#FrenchFriesSociété: Alessandro Biasi

Interview: Margherita Pincioni / margherita_pincioni

Photography: Caterina Romei / caterina_romei

Styling: Jessica Iorio / iorio_jessica

Hair & Makeup: Oriana Curti / orianacurti

Model: Jihyun Seo / special_j.h
@ Wave Management

You have found yourself in the fashion world a bit by chance, how was that?
Alessandro Biasi: It was curiosity that pushed me towards fashion. As a teenager I attended an art institute and a dear friend of mine enrolled in a fashion school asked me to make sketches for the collection she was working on for one of her courses and as I expected, I felt very free to give my "stylistic" contribution. I've always wanted to experience worlds other than academia and the turning point was when, while seeing my drawings, one of this friend's teachers wanted to meet me. So, although I have never been a lover of fashion in the strict sense, I discovered its purest and most creative side. So I decided to enroll at NABA (New Academy of Fine Arts) in Milan and it all started in a very natural way. Since I decided to fully embrace fashion, I have found in my memories many premonitory signs of what it would have been: the many experiments with scissors, needles and threads that I had lost in my memory. I was a child who liked to imagine fantastic worlds and adventures and my first 'collections' were designed for the characters I loved to play: samurai, ninja and lots of superheroes, with a special place for Batman! The best thing today however is to look back and realize that even if fashion remains the creative sphere that I have developed the most, it continues to be a field of research of mine.

A-lab Milano, in addition to your brand is also a place of research and experimentation
Alessandro Biasi: During the years of study, driven by the desire to experiment and with a certain propensity to look ahead and to forge ahead, I had organized a working group, a creative collective that worked in synergy to create collections made from unique, numbered and non-repeatable pieces. The atmosphere was that of an atelier strongly linked to contemporary trends and dynamics, a laboratory of ideas that still remains my most important reference today. The analysis of this project turned into my dissertation and once I graduated I felt that that group of people had created much more than a case study. Thus A-lab Milano came to life, a place, rather than a brand, to express my visions, supported by other people from different areas. All of this survives and lives in my everyday work, always looking for stimuli and innovation.

The word innovation has a great value, why?
Alessandro Biasi: In a historical moment in which society and fashion demand and produce so easy, immediate and trendy products, innovation is one of the fundamental ingredients for not being homologated. I have always believed that introducing new systems and criteria is the only way to protect creativity. This is what I try to push my students towards it so that they do not lose sight, as professionals of the future, that the task of a designer (be it fashion, product, event ...) is to respond to requests or necessity avoiding commonplaces and paths already trodden so that the life of each of us is part of the evolution of the thought of the human race.

You gifted me a beautiful notebook, is it a new project? What is it about?
Alessandro Biasi: As I told you, I have worked with them since the beginning, on the idea of ​​limited edition products, and notebooks have always been a great passion of mine. That's why I chose this object as number 0 of our "Special Items”, a collection of lifestyle products that will re-edit some of the prints I'm most attached to, drawing on the recent history of A-lab Milano. This first product will be part of a triptych that will soon be available on our online shop. After this period that has pushed the whole fashion sector to deep reflections on its role, I thought it was right to let my graphics permeate different areas, linked more closely to the domestic and personal dimension of each of us. I hope that the notebook will accompany you - and whoever chooses it - in everyday life and be a good friend to whom you can entrust notes, reflections and curiosities.

How did the collaboration for the Green Carpet Fashion Awards start? What kind of dress did you make?
Alessandro Biasi: The collaboration was born already in 2018 from some research that I was carrying out with my studio. I was looking for a sustainable fabric that did not have the typical raw appearance of fabrics of plant origin. I then came across Aquafil and immediately fell in love with the technical aspect of ECONYL, a regenerated and infinitely regenerable nylon yarn. I got in touch with the company and found in Aquafil and we immediately outlined the guidelines for a collaborative project.