Fashink 12

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FASH on the cover: Sofia Ph. Stefano Padovani

magazine

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Stefano Padovani Editor & Ideator production@fashink.com Lucia Capelli Director Cristina Balestrini Creative Director advertising@fashink.com Beatrice Salvioni Internal Affairs Shelly Wahweotten Story Teller Emilio Bergomi Beauty Editor Talita Savorani Writer & Accessories contributor Lara Zibret Architecturink Scout Giusva Cosentino Miusic Guru

THIS ISSUUE IS DEDICATED TO ANNA BOTTERI

info@fashink.com STAFF CONTRIBUTOR

Emilio Bergomi, Claudio Ciliberti, Mario Chiarenza, Davide Gariboldi, Isabella Gaspardo, Karine LeclĂŠre, Davide Messora, Samuela Nova, Andrea Perego, Beatrice Salvioni

SEASON CONTRIBUTOR

Adriano Alessandrini, Arcangelo Argento, Pablo Arrecis, Vittore Buzzi, Hikari Kesho, Matteo Iovine, Fabio Prina, Patrizia Tiboni, Paola Redaelli, Angelo Zhao

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CONTRIBUTORS

ANNA BOTTERI 15.08.1936 25.09.2018

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial p. 8 Fashion Moment p. 10

p. 10

We Believe p. 24 Tattoo Icons p. 32 Fashink on the road p. 42

p. 46

Fashink People p. 46 Architecturink & Co p. 58 p. 58 6

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inked people for alternative fashion

Autumn|Winter

p.132

Musicalism p. 74 Sportink Club p. 80

p.104

The Outsider p. 132 Total black p. 104 The Champ p. 116

p.116

It’s travel time p. 130 Bits & Pieces p. 142 p. 130 7

EDITORIAL Stefano Padovani

Loss is a sensation that leaves us devastated.

When you lose something, both physical or sentimental, the feeling is equally strong and can destroy you from the inside. This kind of feeling that is causing me an excruciating pain. Not to long ago, the person for whom we should and you must give everything you have, has gone: my mum. You can’t even imagine the pain and how your balance can change so suddenly.

Maybe the only way to describe the intensity of this kind of pain would be to compare it to a strong and sudden push that overwhelms us whit an unbelivable force. Yes, Maybe this is the way to describe it: like someone that push us from behind in a deep abyss without reason or notice.

My mum was always by my side and supported me for every mad and foolish decision i’ve made, even for my FASHink project. She was always there and gave me the strength to keep going and never give up.

Even in the worst moments, when you think that everything is going to fall apart, our mothers are always there. We will always be their loved children even when we’ll became almost as old as them. Our mothers will always have words of confort for us, even when is hard for themself to even believe in what they are saying to us. Sometimes the relationship with our mother can be tough because we know her wisdom, and this awareness could push against us when we are at the point to do something stupid or irrational.

Our mum will defend us even in front of the worst crime. Is true that she is the only person willing to sacrifice herself for our sake. Selfishly we could think that we would prefer to go before our mothers because we can’t stand the thought of feeling this deep pain. They lie when they say that time can heal wounds. Not even eternity can heal this kind of wound. You can’t forget, you can’t be prepared.

The only consolation you can have is that the pain that a mother would suffer for the loss of her children could be even worst. My mother was the only person for whom I changed so much of myself and if I could come back I will do it again adding even more time and effort for her, the person that gave me life.

I miss her more that anything in the world and more that every human beeing who never felt this tragic moment could imagine.

I love you Mamma Anna

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Stefano Padovani 8

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Fashion Moment

by TFG hand objects such as old wigs, canvases and silk scarves into couture garments.

Margiela’s reversals were more frequently a source of confusion. In his 1996 summer collection, photographs of garments, knitted goods, sequined evening wear and different fabrics were printed onto lightweight cloth with a subtle fall, which was in turn worked into simply cut designs.

The very realistic printing created a trompel’oeil effect or optical illusion and suggested tailoring that the actual pieces did not have.

The models wore cotton voile during the show to cover their faces and hair.

Hiding the physical features that make a person unique increases the desire for identity and uniqueness evoked by the clothing itself.

Throughout his career, Margiela has maintained a very low personal profile. He has never given an interview and remains backstage after his shows. His face is not publicly known; throughout his career, only one known photo exists, taken in

Martin Margiela was born in Hasselt, Belgium. He studied fashion design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

After graduation, Margiela worked as a freelance designer for five years. Between 1985 and 1987 he worked for Jean Paul Gaultier, before showing his first collection under his own label, which he started with his business partner Jenny Meirens in 1989. Between 1997 and 2003 he was the creative director of the Hermès women’s line.

During the 1980s, the Japanese avantgardists, with Rei Kawakubo— creator of the label Comme des Garçons— had influenced the global fashion scene with their eccentric and ground-breaking designs. Margiela and the Antwerp Six would carry on the work, revolting against the luxurious fashion world with garments of oversized proportions such as long arms, and with linings, seams and hems on the outside.

The concept of deconstruction is important for the understanding of Margiela’s fashion statement. Margiela famously redesigns by 10

1997 by Marcio Madeira.

Maison Martin Margiela’s ultra-discreet trademark consists of a piece of cloth with the numbers 0-23. The badge is attached to the inside with four small, white pickstitches, exposed to the outside on unlined garments. For the 20th anniversary the anonymous tag was replaced by a classic logotype.

In October 2009, Margiela majority stakeholder Renzo Rosso, President of OTB Group, the holding group of Marni, Viktor & Rolf, and Diesel, publicly stated that, “Martin has not been there for a long time. He is here but not here A press release announced in December 2009 that Margiela “has left the business.

In 2001, US Vogue sent renowned fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz to photograph French fashion house MaisonW Martin Margiela’s team. The photo taken included a group of 45 individuals clad in white lab coats and a single empty chair in the front row.

Noticeably missing was the designer himself, the notoriously camera-shy Martin Margiela.

No other designer in fashion history has ever been as elusive, as reclusive, and as mysterious as Margiela. The privacy surrounding him- no face-to-face interviews, no photographs, no runway bows- has earned him titles such as ‘Fashion’s Invisible Superstar.’

No replacement creative director will be appointed. Maison Martin Margiela will continue trading but the company declined to comment on the reasons for Margiela’s exit.

Martin Margiela was appointed as a Guest member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in 2010

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MIND MY OWN BUSINESS arta

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Stampa GPC and has many indie artists as clients.

Marta Scaccabarozzi was born in Milan on 19th July 1980.

While focusing on numbers for her education, studying sciences first and then specializing in marketing and communication at the economics faculty of Milanese university Cattolica, she also studies music, convinced that her future job will have nothing to do with passion. This happens to be true only until 2001, when Italian TV channel Rock Tv spots her in a club in Milan and gives her a job as a host and author of several programmes.

This is only the beginning of a multi-faceted career in the show business, including press agent for indie record labels and promoters, event manager, TV personality, DJ and performer, which will lead to her eventually understanding what she really wants to do: dealing with promotion and communication. She then starts her own press office and social media management agency in the music business, and she is currently head of communications for music publishing company A. Pagani (issuing the works of maestro Astor Piazzolla amongst others), collaborates with press office Ufficio

fashink: How would you describe your job to people who don’t work in this specific field?

Marta: My job consists in creating communication strategies to promote artistic products through the press office’s services, writing and sending press releases, organizing interviews or press conferences, engaging with the media and with social media management and using my clients’ social media. Let’s say that I’m a hybrid of two different professional figures. For some of my clients, such as emerging artists, this is ideal, whereas for others I cannot cover both roles, so according to each artist’s needs I deal with either press office duties or social media management.

F: Your work experience is extremely varied: even though you’ve always been in the music business you’ve had so many different roles. When did your vocation become evident to you?

M: As 16

matter of fact, all of my

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social media, because it allows me to study customized strategies for all my artist clients. Coming up with something different and effective is always a challenge, and you can use much imagination even when writing a storytelling. As for the press office part of my job, people who don’t know much about it might think it’s mechanical and very boring, while writing a press release, sending it and calling up journalists is a creative activity indeed. Or should I say, it is if you’re working the way you’re supposed to.

job had one factor in common: communication.

I started communicating at Rock Tv with my programmes and I’ve just kept on doing it, just through different roles.

I got all sort of different offers and quite simply I took them. At first I loved experimenting, but as time went by I felt that I should focus on one specific sector of one specific market, and I wanted that market to be the music one. To clarify ideas, I studied neuropsychology and neuropsychiatry for three years and I became a hippotherapy operator, and after that my mind was set: I started sending out CVs and music publishers A. Pagani called me, saying they needed someone who could be fully in charge of communications and promotion.

Then I began to look for artist clients as a freelancer, and finally I started working with Ufficio Stampa GPC.

F: What kind of artists are your clients? Do they all belong to the same musical genre?

M: No, I really need to diversify my activities and I think it helps me grow both from a professional and from a personal point of view.

At A. Pagani we work with Astor Piazzolla, the tango maestro who needs no introduction and who is by now considered a classical music artist, and with maestro Aldemaro Romero, a Venezuelan orchestra conductor who in the ‘70s turned South-American music around, but also with ‘50s and ‘60s Italian

F: Is your job creative?

M: Yes, it’s very creative, also because I’m both rational and creative and therefore I find mere organizational work to be never fully rewarding.

From this point of view, surely the most exciting aspect is dealing with 21

productions. At Ufficio Stampa GPC I mostly work with Italian indie artists, but there are also jazz musicians. My freelance clients range from heavy metal artists, to trap singers and singers-songwriters. I believe that to fully understand a project’s potential you need to be totally unbiased by personal preferences. Luckily my

M: f by style you mean fashion and aesthetic style, I don’t think it’s vital.

I know several big professionals who don’t care that much about what they wear. On the other hand, style in general is non-negotiable: communicating, talking to people one-to-one, presenting your artist client and interacting on his social

education, including my musical tastes, has always been rather acrossthe-board.

media with style make a huge difference and affect the final result of your work. Personally, I believe that what you wear and what you look like are important too: this too is communication

F: Is style in general important in your work environment?

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Shot @Indiehub Milano 23

we believe by the fashink Group

Alessia Ariatti Alessia Ariatti was born on 14th November 1993 in Portomaggiore, a small village near Ferrara, in northern Italy. Ale, as everybody calls her, grows up on her own (her two older brothers live in a boarding school and her mother is a chef, so she can spend very little time with her), so becomes independent very soon. As time goes by, she realizes that she’s always felt out of place, especially when she’s with her family, which is very conservative from the cultural point of view. She loves animals and grows up surrounded by pets, so she dreams of becoming a vet and therefore chooses scientific studies for her high school as a preparation for university.

Picture-taking has always been part of her life, because one of her brothers, an amateur photographer, shows his pictures to her and even lets her

play with his camera. At the age of fifteen Ale realizes that she wants to drop school and dedicate herself to photography full-time: given that in her area there are no photography courses, she attends the local graphic design school, where there are photography classes. As soon as she turns eighteen, Ale can finally make another of her secret dreams come true: getting a tattoo! Her first design is dedicated to her brothers, but she’s not happy with the results and a couple of years later she covers it up with another one: this is where what she likes to call her ‘addiction’ starts.

She’s now looking for work, but as she can’t find the type of work she wants she starts working in cafes – a job she really enjoys because she loves having to do with ever-changing people every single day. Day after day, she slowly abandons her dreams of becoming a 24

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Courtesy of Pablo Arrecis 28

him – something Ale had done just a couple of times in Italy for a professional photographer and for a friend who owned a clothes shop.

Surprisingly, she really enjoys this experience, finding that it’s helping her rebuild her self-esteem, and decides to do it more often and turn it into a proper job: after all, it has to do with photography. One day one of the photographers she’s recently met tells her he’s looking for an assistant and Ale immediately takes this chance to start travelling the long road towards becoming a professional photographer.

Together they start a digital media and marketing agency in Mexico City, which is by now ‘her’ city and doesn’t scare her anymore. To Ale it feels like being at school again, but this time everything is much more exciting and she’s eager to learn something new every day. Time goes by, and two years after her arrival her relationship is over: this marks probably the lowest point in her whole life – she’s alone, in a country that’s not hers, speaking a foreign language (even though thanks to her determination she’s learnt it very quickly) and needing more money than before because now she’s living by herself. She’s never felt this amount of pressure before in her life, so she rolls up her sleeves and faces each problems with

photographer, her creative side and her motivation wither away and life in her small town cause her to lose hope for the future. One day, in June 2015 she decides to make a very long journey to Mexico for love, so her sense of adventure and her thirst for change are reignited and in six weeks’ time she leaves everything behind her: family, friends, job and just about anything that connects her to her birthplace.

This is when Ale promises to herself that from then on she will really focus on what her heart desires, and photography comes back into her life. In reality, her first year in Mexico is extremely hard for her: she’s homesick and misses her friends and everything she was used to, and her boyfriend brainwashes her into believing that their city is extremely dangerous, so Ale freaks out and hardly ever leaves the house, thus losing all her motivation. One day, however, she wakes up and decides she just can’t waste one more day of her life, thinks back of her lifelong dream, photography, and resolves that she will pursue it. She doesn’t know it yet, but this new positive attitude towards life will repay her in full.

She starts looking for a job as a photographer, but one day a Mexican photographer asks her to pose for 29

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to normal and people around her see are aware that she’s a strong woman, capable of achieving anything she wants. Difficulties no longer paralyze her, on the contrary she tries her best to overcome them: life has taught her that she can make it – sometimes it’s really difficult, but you mustn’t give up because disappointments are part of life and all you can do is get over them and move on. Ale knows that if she had stayed in Italy today she would be very unhappy, and now she’s head over heels in love with her new home country, Mexico, a wonderful place where everyone she’s met has brought something positive into her life and where her passion for photography is growing by the day.

Her latest dream? Travelling the whole wide world to take photographs

as much positivity as possible. She starts taking more pictures, and after meeting some musicians she finds out that she prefers shooting artists rather than professional models: she then decides that these will be the subjects of her portraits, because she loves their attitude and personality and she hopes these will shine through her pictures.Today Alessia is a social media manager and a full-time photographer, musicians look for her and want to have their photos taken by her and she’s very satisfied, yet she still wants to grow professionally and be recognized both nationally and internationally.

Her career as a model is also growing: she works with well-know fashion brands on their image and as an influencer, so her self-esteem is back

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Tat ico

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Claudia Ferrarini was born in Milan on 26th June 1971 from a porcelain decorator and an amateur painter, so with their encouragement she does her first oil on canvas at five years of age.

After studying at prestigious Brera Academy of arts, she continues to paint and to draw, working as an illustrator for a number of advertising agencies.

She then teaches life drawing and illustration, designs silver jewellery for fifteen years and has a parallel career as a sportswoman.

She gets her first tattoo at the age of nineteen from Milanese absolute

master Fercioni, but it is in 2013 that her friends convince her to start tattooing, and her young girl’s dreams about painting and art in general are now a reality again.

Her new life constantly brings her happiness, through new inspirations, personal and professional growth and the in-depth rapport with her clients: for Claudia this is never ‘just a job’.

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Roberto Borsi, born in Milan in 1968, starts drawing his own sleeve, full of big dragons and skulls, when he’s only ten years old.

After graduating from Brera academy of arts with the very first university thesis on the art of tattooing art in 1990, he starts out as an apprentice at Marco Pisa’s studio and after a couple of years spent focussing on old style he moves to Switzerland, to start working at Luca Brusa’s studio.

He starts travelling the world quite early to travel the world and tattoos almost all over the planet before opening his

own studio, Primordial Pain.

Meeting Sensei Horitoshi First at the Biggest Tattoo Show on Earth in Las Vegas changes his life forever: he starts studying Irezumi, the traditional Japanese technique, and learns that it has nothing to do with the fake style we do here in the West. Nowadays he’s still an apprentice, but becoming the firstever Western artist to be part of the Horitoshi family gives him even more energy to study in-depth this awesome culture: he feels that he’ll be a lifelong student, under the guidance of best possible teacher.

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fashink: Given that you studied fine arts at Brera, why did you choose to draw on people’s skin and not on canvas?

that get tattooes just because it looks cool and on those who do so because they know about the cultural aspect of world of tattoos and the deep meanings of the designs?

Claudia: Tattoos are first and foremost a passion. Mine started twenty-eight years ago when I had my first tattoo done by Fercioni [arguably the best Italian tattoo artist].

From that experience I understood that I wanted to transmit the same pleasure I had received, that is ‘wearing’ art on oneself, so I gave it a go and decided to become a tattoo artist. For me it’s always a way of giving something of myself to my clients.

C: I think it’s a matter of freedom that is absolutely personal and therefore it must be respected. The main principles for me are good taste and a quality choice, because in both cases if they’re not respected the results can be quite different from expectations.

This is visual communication: what you ‘wear’ speaks about you, and sometimes it works against you rather than for you.

Roberto: I started when I was a child, using myself as a canvas, to my mother’s great dismay, and then I kept on drawing, this time on friends and school mates.

In 1988 I decided to do my thesis at Brera on tattoos in 1988 and I graduated two years later: it was the first ever work on this subject in the whole network of Italian universities.

R: In my mind and in my heart there is always one concept: good old ETHICS. This is why I try to give my best and explain my clients the traditional Japanese culture, so that they can be aware of the world that lies behind every single design.

F: Talking about fashion, do you follow its trends?

Or is there any designer that you particularly like not only for his creations but also for his way of thinking?

F: Nowadays both tattooing and getting tattooed has become a trend.

What’s your opinion on the people 36

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C: I don’t do fashion at all, basically.

I’m a biker and I do lots of sports, so I tend to choose practical and comfortable clothes, yet every now and then I wear a little dress and heels, just to remind both other people and myself that I’m a female of the human species. .

R: All that matters to me are the quality of my work and the effort I make to give the best of myself.

Once these principles are respected, they will be surely rewarded somehow.

F: Are you inspired by somebody or something in particular in terms of creativity?

R: I belong to the Horitoshi family: we follow his style and we study tradition and the classic Ukyio-e authors, so for us trends just don’t exist.

Ours is a style that goes beyond time: it’s always been the same and will always remain the same, so it has nothing to do with fads and ‘flavour of the week’ styles.

C: I am inspired by everything and nothing at the same time. I look around a lot, I observe everything, and then do my own thing, with the help of photographs, because realistic style needs life drawing as its main reference, and of the cultural background of my studies, that is ancient art and classic iconography.

F: How important are passion and money respectively in your job?

R: My main inspiration are my Sensei [master, in Japanese, tn] and the great classics, especially Kuniyoshi, Hokusai and Kyosai.

C: The word ‘job’ implies that you must make a living with it, so if on one hand you can’t get away from its economic aspect, on the other hand it shouldn’t become its main purpose. Indeed, I believe that the more ‘achievable’ and affordable your work is for people, the more you feel gratified.

F: Fashion has started to open its doors to the tattooed look. What do you think?

C: I think it’s a good thing, because 39

F: Have you got a really special story to tell us?

it makes tattooed people appear a bit normal to non-inked people.

Unfortunately there is still a lot of bigotry about tattoos and this creates much negativity, so the inspirational power of fashion is so strong that hopefully it breaks down some of these barriers, both directly and indirectly. Hell yeah!

C: What I recommend is studying with humility.

Going back to one’s roots is everybody’s cultural and intellectual salvation, regardless of job or art they practice, so if you want to achieve a good artistic production you really need to look back over your shoulders and learn from what

R: I think that fashion is forever changing, while tattoos are forever.

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you see.

Taking a machine in your hands and messing around on your friends’ skin is not enough: tattooing is something serious.

But I admit that this is my personal point of view and that it really has to do with how you take life in general.

shot a documentary about it.

The main teaching is to be found in a word that is often depicted in the entry hall of traditional studios, GAMAN 我慢, which means perseverance and patience: this is all there is to know

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R: My task here in Italy is to spread my master’s traditional Japanese culture, so I’ve written a book and

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ink on the road

FASH

by Shelly Wahweotten

experiencing more.

Tattoos stand the test of time, when it comes to history, cultures, rites of passage, identification, accomplishments and portrayal of self. Indigenous peoples across the world have been using tattooing for their practices for centuries, and we have, as a modern society, transformed it into a common luxury seen across the world, as less taboo, artistic, individual, and more-widely accepted.

I started tattooing when I was in high school.

I was 15 at the time, literally 20 years ago this next month, with a Superior Viper tattoo machine kit, that my dad had ordered out of the back of a magazine in the late 1990s.

Even admitting that I was tattooing last century and trying to hold on to what youthful years I have left is starting to wear out it’s charm. Gray hairs are forming around my face and I’m having troubles standing up straight when I’ve been sitting for 3-8 hours a day, hunched over Susan’s post-divorce cover-up battle.

I remember being in 3rd grade, early in the year, and my mom had reunited with my biological father after a bit of time away in prison. I hadn’t seen him since I was a

Every once in a while, a client will ask me how long I have been tattooing. I’ve answered it over and over again, but each year, it seems to take a new shape of it’s own, develops a little bit more, adapts, evolves, and grows, each time I answer the same question.

It flies by so fast that you don’t realize how much time has passed, how many miles have come and gone, as well as all the tattoos you’ve completed in between each place. You look down at your own tired body and notice your own bare skin is slowly disappearing within the marked stories. You try to count each one, or try to recollect each memory per mark, but then realize how much time has eluded you, from the times you acquired those moments.

I’ve been tattooed in some incredible situations, odd situations, and - as some of you readers may have also seen, some very raw, primitive-like, situations.

It’s all a matter of perspective when you think about what it is we do for a “rockstar” career.

Some days I feel like a glorified tracer and color-inner, some days I feel I am living out my personal dreams and goals as an artist, still with the burning desire of learning and

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my hands on at that age. Robert Crumb probably wasn’t the best to idolize around the age of 8. But hey, nothing we would ever have changed about that now, right?

My favorites were tattoo magazines from the early 90s. There were always shots of boobs, advertisements for porno videos in the back, along with order forms for each video, and lots of WEIRD shit being tattooed, and tattooed on, but published in these magazines at the time.

Later on, due to regulations and sales in more accessible stores, most of those nude shots are edited or eliminated all together.

Still, I would steal them from my father, take them to school and draw the things I liked out of them, and then take them home to my folks to see what they thought of it.

Both my parents were always noticeably impressed with my capabilities at such a young age, but their parenting wasn’t always agreed upon. Not too much later in life, they parted ways again, and with that came it’s own bumps in everyone’s roads.

I tried my hardest to be appeasing to each parent, but those developmental years were just as trying on me as it was on them. I

baby, and by 3rd grade, I was re-meeting a stranger.

Although he was, at the time, a stranger to me again; everything felt right, and comfortable. He would take me to eat, take me to school, pick me up, shop with me, give me chores and allowance to learn value of, and after homework was complete, he would draw with me.

A long time away from each other, but we still shared the same habits, and the same favorite time-passing skills that came so naturally.

Growing up, he would draw, teaching himself how to get better at portraits, mimic other forms of art from magazines or books, research other mediums to try out, build tools to further complete other art projects, welding and glassworks.

I would draw in school, sometimes stealing his magazines, and come home with other drawn things that were like what I was seeing in these publications.

My mom was actually a bit pissed. Not that I was drawing, or that we were doing those bonding things together, but the types of advanced art publications I was getting

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advertisements in the back of the magazines and daydream what it would be like to live in a big city, tattooing with the people I was seeing in print. I remember even seeing advertisements for Electric Superstition Tattoo in Detroit, and once in a while see tattoos by Jime Litwalk, Cleen Rock One, or some other tattooers names that didn’t stand out as much to me back then.

But I would try to mimic their styles. Try to make drawings that would look as similar to that type of tattoo, as I could.

By the time 5th grade rolled around, l was pretty well known from class to class as the girl who would draw all the cool art.

Sometimes I would have friends ask me to draw something for them, and once in a while, I have a reminder pass my way of something that a friend has kept that long.

Fifth grade was also the year I decided that tattooing was what I wanted to do with my life.

All my friends were developing in sports, or academics. Some of them were developing into hard cases of kids with a lot of issues, later on going thru their own struggles of life, imprisonment, addictions, family issues and raising children at the same time. I was stuck in between a city kid life, and a country-girl life, riding horses, competing in rodeos and horse races, and representing my saddle club as a rodeo princess. I had some hard earned ethics developing then, and also more of a bad attitude. I mean, my parents were split, I was shuffled from house to house, and I wanted out of a poor life,

wanted to grow up and go to college and have a good-paying career in life, thinking that possibly even joining the military to help my poverty-stricken ass pay for college.

Maybe I wanted to be a lawyer, cause man did I like to argue. Seems to be a fairly common Scorpio trait. Growing up poor in a small town, I also had options of working in a factory, having benefits, insurance, overtime, and 401k.

I can honestly tell you, to this day, “401k” is still a foreign language to me.

Either way, I would always hear and see commercials for “starving artist sale.”

I hated being poor. I hated having to wear the same ratty clothes a few years in a row, in a size I could grow into, and have long enough to wear to the bone. I hated not having the other things kids had, doing the things that money would buy, and the futures they seemed to have paved for them with the goals they had in mind also.

I wanted to be an artist. I liked drawing. I hated math. And I sure didn’t want to have to sell my art at the convention center cause I’m ‘starving.’ Not to mention, I didn’t like being told what to do with my time. The more I thought about it, I didn’t want to read books in school well after I already finished with school, and keep torturing myself with authority. With that thought, slowly my plans started to change. I sure as hell didn’t want to sell my soul to the government, and I didn’t want to fight with people all the time either.

I would see all the business cards and

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outline.

Another boy that Sam, myself, and he used to fight about, kept calling me to ask if I would tattoo him. He was a crush that I had spent time with off and on before and after Sam, and they used to HAAAATE each other. When he would call, I would deny his requests, and eventually denied everyone else.

I had been speaking to a shop owner about a ‘business plan’ project I had to do for school and was asking him what it would take for an inspiring tattooer to do at such a young age. What did it take to run a business like a tattoo shop, and what kinds of licenses would I have to get to become a tattoer?

He saw my interests at genuine and told me to finish high school, turn 18, have a tuition ready, and to quit tattooing at home if I planned on being serious. Also, keep drawing.

So I did. I worked 2 jobs during school, transferred to a school that I could graduate from earlier than scheduled, and get into a shop as quickly as possibly after turning 18.

There was a long road of developing into the human I am today, with thousands of struggles in this industry and also at home.

One thing I am proud of, with all the hard work I have put into this, is that my parents are proud of me. They all believe in me, sometimes even more than I do myself. All in all, I feel I have lived out my dreams. The rest is history, pretty much. But again, this history is an ever changing memoir and I am happy that I get to share it with you

but always hung around the hood kids, not making the best decisions.

By the time I had begun high school, I had met my first long-time boyfriend. He was a couple years older than me, but we met thru friends we went to school with, at different places. I was behind, but maturing a little bit more with my peers, and also developing some dark habits when hanging with my friend and not going home to whatever house I could spend at. I was listening to a lot of crappy goth music, heavy metal, rock and still some rap from previous years of things I liked before.

Needless to say, I was an awkward goth nerd, and the boy I met was a gang-banging thug who seemed to like little rock girls.

The fall before my 16th birthday, my dad had ordered a kit from the back of a tattoo magazine and it came a couple months prior to the actual sweet-sixteen.

My dad had given it to me, still in the box it was mailed in, and said, “see what kind of art you can do with this thing!”

None of us knew any better. But sure, why not.

I tattooed my boyfriend in my mom’s basement when i was 15. It was 1998. Just shortly after, I turned 16 and a few of my friends were trying to come to my house to get a tattoo themselves.

“You’re good at art, right? Should be easy, right?” Pfff. No. Not in the slightest.

I butchered a cross on Sam’s arm. Later on, I also butchered Old English letters down his entire upper arm that was just an “S-A-M,”

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PE

P L E O

by Beatrice Salvioni - Photo by Stefano Padovani

E VA T U R E T TA

Through her life experiences Eva has learnt two secrets to happiness: accepting your weirdness and ignoring other people’s prejudice.

Eva Turetta, AKA Eva Blackhell, is twenty-six and is a model. From her birth town, Padua, in North-East Italy, she has inherited passion for art and a the soft accent of the Veneto region.

Ever since she was a child she felt she was different, or better, strange, but this awareness turns into shame when she finds out that she derives pleasure from something her friends are scared of – physical pain.

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Courtesy of Hikari Kesho

She grows up thinking she’s ‘wrong’ and keeps her self-discoveries wellhidden. When she’s twenty, one day the truth is suddenly revealed to her: she’s not alone, she’s not faulty, there exist other people like her, people who can understand her.

Almost by chance she sneaks into the Coven, a club in Verona, just when a fetish party is being held, and as a matter of fact this discovery, in a place named after the witches’ meeting point, is magical for her: under its soft lighting and amongst its peculiar guests, for the first time Eva’s fears and paranoid feelings vanish, as she thinks ‘Fuck, this is where I belong!’.

From now on she can put a name to the way she feels and she understands that instead of suppressing her weirdness she must embrace it. She’s not alone anymore.

She then starts exploring her attraction for pain and the pleasure she derives from being manipulated and tied up, and when she discovers shibari it’s just as if she had drunk a love potion.

Shibari is a Japanese culture dating back to centuries ago, when ropes and bindings were a symbol of man’s connection with the divine.

In the fifteenth century metals were very hard to find, so both policemen and samurai used hemp ropes instead to tie up their prisoners with these techniques and shibari became a doctrine.

During the Edo period (1600-1860) shibari entered the Japanese erotic imagination, thanks to its depiction in drawings and to its use in kabuki theatre shows.

Today it retains its erotic function, but it is also used as a relaxing and meditative practice.

People who don’t know about it tend to associate it to BDSM [Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadism and Masochism, tn], but this is not always the case.

In shibari both the ‘rigger’ - the active partner –and the ‘bunny’ - the passive one – are interested in its two sides: the artful manipulation of the partner’s body and the pleasure-giving factor.

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Eva has learnt how to make the most of the feelings she gets when the rope runs on her skin, in ever-changing ways according to how the rigger ties her up, and the marks it leaves on her body.

Shibari often gets confused with kinbaku, but they’re quite different: kinbaku means tight rope, so its purpose is to cause pain: its bindings are very tight and annoying and its positions are extremely uncomfortable, almost torturelike.

Both practices are basically about tying somebody up, but shibari is meant to be pleasurable, even though it is not entirely painless.

Shibari requires the right state of mind, that is comfort and ease, and just like any other erotic practice its experience is extremely personal and therefore unique.

When Eva gets tied up, suspended or moulded as if she were a statue, she feels relaxed, at peace with herself and almost in a trance.

She’s keen on marking the difference between shibari and bondage: the latter uses just about anything to limit the partner’s movements – sellotape, handles, rubber bands, etc. -, while in the former only ropes can be utilized and can only be practiced by experienced partners.

This art needs a lot of patience: it takes years to learn how to tie up in the right way. Besides, riggers need to be very careful and pay close attention to what they do, because it is not completely free of dangers.

Today shibari is no longer just a passion for Eva: it is also a job.

Together with Hikari Kesho, the photographer and rigger living in Padua who first introduced shibari in Italy, she helps spreading the correct awareness of the practice through ever-busier monthly classes, held at their cultural association ‘Kinky Lifestyle’.

She feels totally at ease with him, so the sits for him in photo shootings and assists him during performances and lessons.

Eva is extremely comfortable with showing her body and playing with it, so she also poses in the nude for still-life drawing sessions, for well-known artists or up-and-coming ones, and also for art school students, who remind her of her own art studies.

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Courtesy of Hikari Kesho 55

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The thing she enjoys most about being portrayed is seeing herself through the eyes of other people: the portrait’s most valuable aspect is never being the same person, because her image varies according to the portrayer’s perception.

Eva has always loved bodily shapes and has always found a naked woman’s body sensual and a work of art in itself, not just a subject for it.

This is why she finds shibari photographs fascinating: for her, these suspended, moulded bodies, bending under the strength of rope, allowing to be worked into living sculptures, are pure poetry.

Shibari becoming increasingly popular is both a good thing, because the misunderstanding about its having to do exclusively with pornography and sex are getting cleared up, and a bad thing, because if the ripper is inexperienced it can lead to tragic results.

Eva has had to withstand a huge amount of prejudice because of her job.

When she started publishing her first shibari photos the nastier reactions have been those of men, but she has learnt not to be affected by them and to maintain her self-respect by answering in kind.

Prejudice is strong and dirty minds will keep on seeing evil wherever they look, so men who treat women as objects, diminish them and consider them inferior creatures will continue to do so even without using erotica: it’s just their mentality.

Eva today just ignores other people’s prejudice and is really happy about her job. Quite simply, she says that shibari has saved her life.

After high school she was completely lost: she had started hanging around with the wrong people, feeling that her life was drifting away, without any prospects for her future, insecure about herself and the world in general.

Shibari has taught her to accept herself, to become patient and reflective, to enjoying not being in control and letting herself go: in a word, the pleasure of always being herself

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Architectur

& Co

Sealed In the Sea The connection between Dali’s The Elephants and AT-AT

by Lara Zibret

“Abandoned factories and forgotten, construction, railway stations, modern buildings, man-made architectures for human but immortalized free from his presence, the “non-places”, where the space is empty, where the corners, facades, heavy metals, glass and cuts that willingly blend with the sky create a single body, waiting to be frozen in a moment.”

Croatian photographer Lara Zibret sharing her moments.

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What you do when you had enough of chamber music?

You occupy an army forts and transform them in a pirate radio.

27th May 1964 Radio Sutch.

But let me tell you what this beauties are about.

4 nautical (4.60) miles from Red Sands Fort, 8 nautical (9.2) miles from nearest land at Herne Bay, and 8.75 nautical (10.06) miles from Whitstable Harbour was to become the tendering port for the both sets of Army Forts With an MoD designated code of U7 Shivering Sands was a disused WW2 Army Fort in the Thames Estuary Built in tandem with Nore (U5), Red Sands (U6) the Thames Estuary Forts were completed for action by December 1943 After WWII both Navy and Army Forts had caretaker crews aboard, finally of no further use they were abandoned by the MoD in 1958 Nore was dismantled in 1959/60, Shivering Sands, Red Sands survive in decay The Naval Towers at Knock John is slowly disintegrating, Sunk Head was demolished

by Royal engineers in 1967.

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The Naval Towers at Knock John is slowly disintegrating, Sunk Head was demolished by Royal engineers in 1967 Tongue, already badly damaged succumbed to storms and toppled over in 1996, disappearing without trace into a large hole that had underscoured the Tower since grounding, all that remains is the stump of the North Leg Roughs, now the Principality of Sealand remains occupied.

The forts were built in the second world war to protect London and other Thames settlements from the aerial and naval attentions of Nazi Germany. Three sets of Maunsell Forts, named after their designer Guy Maunsell, were built in the Estuary to this design:the Nore forts off Sheerness, now demolished; and the Red Sands and Shivering Sands forts, further out.

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The Principality of Sealand is located on HM Fort Roughs, built during World War II by the British government to keep a watch on Germans who were laying mines off the coast of England. Situated at about six nautical miles from the coast of Suffolk, the Roughs Tower remained in operation for some time after the war, but was abandoned by Royal Navy in 1956. While the tower remained unattended for 11 years thereafter, pirate radio broadcasters Jack Moore and his daughter Jane occupied the tower in August 1965 to set up base for the pirate station called “Radio Caroline”. But it couldn’t last longer, as Major Paddy Roy Bates occupied the tower in 1967 by evicting the pirate broadcasters with a legal help. It is after the acquisition of the Roughs Tower that the story of Sealand became interesting.

Sealand was actually an anti-aircraft gun platform that was constructed by the British government to safeguard the England’s coast against German’s mine-laying aircrafts during World War II. The platform spans 120 by 50 ft. supported by two large hollow concrete legs. The station was home to more than 300 Royal Navy personne.

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Occupied first by pirate radio broadcasters in 1965, the Roughs Tower seemed to be a perfect location to set the base for unrestricted pirate radio stations.

Due to the ability to offer popular music, the popularity of these stations was growing and with advertisers showing interest, pirate radio was one of the profitable enterprises during that time. This is what led Radio Caroline to occupy the Tower, but the radio station couldn’t last longer as Bates took over the Fort and evicted the broadcasters of Radio Caroline.

Radio Caroline tried to take back the Fort Roughs from Bates in 1967. But, Bates along with his crew defended the invaders by firing warning shots and Molotov cocktails. When the Radio Caroline team withdrew, one man was left dangling for two hours on a ladder. Upon negotiations, a lifeboat was allowed to rescue him

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B TO

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E

E U N TI N O C

D

N T W I O O R T O T E D HE M & T ND U O S BY

OS C S VA U I G

I NO T EN

We must start by going back in time to talk about how the expression ‘rock and roll’ was born. It was created by Albert James ‘Alan’ Freed, an American radio host and DJ who first used it to promote one of his programmes.

Rock music was born in the US in the ‘50s and ‘60s thanks to legends such as Chuck Berry, Elvis and Buddy Holly; it has Afro-American origins and in its early days it was influenced by country, blues, folk, gospel and boogie-woogie.

Rock music started out in the States and this is a given fact, yet it is its British version that laid the foundations for contemporary music and that best represents the sound we all recognize as ‘rock’.

We’re talking about a decade that’s absolutely unique for the immensity of its music. First things first, the Beatles: the very foundations, even though they’re not exactly a symbol of rock. Anyway one Beatle, John Lennon, one of the most iconic musicians ever, is in open contrast with the group’s rather chic image – after all, it’s Her Majesty the Queen’s favourite band.

Lennon fights this cliché and hints at rock and at a more visionary sound, and his lyrics are always quite deep.

His ‘Imagine’ immediately becomes a universal hymn to peace and needs no introduction.

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Led Zeppelin is the first relevant band name when talking about ‘70s rock. If they were produced today they would still sound absolutely contemporary and innovative, and they would still kick ass with their irresistible, brilliant and timeless musical concepts. The Led Zep form in 1968 and disband in the early ‘80s, after writing some of the most beautiful and seminal music pieces ever – just think of ‘Whole

Hard rock and the birth of heavy metal can undoubtedly be associated to Black Sabbath. Ozzy Osbourne, the band’s founder and a musician who pens some of the most relevant pieces of the entire genre, together with Tony Iommi and the rest of the band produces seminal rock tracks such as ‘Paranoid’, and has never lost his emblematic charisma.

Lotta Love’, ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and ‘Immigrant Song’ (an almost prophetic title, with hindsight).

Queen absolutely deserve a place in this roster: with its frontman, extremely gifted and controversial Freddie Mercury, they merge opera, blues and theatre into something brand new – glam rock. Fellow geniuses David Bowie and Brian Eno in his Roxy Music era promptly follow this new current, with its super loud stage costumes and heavy make-up that will become the staples of gay communities.

There’s not enough space here to delve into this wonderful ‘British rock revolution’ in full detail, but what we can do is identifying the key moments of the decade that will become landmarks for all contemporary music.

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More often than not, in fact, men look very feminized: they wear capes, jewellery, crowns, sequins, skin-tight garments and lipstick, and the glam rock look is probably the creation of former fashion model Marc Bolan, the first to go on stage wearing a feather boa, sequins and a top hat, singing songs that aren’t taken that seriously.

It mustn’t be forgotten that these

commercial types of melodies is a characteristic of another band that’s quickly becoming legendary, if not mythical: Pink Floyd. Suffice to say that their 1973 work ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ is still one the most incredible and beautiful albums in the entire history of music.

bands are the first to use synthesizers and other new electronic instruments, thus paving the way for psychedelic and progressive music.

and then there are debates, especially during the typically histrionic jam sessions.

We must keep in mind, in fact, that these are the ‘70s, a highly spiritual and pro-US decade, where lysergic experiences are quite common, and it is a well-known fact that Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin use LSD. The present praise to British rock is surely biased and therefore

The entire British music scene is rather close, even though every now

King Crimson and Yes, for example, mark the turning point towards prog rock, experimental rock, psychedelic rock and a number of other subgenres.

Breaking away from the classic 4/4 structure and from conventional, 77

passionate, but it’s also absolutely incontrovertible. Considering the huge importance of that decade’s music for at least half of the music to come, unfortunately it cannot be further extended, but its purpose is to be an invitation to rediscover its sensational history.

To close the decade we choose to talk about the antagonists par excellence, who break the charts, make headlines

destruction of elegance’, against power, the institutions, religions and social clichés.

They look and act aggressive, and their lyrics and slogans are utterly controversial, blasphemous and provocative – exactly the opposite of the prevailing rock culture of the decade, all spirituality, poetry and philosophy.

However big London is, discordant

whatever they do and dictate fashion trends.

They come with a very strong and intentionally subversive image, to get them a huge audience and incite confrontation, defiant but nicely packaged lyrics and quite some disposable income behind them.

We’re talking about the Sex Pistols of course, about their unforgettable looks and their staging of ‘an elegant

voices need to pay more for performing live, unless you are welloff like the Pistols are.

The less well-known part of this band’s history is its connection to famous fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.

She starts out selling hand-made jewellery from a stall on the Portobello Road and soon manages to open a boutique in a trendy area; her 78

second marriage to wealthy producer Malcom McLaren surely helps in her ascent.

McLaren becomes the Pistols’ manager and many sources report that the band is actually his own creation, put together for promotional purposes.

As a matter of fact, they are considered the initiators of punk music and culture, and similarly Westwood is

in the ‘80s the punk scene.

When comparing rock’s and early punk’s structure, form and background, and thinking of the money made available and the carefully thought out slogans, with hindsight and thinking of how things work today in music we might even say that it’s the latter that’s probably the most ‘pop’ and commercial genre between the two.

acknowledged as the mother and creator of punk fashion.

Together, Westwood, McLaren and the Pistols create a super strong promotional campaign, but then their paths diverge, probably because they crack up under the weight of celebrity, or maybe because of the death from a heroin overdose of Sid Vicious, the band’s bass player. Sadly, heroin will become a social scourge

The Sex Pistols have been very smart in using nonconformist concepts, which obviously sounded very attractive to young people, so their punk is actually more pop that all the rock that passes off as Britpop.

From this point of view, there’s been nothing pop about the British

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ORTclub

by The Fashink Group

photo by Stefano Padovani

SP

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Nimesh Fernando Born: Firenze Italy 05/10/1998 Height: 175 cm Weight: 53/54 kg Profession: Student, Kickboxer Career: Started practicing Kickboxing at Honbu Dojo Pavone 4 years ago in October 2014. It fights on a Professional level in the best Combat Sport Gala in to specialty Kickboxing, K1 Style, Full Contact, Savate and Chausse Fight/Savate Pro. Coach: M° Marco Pavone

Results: To date his score is of 13 Match disputedid.

Winner on June 2018 Bad Boy Tournament Winner on November 2018 World Champion WFC

cat. 55 Kg on specialty K1 Style cat. -57 Kg on specialty Kickboxing

2016 Novara Street Fight - Novara (Italy) Win by unanimed decision 2016 BTF Tournament - Castelletto Sopra Ticino (Italy) Draw 2016 Aspettando The Night of Kick & Punch - Milano (Italy) Win by unanimed decision 2017 Combat Day - Madone (Italy) Win by TKO on 2nd Round 2017 American Fight Championship - Cesena (Italy) Lose by split decision 2017 Coupe International de Savate - Cremona (Italy) Win by unanimed decision 2018 Fast & Furius - Castelletto Sopra Ticino (Italy) Lose by split decision 2018 Fight Night Zermatt - Zermatt (Switzerland) Win by unanimed decision 2018 Kickboxing Kombat Night - Gravellona Toce (Italy) Draw 2018 Bad Boy Tournament - Rimini (Italy) Win by split decision 2018 Inside The Thunder VIII - Milano (Italy) Draw 2018 World Championship Open WFC - Bussero (Italy) Win by TKO on 1st Round 2018 World Championship Open WFC - Bussero (Italy) Win by split decision 81

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fighting alone?

N: Well, I dream about it all the time, but I’m also aware that it’s not very likely to happen in a country where football always comes first in the world of sports. All I can do is give my best, and I’m a very driven person.

F: How did you come across this sport?

N: When I was a teenager I belonged to a community of ‘problem kids’ called Filo di Arianna [Ariadne’s thread, a reference to Greek mythology symbolizing a guiding light, tn] and one of them took me to my current teacher, ‘the Peacock”.

It all started out as a joke really, just to let out steam and get rid of stress, but as I fell in love with this sport I started to spend most of my time in the gym and gradually left the community.

F: Your family comes from very far away, but you were born in Italy. Do you feel totally Italian and would it feel natural to you to represent Italy when fighting, or would you rather be considered a foreign athlete living here, a factor which could make you stand out more in the milieu?

N: My roots are in Sri Lanka, but I was born in Florence, so my heart

fashink: Your sport is perceived as extremely violent, while in reality athletes are very respectful of each other, both before and after the matches. What are your thoughts about it?

N: Respect is key in this sport. As for myself, I’m constantly in contact with many of my opponents: we’ve become friends and keep exchanging advice, so to me this goes to prove that even though we hit each other hard there is no malice in it.

F: You compete in the lightweight category, obviously against athletes of the same build. Do you think an athlete of your body build gifted with an excellent technique might knock out an athlete of a higher category?

N: Yes, definitely: to my surprise, it has happened to me more than once while training in the gym.

Technique is where it’s at, because power without technique is nothing, while technique without power can hurt really badly.

F: There’s not a lot of money to be made through fighting until you get to the very top, and surely in comparison with boxing your sport is not as well-known and not as covered by the media. Do you think one day you will be able to make a living by 84

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proudly bears the colours of the Italian flag. I love this country and I could only be honoured to be chosen to represent it.

F: Sorry for asking the obvious, but doesn’t it feel unnatural, doesn’t it upset you to inflict physical pain to another person?

N: Yes, we do inflict physical pain, but I can assure you there is no viciousness or spite in it at all. Many people object that fighting can’t be considered a sport, but if you’ve never been on the ring you just can’t understand what it feels like, especially the empathy towards your opponent.

F: This sport requires a huge amount of dedication, discipline and sacrifice: would you recommend it to young people, and if so, why?

N: I would recommend this sport to just about anyone, especially to children, because it builds your character and it helps you understand discipline through its moral rules. It also teaches you to believe in yourself in full, to fight for what you believe in and not to give up: in a word, it makes a man out of you

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Special thanks to Marco Pavone 88

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OUTSIDER For most of us the glitzy world of fashion is embodied by its capitals: Paris, London, New York and Milan. Sometimes, however, small towns too can be the scenario of great stories.

by Beatrice Salvioni | Photo by Stefano Padovani 90

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Hidden behind all this light, however, there is darkness, a shadow that forces him to grow up much more quickly than he wishes: illness.

At the age of ten, Diego starts a five-year long fight against a severe form of cancer that prevents him from enjoying life as light-heartedly as the other kids and robs him of the most precious memories of teenage years: school, friendships and long, carefree afternoons.

Illness forces you to reflect on what it’s threatening to take away from you; while you’re holding on to life with all your strength, you think about what it is that you really want, about what you want from that something that so far you’ve always taken for granted and that now

Diego Salerno was born in Busto Arsizio, in the heart of Brianza, in Lombardy, from a family that’s as close and familiar with the bright lights of fashion as with the stars in the sky. Yet it’s precisely from his father, who owns a small electrical installation company, and from his mother, a housewife, that he learns the principles and the ideals that have made him what he is today: sense of duty, attention to detail and curiosity.

As a child he loves hiding in his father’s lab, sitting on the floor and watching from that perspective all the gears do their job and get the lab’s machinery going, as if it were some precious watch mechanism: this is how he learns the value of precision and commitment.

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eyes of a grownup even though you’re only fourteen.

So Diego takes his life into his hands and decides to study fashion instead of sciences, in a leap of faith, and all of a sudden many things start making sense: his love for beauty and the visual aspect of things, and the great care he takes in his appearance. Now it’s clear that that spark has always been there, and all he needs to do is to turn it into a fire. In fact he gets his diploma as a textile consultant with top marks, entering a world where he already feels he belongs.

One day Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, the Milanese hospital where he had been treated, asks him to take part in a new project that’s still under construction and

you realize is so precious and fragile.

He has to come to terms with himself and with a question that is not merely ‘how do I stay alive?’, but has evolved into ‘what could make me feel alive, really alive?’.

He doesn’t drop out of school, even though his many absences means that he’s left one year behind.

Just like many other kids, he has chosen to study sciences at high school almost at random, and now at the age of fourteen this ‘lost’ year is a godsend, because he gives him a lot of time to think. He’s aware that something must change in his life, but he can’t understand what precisely.

This is what illness does sometimes: it messes up your life and forces you to see things from a new perspective, with the

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B.live is a hotbed of messages and voices of a huge number of young people, speaking to people also through inspiring stories published in a monthly magazine created in collaboration with prominent Italian daily ‘Corriere della Sera’, ‘Il Bullone della Sera’. In Italian ‘bullone’ means bolt, and in the title a little bolt is placed between ‘B’ and ‘live’ as a symbol of power: a bolt is very small, but without it the entire structure would crumble and fall apart.

With time, B.live become a second family for Diego, because the strongest stories and relationships are those born out of scars.

Another meeting that will mark a turning point in his life is the one with a woman named after one of Dante’s characters in

needs the input of bright young minds to thrive.

By now leaping in the dark doesn’t scare him anymore, so Diego immediately says yes and starts working with other young former cancer patients, coming from all sorts of schools but sharing the same dream: raising awareness on the medical protocol for treating teenage patients.

Together they create B.live, a brand but also a creed based on three keywords: being, living, believing.

When the brand is born, as a result of much commitment and hard work, Diego is only seventeen, and today, many years later, it’s alive and kicking and has connections with fashion, music and the press.

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the clothes and deals with planning, setups and graphic design, together with his collaborator Boo, a young Korean designer whose extraordinary drawings are so graceful that they have an almost dancelike quality – Diego fondly remembers him still today and by studying his work in admiration he learns a lot.

After working with Gentucca, Diego feels he’s ready for the next challenge: going abroad and seeing other ways of doing fashion, so at twenty he leaves for the US, as curious as a child.

In his ten-week stay, he gathers all possible information on fashion courses and universities because he is now sure he wants to become a professional fashion designer, and he also knows by now that

the Divine Comedy, Gentucca, who will immensely help the poet by hosting him during his exile years away from his native Florence.

Similarly, Gentucca Bini, a Milanese fashion designer who’s in charge of B.live’s fashion project, sees his collection and is so ravished by his talent that she immediately hires him. Diego considers the ten months he spends in her studio as the most formative of his entire life: at the age of nineteen he moves to hectic Milan and once again needs to grow up faster than his peers, because he now has an incredible amount of work responsibilities.

However, by now he’s got used to it and takes this chance to make the most of that frenetic but fantastic world: he designs

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contest: Vogue America’s international competition, which only awards one scholarship per participant nation as a prize.

In the meanwhile summer has come and Diego goes on holiday with his friends to Molise, a small countryside region in southern Italy, almost forgetting about the stuff of dreams that this contest is for him, but just now that he’s in the middle of nowhere, that glamorous world reaches out to him: he must do a Skype interview, right now, with the chief editor’s team, and the chief editor’s name is nothing less than Anna Wintour.

This is going to be no easy feat at all: he starts driving around Molise looking for an internet point with a good enough connection, and finally manages to make an almost surreal videoconference with some of the most powerful people in the fashion business worldwide. His impression is that the interview has gone well, but all is quiet on the other side of the Atlantic.

He returns from his holidays and just as he’s lost all hope he gets a call from IED announcing him that he’s won the scholarship. His first reaction on being told that one of his biggest dreams has come true is answering ‘you must have the wrong number’, yet no mistake has been made, they weren’t looking for someone else: the prize is his.

He gets the award in mid-September, straight from the hands of Anna Wintour, during an event in the élite Milanese district called Brera, but his biggest thrill is having the chance to talk to her in person and exchange opinions, just like you normally do with your colleagues.

in life no one ever gives you anything and that opportunities just don’t land in your lap – you must go out in the world and get them. Armed with very little money, tons of hope and an old pc he applies for a number of different scholarships and wins four of them, but chooses the international contest held by IED [Istituto Europeo di Design, tn], a prestigious worldwide network of design schools.

The subject is revisiting our ancestor’s clothes, taking into consideration values such as family, tradition and culture yet always with a contemporary and innovative frame of mind. So Diego opens his granddad’s wardrobe and starts examining in detail shirts, trench coats, ties and overalls, and it’s precisely by studying and magnifying the garments’ details that he will find an inspiration for the collection, based on deconstructivism and therefore featuring garments that have been taken apart and reassembled.

Money is scarce, yet creativity abounds, so Diego uses a camcorder, a pair of scissors, needle and thread and a flight of stairs to document his creation of a sort of shapeshifter, a hybrid of masculine and feminine shapes, almost an art installation.

His three-hours long film too, like his clothes, is a cut-and-paste organic work, showing his improvised model walk down the stairs wearing a pink overalls that hides her face and one of his granddad’s suits.

Diego sends the video and five sketches to the commission and waits: there’s nothing else for him to do. One day he’s notified that he’s one of the ten finalists, and then one of the three, and finally that his work has been passed on to another 98

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his work experience: it is these two latter factors that will place him on a different level from the other students, even though he is a considerate team player and never looks down on them.

In spite of the extremely demanding work pattern required by the IED course, Diego finds the time and the energy to take part in several contests and wins many of them.

‘It’s a natural selection’, he says, thinking back of those years, ‘it takes a toll on your body, mind and psyche.

You don’t get enough sleep, you’re always hard-pressed for something and you really need to always have everything under control.’

Just like his creations, these years are both

Thanks to Vogue America, Diego can take a three-year course at IED in Milan for free and is exhilarated by the awareness that he’s made it by his own efforts and that he’s won his father’s challenge: ‘you can only study there if you win that scholarship’.

By now he has learnt that he enjoys a challenge – the harder, the better - , and IED is happy to oblige by requiring from him a minimum average mark of 29 [the top mark is 30, tn].

He takes this course of studies very seriously, giving his best in every single project, always respectful with his teachers but retaining a pinch of anarchic spirit and the initiative he has acquired in

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destructive and constructive: when he ends the course he is totally exhausted, but capable of putting together a collection in no time. He’s had the best possible training for the fight against time that is the world of fashion.

During these years he also does a number of internships; one of the best is at Marni, the Italian fashion label established by

He’s understandably overwhelmed, but all of a sudden one thing becomes crystalclear to him right now, sitting next to Anna Wintour on the front row: this is his world and this is where he wants to spend his life. After IED, Diego finds himself at a crossroad, with many possible directions he can take, but he knows his worth and his skills, and he knows that he can make

Consuelo Castiglioni, where he works for one month and a half.

It is Anna Wintour, at the end of an mind-blowing day during the fashion week, spent by Diego next to her and her team on the front row at the shows, being driven around in a black car and shot by paparazzi, who introduces him to Consuelo.

it by himself, so he does a lot of interviews, taking all possible chances.

Life can be mean, though, so during interviews he’s often told that he’s overqualified for the job. However, it is during one of these failed interviews that he will get an incredibly powerful pep talk, more precisely from California-born fashion designer Rick Owens, whose 102

contest to be held in Senigallia, in central Italy, and together they win.

Soon after that, following the request of a former IED tutor he starts teaching pattern-making at polytechnic university in Milan.

In December 2017 he hears of an inclusive fashion project employing handicapped models, thus breaking away from the stereotype of perfection.

On the strength of his own thesis project of the previous year, ‘Feel On Off ’, which has then been adapted to an inclusive fashion project, he starts working on the assignment and in three weeks time he designs and produced the garments that will go on the catwalk.

‘Malum collection’ shows in February 2018 and embodies a new concept of wrong [malum means harm, disgrace and illness in Latin, tn], between nostalgia and avant-garde, soon becoming his distinctive creative mark, characterized by a neat and sharp graphic sign.

Deconstructivism also applies to other aspects of Malum: bits of Diego Salerno, that is pieces from his collection, are scattered all over the world, to be used in photo shootings and to accessorize looks of top fashion labels.

Today Diego continues to teach, works as a consultant for several brands and is planning his next collection, which will show in February 2019, finger crossed.

What keeps him going is the desire to continue to grow as a designer, and this is the reason why he’s always looking for new challenges, new ways of climbing higher and higher.

In this context, he only has one big certainty: he can’t do without his job

garments are made in a small town in northern Italy, Concordia sulla Secchia.

Rick Owens being who he is – gothic, eclectic, black-haired and impossibly charismatic - , and being one of his idols, Diego is almost paralyzed with emotion.

He now remembers this interview as one of the most important of his life: one and a half hours of debate, small talk and exchange of views. Rick Owens praises Diego’s work, but tells him that he can’t hire him, because otherwise he himself would have to leave his own studio.

Diego can’t believe his ears: his idol has just acknowledged him as his peer!

He’s twenty-four and after this meeting he’s so hyper that he feels he could move mountains: all he wants is to run home and start designing his own line.

The real world, however, incites him to keep his feet firmly on the ground, and Diego listens: each fashion designer has his/her own individual style for drawing sketches, and the women in his sketches have in fact huge feet, contrarily to the stereotyped long-legged silhouettes that have tiny feet. In between more interviews, he is asked to work as a substitute teacher of design and methodology at his old technical high school: this is the start of a side activity that’s still very important for him, and in fact soon afterwards he is asked to join the post-graduate training teaching programme at Centro Cot [cotton textiles centre, tn] in his home region of Brianza, where he works side by side with professionals of the sector and where he makes enough money to start other projects.

Back to his old high school he follows his classes on the occasion of a fashion

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total black Photography Stefano Padovani Stylist Karine Leclere Make-up/Hair Samuela Nova Sofia @nologo Shot @KRUDE STUDIO, Milan

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Polka dot veil: A.N.G.E.L.O VINTAGE ARCHIVE 104

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Fitted rigid belt with zip: A.N.G.E.L.O VINTAGE ARCHIVE

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Leather top: MARGIELA Ankle boots : VERSUS A.N.G.E.L.O VINTAGE ARCHIVE

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leather top-lace-up leather cuissardes: JIL SANDER A.N.G.E.L.O VINTAGE ARCHIVE

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Motorcycle leather cap and sunglasses: A.N.G.E.L.O VINTAGE ARCHIVE

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Shoes: AZZEDINE ALAIA A.N.G.E.L.O VINTAGE ARCHIVE

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Leather scarf with pockets: A.N.G.E.L.O VINTAGE ARCHIVE belt model own

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Leather choker with reflectors Police leather belt-hustler: A.N.G.E.L.O VINTAGE ARCHIVE

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Sunglasses case and leather studed chocker: A.N.G.E.L.O VINTAGE ARCHIVE

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Patent leather bondage shoesand cow-boy: A.N.G.E.L.O VINTAGE ARCHIVE

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Photography Stefano Padovani Stylist Andrea Tisci Model Tommy Hey @Wonderwall, Milan Grooming Samuela Nova Shot @Idroscalo Club asd

Ps Special thanks Adriano Alessandrini, Patrizia Tiboni 116

Jacket : Polo Ralph Lauren Tisci Vintage Collection

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Jeans Jacket: Levi’s Jump Pant: MINS

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Jump Pant: 120% CASHMERE Jacket: KWAY Shoes: Generated Bag: Fashink Goods

Bag: Salar

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Total Look: Levi’s - Made and Craft 120

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Polo: Lacoste - Tisci Vintage Collection Trousers: Dockers Slip on: Reef

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Polo Shirt: Polo Ralph Lauren Tisci Vintage Collection 123

Pullover: ECOALF Brief: Moschino Underwear

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Sweatshirt: MINS

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Jacket: SSENSE Short: Costumi di Sicilia Shoes: Converse

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Sunglasses: ADIDAS

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Photography Stefano Padovani Stylist Andrea Tisci Model Tommy Hey@Wonderwall, Milan Grooming Samuela Nova

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Sunglasses: Ray-Ban 130

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Bow Tie: MOX- Papillon 132

Jewel: NOVE25 133

Lighter: St. Dupont Pen: J.KO – St.Dupont – Tisci Vintage Collection 134

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Sunglasses: Silhouette

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Shoes: Dr. Martens Watch: Ottaviani

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Shoes: Franceschetti Cover Phone: Hydrogen Trolley: AWAY 139

An English Tea 40 ml Tanqueray No 10 gin 20 ml 1930 Kina Lillet 17 ml Grapefruit and rose and shrub 2 dashes of teapot bitters Honey and white pepper crusta Chamomile essential oil

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Bits & pieces

by Talita Savorani

Celebrating 3 YEARS of FASHINK MAGAZINE is a great achievement but at the same time a huge responsibility: that means writing about latest trends and cool stuffs, always focusing on the tattoo industry but from a different point of view.

This FALL ISSUE celebrates the magazine’s anniversary with top-quality products but also inspiring artists and brands.

keep the fantasy look of my designs, I have to make them in my studio,” says Levi.

“A production line cannot be made like this, both structure-wise as well with all the details.

Without both, the magic will be gone.” His designs aren’t for the risk-averse, his shoes are wearable masterpieces.

Levi’s shoes are handmade and require weeks of high-level craftsmanship.

Currently, he is well-known in the fashion industry for his creative designs and Levi’s sculptural themes have recently taken a turn for the... Disney! Check out the amazing pairs he produces, inspired by Disney’s villains.

The first one who deserves to be inside this issue is definitely KOBI LEVI. For years, his shoe creations remained in boxes: his passion for avant-garde footwear design was just a hobby he had in Israel until when his shoes caught the attention of international pop star Lady Gaga in 2010. After fourteen years of designing, he decided it was time to share his works with the world so, after that collaboration, he opened up a studio in Tel Aviv. “I realized that in order to

From your shoes to your place, let’s move to the furniture industry with CHIARA CASTELLI CASA, a brand founded in 2015

by Chiara Castelli herself, who graduated in architecture in Milan.

Born in an artistic family, the furniture

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industry has always been the common thread for her working and business know-how.

From interior design to fitting-out shops, passion and research are her tools.

She precisely selects fabrics, essences, metals and stones to understand vintage works of art in a contemporary way.

Her designs are unique and extremely original, she created her “TATTOOS ON FURNITURE” collection to show how essential all pieces of furniture are inside a location.

Her works are one-of-a-kind and completely hand-made, simple shapes with polished materials. Together with CARMEN AVILIA - a famous tattooed female decorator -, they worked on a series with traditional tattoos on furniture: here’s the result!

When Cate Blanchett turned up at the NY Film Festival premiere seemingly sporting some new ink, she amazed her fans.

The ensemble was the work of Parisian designer YACINE AOUADI, a black midi dress from his first collection.

After graduating from Studio Berçot, Aouadi got his start as an intern at Balmain and soon joined the atelier in a full-time effort.

“The embroideries that are in the collection, some are from my own tattoos.

I have “Amour” on my hand, for example. For me, tattoos, in a way, are the last thing that is true luxury because the things you choose to ink on your own skin—you are the only one to wear it.

Now people are buying the same things, the same phone, the same handbags, and I don’t know if it’s conscious or unconscious, but people are getting more and more tattoos in the past couple of years.

The way to translate that meaning in clothing was to embroider tattoos; a lot of designers have done them in past, but they were printed.

To make it hand-embroidered means you can really customize the “tattoo,” like if it was real—it’s all the good points without all the bad points!” he stated talking about his recent works.

His masterpieces are high-luxury handmade bodysuits with lace details and polished materials; perfect to be yourself in a rock and roll but at the same time classy way, maybe with a leather jacket and black boots.

Last but not least, tattoos as clothing, as usual but this time with DSQUARED and AOUADI. DSQUARED proposes different lace bodysuit with tattoos designs, specifically made for ladies and girls. They present sleek bodysuits showcasing a rock’n’roll edge long.

Colorful an all-over prints, including the classic schoolboy and lumberjack tattoo designs from the brand’s t-shirt range alongside recurring motifs from their 2017 collection.

These bodysuits feature round and turtle neck versions, short and long sleeves, a rear zip fastening, a hook & eye fastening and are made using tulle, lace and inspired by dragons, traditional, tribal and Japanese leitmotifs... perfect to match your favorite denim trousers: such a cool nude look.

Enjoy this FALL wearing your tattoo clothes and setting a new trend with your friends!

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Via Maestri Campionesi, 25 20135 Milan Italy e-Store: www.fcf.it mail: fcf@fcf.it 146

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inked people for alternative fashion 148

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