The Life of FormsTheory of the Re-Enchantment.
How did this book come about?
Emanuele Coccia: It happened quite naturally after Alessandro and I were introduced by his partner Giovanni Attili.
Emanuele Coccia and Alessandro Michele.
We immediately connected, we recognized ourselves in each others words.
The books content is somehow consequential to how he has approached his fashion shows.
Alessandro Michele: As Emanuele said, there was never a planned project for the book.
The Life of Forms—Theory of the Re-Enchantment.
For me it has been a gift in the path Im going through.
I wasnt working at that time, work had taken a distance from me.
And Ive seen my work through it in a sharper way.
Philosophy is perfectly suited to adhere to everything thats human.
Fashion has often been marginalized, so I make philosophy and fashion go hand in hand.
Like children, they seem to be best friends.
Alessandro often says that clothes are the form through which you manifest your being alive.
When we think, were trying to give shape to our being alive.
For centuries the so-called Minor Arts and fashion has been always considered one of themhave been marginalized.
Can you expand on that?
AM: Fashion is radical because it happens quickly and sharply.
Everything else takes lengthy processes to happen and manifest; fashion is reactive.
Fashion has changed the idea of who am I?
and it has somehow changed art as well.
This is just the confirmation of how potent fashion can be.
Fashion is extremely seductive: Its like an addiction, its so alive, it belongs to anyone.
Its so close to our skin, it cannot be separated from the wearer.
You cannot avoid speaking out through what youre wearing.
Alessandro, youve often said that were the Frankensteins of our lives.
Sometimes your life changes because you encounter certain clothes by chance.
Its that specific dress that makes decisions together with you and makes you discover things you didnt know existed.
The language of fashion has been reduced to something rather flat and banal.
If you think about it, its a way of saying that ultimately fashion is just business.
There are banks of fog out there.
AM: Its a state of grace!
Archives seem places where the past is frozen, but not at Valentinotheyre full of life.
That place is life itself.
Im in its present now; Im watching and almost spying, like a voyeur.
Its heaven on earth.
Its like I have found the Eldorado.
