Gaia Trussardi: “Contemporary fashion is experiencing a chaos of ideas”

Trussardi, a typically large Italian family, have given their name to a fashion brand that is still owned by the founders. The owners are usually reluctant to communicate with journalists, yet the creative director Gaia Trussardi has made an exception for us. We met in Milan during men’s fashion week to talk about the new collection, music and chaos in the world of fashion.

This season you have chosen to present your autumn-winter collection at men’s fashion week without a traditional catwalk show, but opted instead for an acoustic performance with live music. Please tell us how you came up with this idea?

The idea was born from a desire to present fashion as a way of artistic expression that reflects trends in contemporary society. I wanted to create a performative language that would combine fashion, art and music, showing the interplay of various art forms. Therefore, we couldn’t have found a better place for the show than Pinacoteca di Brera, a symbol of Milanese culture.

You have once played in a rock band. What is your relationship with music like today? What were you listening to when creating this collection?

I believe that fashion cannot exist without music and vice versa. Music stimulates ideas that bring about new forms and it also creates the right environment for creativity to flourish. In the recent show at the Brera gallery I wanted to create a synergy of fashion and music. The iconic pop and rock music hits became the starting point; then they were reinterpreted by seventeen young musicians whom I have personally cast.

 Please tell us about this collection: what is it about?

The collection was inspired by images of buskers, street musicians; by the rock music of the seventies, eclecticism and freedom. As for the style of the collection, I would call it “sartorial British elegance, reworked in a contemporary way”. This is especially evident when you look at the fabrics and the materials.

The recent trend in the fashion industry is that many designers are combining menswear and womenswear shows. What are your views on this new “homogenization” of fashion weeks? Is it possible that, perhaps, there will be no separate men’s and women’s fashion weeks in the future?

Contemporary fashion is a chaotic mix of various trends that come and go without any authentic purpose and that somehow coexist together. The mission of designers is to clearly define their point of view and to communicate it through their creations. I think that the division into men’s and women’s fashion weeks should be in place and it will not change. The only thing that will change is the way that designers communicate their ideas and show their products.

Let’s talk about the spring-summer season. What would you consider to be the must-have items for men and women this spring?

If we are talking about Trussardi, I would suggest our signature items, reinterpreted in new fabrics and colors. For example, a must-have item in our menswear collection is a leather bomber in erthenware clay red – perfect for an elegant yet active man. In the womenswear collection it’s a loose-cut suit in natural colors – for a woman who loves traveling and spending time in nature.

And what about footwear, what is the trendiest pair of shoes this season?

The choice of footwear depends on what clothing you are wearing and the occassion. When creating the spring-summer collection, I imagined a woman who goes on a long journey in the desert in the search for her own identity. In my imagination she is wearing a light sand safari-style jacket and flat suede or woven leather sandals.

And do you personally prefer to wear heels of flats? 

It depends on the occasion. In the daytime I’d choose flats and for going out in the evening I would almost always go for heels. I also love boots, with or without heels. Sometimes I buy sneakers, but I only wear them for sports.

What are the must-have items in your wardrobe? 

High-waisted jeans, a great leather jacket, a tight-fitting T-shirt and a Cacciatora bag.

What do you like to do outside of work? What are your hobbies and interests?

My children are most precious to me, so most of my free time is spent with them. We do sports, go for walks, to the cinema; sometimes we travel somewhere in the mountains or spend time by the sea… My children are my main source of inspiration.

What are your creative plans for the future?

I have a lot of plans, but I would prefer not to talk about them just yet.

Interview: Veronica Sheynina