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Pitti Uomo 92 - 2017
AT HOME IN THE WORLD.
AN INTERCULTURAL APPROACH TO FASHION FOR PITTI UOMO 92.
MINI FASHION explores the concept BEYOND NATIVE, celebrating the creative energy that comes into being when the coincidence of cultures adds layers of experience to one's personality.
The MINI FASHION – BEYOND NATIVE Capsule Collection provides a platform for five international designers, whose work is shaped by the creative clash of tradition and Zeitgeist. They're intercultural explorers, who've made their home in places far from where they were born, and their work resonates with the thrill of new discoveries and new-found self-awareness. After all, there's nothing like going somewhere else to make you realise where you're from. It's not just the contrast in culture and lifestyle, it's more the way a new environment makes us aware of the old one, adding layers to our personality. When we travel or live abroad, we discover something about ourselves and where we're from. We learn about our heritage and, at the same time, transcend it. Fresh perspectives, sounds and smells inspire us.
THE CONCEPT OF 'HOME' IS CHANGING AND EVOLVING.
'The BEYOND NATIVE concept reflects our curiosity about what happens when cultures meet and merge, when we shift territories, and genuinely new ideas come into view', says Sabine Ringel, Creative Lead at MINI FASHION. For MINI FASHION, this is where some of the most exciting and creative ideas in fashion are coming from today. Ideas that are a perfect match to a contemporary lifestyle, in which we are all in one way or the other on a constant journey, permanently commuting between different worlds and realities.
WHEN WE SHIFT TERRITORIES, NEW IDEAS COME INTO VIEW.
On the occasion of Pitti Uomo 92, MINI is collaborating with designers who have themselves gone BEYOND NATIVE—creatives whose wanderlust has seen them live and work in places far from where they were born, and whose feeling for their original home and curiosity about their new one combine in striking and original ways. As Sabine Ringel says, 'the richness and depth of the work produced by these nomads only exist because of their decision to cross borders. We wanted to translate this into products for today's urban traveller—inspired by the city, MINI's native habitat'.
BEING IN A NEW ENVIRONMENT MAKES US AWARE OF THE OLD ONE.
Post-Imperial brings traditional Yoruban dyeing techniques into the boardrooms and bars of New York. Perret Schaad combines traditional handcraft and technique with an irrepressible desire to redefine the rules. Diego Vanassibara designs shoes inspired in equal parts by Brazilian street style and London city life. Edwina Hörl mixes the cultural traditions of her native Austria with those of her new home in Japan, and PRONOUNCE draw inspiration from the everyday multiculturalism of Milan and Shanghai, creating clothes that forge new identities from a myriad of earlier ones.
These are designers who've chosen to live in the world, not as tourists or 'expats', but as global citizens, for whom the concept of 'home' is changing and evolving. In their work, exciting new hybrids hatched in truly global cities emerge, curious combinations of the old and the new, the traditional and the cosmopolitan. We see flashes of Nigerian colour on a grey New York subway and centuries-old handicrafts combined with stylish modern design, and see in this not a revival of the past, but a glimpse of the future.