FASHION AS RESEARCH: INTERVIEW WITH TVSCIA'S ELISA SOLDINI E LUCIA PADRINI

Fashion is also awareness. Of how the world works, you might say, but not all. TVSCIA carries out a careful and deep research of contemporary, throwing an interesting look at the past. The result is the archetype of essential aesthetics but studied, conscious of today’s rhythms. The brand was founded in 2009 in Tuscany brainchild of Elisa Soldini and Lucia Padrini, both designers.

Elisa, Lucia, TVSCIA was born in 2009 with the idea of a fashion designed for an elegant woman, attentive to detail but with a distinct personality. Not a fashion victim. This femininity, as it evolved in these eight years?

The TVSCIA woman expresses her femininity, today as yesterday, with a personality as it combines strength and delicacy, femininity and masculinity, poetry and contemporary. Over the years she has remained true to herself, putting more and more attention to details, a femininity that has become even more sensual and distinct. The vision has not changed, rather it changed the approach to it. We believe also in the distinct personality of each woman, beyond the fashions of the moment. But maybe, after many years of hard work, we have learned to play with the rigor that has always characterized us, identifying our vision even in a cooler way.

Another characteristic feature of your style is the use of a palette of very homogeneous colors: black, gray and sometimes a shade of white. A choice that, although it is already been made by designers like Yamamoto, is certainly bold, dare I say radical, in recent years as the hue “rainbow” to be a leader. What is the meaning of this decision?

For us the choice of black and its nuances is part of a poetry that goes beyond time. The absence of color, somehow, we think is liberating, conceptually the synthesis of all the colors of overlapping world. However the choice of palette, for a designer, it’s a decision that changes from season to season, and thus the development of new approaches and new nuance is part of a creative process always changing. TVSCIA is true that in most cases used the “non-colors”, but it is also true that its female aspect will lead to desire to compare with it as well as in small touches, it has already done in some past collections. We are not opposed to the color, the dismemberment of the black summary, it shows the new project we are working on. The color takes the energy of the wearer and its proponents. The colors we choose and will choose to enter, inevitably end up belong to us. We think we want to stay strict, but not radical: being radical and not questioning we find is one of the worst evils of our times.

For the next fall collection you’re inspired by the style of the 20s and 80s. What are the common elements of these two decades and it is those who have decided to bring on clothes or, rather, you have chosen to emphasize the differences?

One of the characteristics of TVSCIA is just being “extreme” and in this case we wanted to combine the two periods that are stylistically quite different, the 20s and 80s. On one hand, the androgynous femininity of the flapper woman, in which we find lines that rest gently highlighting a rangy body, on the other the volumes and asymmetrical cuts to dare and experiment, as in the 80’s. We are always curious about the game of opposites, highlighting the differences and see that the union of the two realities, apparently distant, can be born something unique and interesting.

Tvscia has always been a brand into fashion market but always, in some way, external to it. With the clarity that comes, how do you see today this environment, especially in relation to people like you that still produced in Italy?

We have a very clear vision of this world, we are passionate about our work and we feel closer to the concept of making fashion used many years ago, when the designers and their work were worth. Unfortunately today we live in a completely different reality: it is the era of consumerism and improvisation, we think it is cause for frustration. We believed from the beginning that create an Italian brand, produced in Italy, was a strength, a mission that had even our beautiful country, but it has become far too difficult. Being an “outsider” is a luxury for the few, the competition is so big and the market is saturated; at this point what makes the difference is probably the economic power. We realize that you should give the market what it asks, you should understand and accommodate to create an attractive business and this is what often demeans the role of creative at a time like this where the fast fashion won. It should re-educate society to the value of things, understand and truly appreciate what they buy, and interrupting this consumerism syndrome.

Any future project?

Doing too many projects for the future, in the past slowed us allowing us to see clearly the present, whereas now we are experiencing a phase of ferment. We learned how to play with the rigor and this allowed us to have a vision even cooler of our iconic pieces: the birth of KIMO NO-RAIN, a project that reinterprets one of our bestsellers a more streetwear and … more colorful! KIMO NO-RAIN is having a great success; we are very happy of how the market is acknowledging it. We wanted to challenge ourselves and be able to remain “TVSCIA” through an easier project.

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