Mention the name Guiseppe Menta and unanimous reactions go from “an artist” to “a true personage in textile design.” Born 500 kilometres away from Como, he arrived in the city of textiles when he was just 14 years old to work with his father’s cousin, while attending a school for fabric designers. This old-fashioned work experience, in the 1960s, sharpened his knowledge of every stage in printing. “I was far from home so I didn’t have much else to do but work,” he recalls. Eleven years went by. He next joined what was then “one of the largest factories in Europe, with some 900 workers and over 1,000 looms,” as head of scarves and accessories and stayed for seven or eight years. He then joined another house. And kept sketching and designing. In 1974 he reached a turning point in his career when he launched his own company, backed by Achile Maramotti. He got it going and stumbled. Then one day a friend sent him off to an appointment at 5 rue Marceau, the prestigious address of the house of Yves Saint Laurent, his idol. “I didn’t even have the start of a collection. I went to Paris, and the night before, in my hotel room, I sketched, and I dyed some samples I had bought at Sennellier in the sink. I showed up absolutely paralyzed at 11 in the morning. Obviously, the man interviewing me looked down on me - I had no briefcase, no boxes filled with samples. I was turning away when Mr Saint Laurent came off the elevator. The situation seemed to amuse him, and he looked at my pieces of fabric. And then he congratulated me. Which I took really as simple encouragement.” Except that at the end of 1975, an order for 38,000 metres of fabric came in.Suddenly, the press threw themselves at Menta. And success followed, with orders from the likes of Versace, Lacroix and Dior, and years of splendour, full of fantastic, emotional highs. And then hazardous times. Giuseppe fell in love with natural colours, believing in organic fabrics too early, and, as ever, threw his time, money and passion into them. But who could criticise him for it?
Life goes on. He taught for ten years at the Polytechnical in Milan, while continuing to create. “I never look at a fashion magazine,” he says. “I like to stay out of it, to develop projects with as little influence as possible, things I like and understand. And feel free to do. Every idea does not have to be a revolutionary one. A good idea has to first get made before becoming a great idea.”
Please continue, Mr Menta.
