A Magazine curated by

This series originally appeared in A Magazine N°20 Curated By Pierpaolo Piccioli, December 2019.

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My main inspiration for this story was the work of Steven Meisel. His revolutionary shoot for Franca Sozzani’s Vogue Italia, October 1992, opened my eyes to a new approach to fashion photography. It showed a humanity that – at that time – was new, or at least unknown to a wider audience. It was the very first story about inclusivity in fashion. And it made me realise that a fashion narrative could convey more than just aesthetic statements. It really provoked my imagination at a time when I was starting to shape my own idea about what fashion is and how to convey my personal language.

Not only did he inspire this portrait series, but he also sparked a fantasy: to take photos myself. I felt the urge to shoot. I wanted to crystalize a moment with my own photography and to dedicate these images a human being’s inner beauty.

In these pictures, Philip’s hat contains something both eccentric and elegant – just like each person. Passing the hat from model to model created a common ground and a collective mood. The shoot became a game, but it was much more than that: using the same object for everyone exemplified each of their unique personalities.

Meisel’s lesson and my experiment, I hope, are in line with Franca’s vision and her way to narrate and present fashion. It is her interpretation we keep referring to – an inescapable intelligence. Her style of storytelling is the one I believe in. It puts people at the centre of an image, with their humanity, their intimate and talented nature, values and imperfections. It is a complete human vision, ironic yet graceful, subversive yes so understandable.

Shooting people I love wearing this pink feather hat is a way for me to keep experimenting, to narrate diversity, to pay homage to Franca’s unique visionary work and to have a friend like her sill here – with me – on this adventure. – P.P.