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