Saturday, September 25, 2010

Milano





Robert Frank for the Aspesi Catalog
Photo credit: 5B4 
The list of design houses at the Milan Fashion Week could not be more crowded. Having no intention of joining the crowd or discussing hemlines or prints in interviews, the Italian designer Alberto Aspesi prefers to express his view in an un-posed way with Robert Frank. The Alberto Aspesi catalogue by Robert Frank is hardly available to the public and the Aspesi clothing is rarely presented in the photographs.

The Milan store of Aspesi on Via Montenapoleone, designed by Antonio Citterio, is a showroom displaying sculptures, video screens, and toys. The laundry detergent designed by Dirk Van Dooren of Tomato looks so much like a drink bottle that I almost asked the question that may make them go bananas: "what kind of drink is it?"

Shot in the late 1980s and the mid-1990s, the campaign photos may have, intentionally or not, pushed the budding ascetics of  “street” style--embraced by Corrine Day at the same period and followed by a generation of work by Juergen Teller, Craig McDean, David Sims and Glen Luchford.

In the city where dressing well is a responsibility rather guilty indulgence, the Milanese, strolling in the piazzas and the cafes, may enjoy more responsible-people watching this week.





Aspesi showroom display

Aspesi Detergent

4 comments:

  1. The detergent bottle do look like some drinks lol~~~
    Oh I just love the place where dressing well is a responsibility rather guilty indulgence^_^

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  2. I could see you fit right in those places, when you were in Venice~

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  3. Dear, loving it and fitting right in, still have BIG gaps to me:P

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  4. Anonymous10/30/2011

    Hi there,

    Just thought I should correct a few inaccuracies in your writing.
    Most of the clothes featured in the Robert Frank photos are from the Aspesi collection, that is why they are in the pictures!

    The store in Milan was designed by myself (Dirk van Dooren) in collaboration with Studio Citterio and Alberto Aspesi himself.
    I have worked with Aspesi for 20 years now.

    A couple of the photographs you have used are my own personal pictures and are copyright by me.

    You are the only person I have heard of who thought the Washing liquid and fabric softener were a drink.

    I always think if you are going to do something do it properly.

    Best wishes
    Dirk van Dooren/tomato, London.

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