where I have find them give something more to this pieces.

Going around in the Normandy I have seen lots of military clothing in the museum and collect so many information, that any research trip in the best capitals of the world can't give.

So, going back in my office, from the basement, keeping in my hands my small book of ideas full of new concepts to developing, I always think how much of this poetry and opportunity are loosing who is just thinking that copy a clothes is the better way to give the customer what they need.

A Simple Pair Of Glasses

These are my new glasses. I was searching for some new frames from a long time. I was tired of the squared, bold and heavy frames, is usually to see on the nose of designers, architects… and fashion victims, of course.
I have seen these glasses for the first time in the back of the cover of the last album of Donald Fagen, Morph The Cat.
Mr. Fagen is well know for his understated elegance and for the clear concept of style he have from the early days.

He put this glasses on a windows of a loft, where you can see some end of Manhattan.
This image capture me, and listening the CD give me the finishing stroke!

It was no easy to find it, but finally I find this model from a company called EPOS-MILANO and I think it's perfect.

I love the rounded lines, and the turtle shades on the new frames, they are a little bit 80's style, in fact I remember that when I was thirteen I own a pair a frames like this…