Inspired by a "metropolitan jungle theme", the Italian menswear designer this season sets out to deconstruct the male wardrobe
Andrea Pompilio, who launched his brand around a year ago, may be a newcomer on the Italian fashion scene, but he’s definitely not a fresher. After winning Italian Vogue's 'Who Is Next?' competition he's spent the last 15 years moving between Milan, New York and Paris, working for brands such as Alessandro Dell’Acqua, Prada, Calvin Klein and Yves Saint Laurent.
This collection is a reinterpretation of a man’s wardrobe inspired by the metropolitan jungle theme
His A/W12 menswear collection for his epynomous label is a sort of 360° journey into a man’s wardrobe with incursions into work, sports and evening wear. The informal collection characterised by a relaxed style offers everything from shirts with animal prints and white trousers with dark decorative stripes to classic yellow oilcloth jackets and ponchos to elegant velvet suits in dark emerald green.
Dazed Digital: When did you first start following fashion?
Andrea Pompilio: When I was a child. I was as young as eight years old. I come from a family of artists. My father is an architect and my mother a ceramist, so I always saw them drawing, painting, designing buildings or furnishing houses. They passed onto me their passion for colours and style.
DD: What inspired your Autumn/Winter 2012-13 collection?
Andrea Pompilio: This collection is a reinterpretation of a man’s wardrobe inspired by the metropolitan jungle theme.
DD: In this collection you have worked a lot on destructuring the outerwear. Was this an attempt at playing with different weights?
Andrea Pompilio: That’s actually an aspect of the metropolitan jungle theme of the collection that moves from informal and relaxed moods. I’m always on the go and I don’t like rigidity of forms especially in the jackets, so I decided to revolutionalise this garment and came up with the idea of treating the jacket as a visually formal piece, destructuring it from the inside. From the outside the wearer still looks formal, but his movements and his freedom are guaranteed by the absence of an internal structure and by elasticised fabrics such as stretch nylon. I would define my jackets as cardigans actually since they do have the functionality and the practicality of a cardigan.
DD: You also employed fur in some of your pieces but mainly used it for the lining, is this again part of your destructuring process?
Andrea Pompilio: Yes, the lining of one jacket comes in rabbit fur, but the interesting thing about it is that it’s extremely light, so you could actually wear this piece also under another jacket and create new contrasts.
DD: Who do you imagine is Andrea Pompilio's ideal wearer?
Andrea Pompilio: A man as multi-faceted as a diamond who has manifold interests, moves around the world a lot, listens to different types of music and has a very open view on life. It’s also a man who tells my story, my way of being and my will to experiment with clothes and garments.
