“New emerging talents reinterpreting the fashion system: Magarchivio meets BADD”
FOCUS
Photography by
GRETA FUTURA LANGIANNI
Words by
VITTORIA SANTARELLI
Styling and clothing
MAGARCHIVIO
Talents
GIORGIA, SIBILLA, GRETA, GUENDA, GRETA,
AICHA, AMELYN, LUDOVICA
To Revisit - it’s what unites two realities that are not so distant: revisiting the idea of fashion, sale, and the idea of beauty we had in mind.
We met the protagonists of these two new proposals: on one side, a conscious approach to the fashion system with magarchivio, an online shop selling clothes and accessorizes created and/or selected by Greta and Guenda Mariotti. The two sisters, graduated in architecture but with different specializations - Greta in Fashion Design and Guenda in Art Direction- reinvented and online archive joining artists and students from all over the world. On the other hand we have an innovative and unconventional agency, BADD, a part of Monster Management is exactly this: a new idea of modeling that steps away from what we are used to see. Polly Paola Ruta is the founder of this new project, created last fall, aiming to bring a different conception of fashion and those in it.
MAGARCHIVIO - In what way has your architectural background influenced your aesthetic and how does it reflect in your work?
Our studies in Architecture gave us the crucial, basic means to a self sufficient creative management. We are not simply referring to the knowledge of computer programs necessary in order to create contents, website and so on. Our journey was fundamental when it comes to comprehend deadlines, schedules, “shippings”. The habit to designing, constant revisions not only formed us when it comes to organization but also drove us to creating a work method on a creative project that’s entirely ours. So I’d say that architecture has laid the foundations for truly creating a project starting from zero. “magarchivio” is our fist small home!
We’d like to think that our personal style is transmitted trough magarchivio, our online platforms are not a “shop window” but the reflection of who we are and what we do. We communicate spontaneously, without a pre-constructed layout. “magarchivio” is our second profile where we can express ourselves in the same ways we do in our personal profiles.
BADD - Working for many years in various model agencies in what way does BADD differentiates from the standard agency we have in mind?
Dealing with “real” people in BADD there’s a completely different approach. Until no long ago agencies used to offer pretty much the same thing: models. With BADD we give space to something more, it’s the idea that was embraced ever since the beginning by my colleagues and bosses: it’s the project of the future! BADD is not a division about street casting, it’s way wider. We deal with people who do all kind of things in life: artists, singers, photographers, video makers. BADD is a vessel for creatives, there are no precise requisites in order to be a part of the agency, no sex, gender, age and measurement limits… we are indeed trying to give space to different looks and bodies, this is also what the market is finally looking for. Not only a pretty face and the perfect measurements but character, attitude, passion, ideals. The market needs something real and we are trying to giving it out.
MAGARCHIVIO - What’s the process behind the artistic research that leads to the selection of the designers we find in your archive and how important is it?
Our research mostly takes place on Instagram. We constantly send each other IG profiles we find interesting via direct: designers, artists, Italian and foreign students. We send via our personal profiles an introduction message asking to give us an e-mail address so that we can send them a detailed e-mail explaining our project and the sale system we use. Then we start talking to the brands and designers and if interested we ask them a line sheet or some photos from which we can make a selection of pieces we’d like to show on “magarchivio”. With some people we start from 0 and design together a small exclusive capsule collection.
BADD - What’s the process behind the research that leads to the selection of the talents we find in BADD?
If I have to be honest the selection happens quite naturally. We are not looking for something specific but rather authentic, people who simply catch our attention. Usually this happens through Instagram, a perfect platform when it comes to searching for interesting personalities and “cool kids”. Scouting is quite funny, it’s a process made of many meetings with the team and different points of view that always bring an added value. The first talents i brought into BADD are mostly Italian guys/girls I have worked with in the past as a casting director, they were my starting roaster…now along with the constant online research and word of mouth between talents there are also a lot of foreign agencies that are investing in our project giving us models that could not enter in any other agency here in Milan if not BADD. This is a huge achievement for us, it means they are trusting us.
MAGARCHIVIO - In the designers showed in your archive we also find “magamade”, would you like to tell us what is it ?
“Magamade” is a collection that’s showcased along with the other brands in our platform. It was actually one of the firsts added to the list. Around June Greta started designing clothes in our home using old textiles leftovers from her past exam projects for her fashion design course at IUAV in Venice. Starting with scrunchies, crop tops and then skirts we are slowly working on expanding our collection.
BADD - Many of the people in BADD work in the art field/fashion industry but in different roles, how do such close but different realities coexist and what do they bring one another ?
That’s its strength! Coexisting in different realities in the same environment creates positive synergies and connections that bring to the creation of new creative processes. Fashion has always been, now more than ever, a HUB made of various talents. That’s what we aim to create with BADD: the idea of transversal talent, constantly evolving.
MAGARCHIVIO - What does it mean to be an independent project in this particular historical time?
Just this morning we were hearing on the radio how, in this precise historical moment, there’s a lack of care towards our generation. I’m talking about people between 18/25 years old. We often hear about the situation in schools and high schools but rarely about universities and neo graduates. We probably had luck, perhaps courage and naivety starting “magarchivio” in a time like this. And we are glad we did it. Developing an independent project nowadays allows you to be busy professionally, which is becoming rare for people our age, graduates and non. So I would say that being independent in these circumstance is the best thing a 20 years old can do right now. Being the architects of our own destiny - with the pros and cons involved - is what pushed to go and look forward. “magarchivio” allowed us to have, today, even if small, a security we would have hardly reached otherwise.
BADD - What does it mean to turn one of the most important modeling agencies in Italy into an example of the “representation/inclusivity revolution” we are currently experiencing? How many more steps are necessary in order to reach a truly inclusive representation?
For an agency such as Monster, that has always made contemporaneity, character and avant-garde part of its vision BADD was a simple natural followup of the process. In an industry that’s constantly growing it’s fundamental to keep your eyes open on the reality surrounding ourselves keeping up with its natural evolution. Inclusivity and body positive are two terms we are constantly hearing lately and are definitely part of the conversation. BADD does not wanna talk about body standards but move the conversations around character, personality and talent. Maybe there’s not a true end point; it’s hard to predict a final destination. Surely there’s a right way though and the fashion world is taking steps towards an inevitable and needed change.
MAGARCHIVIO & BADD - Our next issue coming out soon will talk about “SHAME”, have you ever felt it during your personal/working journey?
M: We are twin sisters and now we work together, between us shame is a feeling the does not exist. It’s definitely a felling that has to be dealt with, being counterproductive in most situations.
B: I’m a quite shy and introverted person under many aspects but I’m good at hiding it. I have a beautiful shield I’ve been wearing for many years that protects me during bad times. I often deal with shame, ever since I was little I’ve had a hard time letting people photographing me, in most of my family pictures I’m crying. Even now when I see a camera I have the feeling my face will decompose like Picasso.
Professionally speaking though I must admit that I have never felt ashamed, maybe because I’ve never felt inadeguate or not good enough, I’m well aware I got here with my own strength and that makes me proud of myself. I did feel ashamed for some of my clients though and their rude and hostile ways, their attitude of superiority; sometimes even in our field we get bullied and that’s the saddest part of this job.