Fashion Guest : Andrea Grossi The 16 June 2021 - Fabrics - Denim Première Vision

“As a child, I enjoyed creating bodies, faces, characters with whom I could spend my days, whether they were stars in cartoons or in video games. I am also inspired by the aesthetic of certain painters such as Kent Monkman, the designer Bangers’s and various musicians.

That is where I got the idea to design tattoos on clothing, inspired by the technique of the Toile de Jouy, which I consider to be an integral part of my Andrea Grossi project identity.

Creating printed total looks, dressing the person from head to toe. This is very difficult process that requires different types of expertise, and that is why I like to work with a number of designers and artists, to pool our know-how and our creativity around a shared project.

“Denim is one of the fabrics that allows the greatest variety in compositions and usage, ranging from jeans to outerwear. Denim can be recycled or renewed and can tell the story of a garment. It is steeped in the experience of those who have worn it, it combines past, present and future. This concept is the basis of everything I design.

I also work with leather as well, the concept of hides forming the basis of my second collection.

After studying in Tuscany, at the Casa della Pelletteria, I decided to combine the knowledge acquired by my leather training with some of the most innovative alternative fibres in the world. I discovered many of these fibres from the wide range of proposals in the Smart Creation programme of the Première Vision show. I try to create the most sustainable products possible.

I work with various types of vegetable-tanned leathers, such as rhubarb leather, cactus leather and leather tanned using olive oil. I use these fibres because they offer a softness that permits the use of certain types of treatment, which are often complicated to obtain with vegetable-tanned leathers, as they are often more rigid than chrome-tanned leathers. With these innovative leathers, I have been able to apply certain processes such as corrosion and laser cut-out, embossing and digital printing.