Comunicato_libro Walter Albini a MILANO_ING_ok - Pitti Immagine

WALTER ALBINI AND HIS TIMES.
ALL POWER TO THE IMAGINATION
A Fondazione Pitti Discovery book and project
Edited and curated by Maria Luisa Frisa and Stefano Tonchi
Cover artwork by Francesco Vezzoli
Series Mode, a Fondazione Pitti Discovery publication, Marsilio Editori
Friday 26 february 2010 _ from 6.00 pm to 9.00 pm
SPAZIO NILUFAR _ via Spiga 30 _ Milano
On the occasion of the fashion week, the Fondazione Pitti Discovery presents in Milan its last monograph
produced within the series Mode: the book “All power to the imagination. Walter Albini and his times”, by Maria
Luisa Frisa and Stefano Tonchi.
“Twenty-seven years old, Pisces”, are the first things Walter Albini says about himself with a smile. This
designer and stylist […] prefers prêt-à-porter because it moves towards life, because it’s for all women and
helps them not have to sacrifice - let’s say a nice trip for a dress”.
That was how Vogue Italia introduced Walter Albini in October 1967 and the words allude to the creative power
that would transform WA into the protagonist of the Italian prêt-à-porter revolution. It was the beginning: Albini’s
parabola would end soon, too soon, in 1983, but the designer’s personal and creative career contained all the
traits that define those years.
“All power to the imagination. Walter Albini and his times” reconstructs a period that witnessed the
establishment of fashion as a basic element in representing contemporary society and culture and the definitive
decline of the couture atelier with the rise of democratic fashion with the development of high quality series
production. Walter Albini was one of the key figures of that period because he was fully aware of the need for
change and innovation – not only in fashion’s form and style, but also in its way of communicating its rituals and
mannerisms. Through the pages of magazines of the day, photographs and original drawings, the book
captures the essence of the Albini style: the Gatsby look and a retrieval of the ‘twenties and ‘thirties with postmodern
attitudes; attention to the imagery and settings that surrounded his clothes and became lifestyle
elements; the development of brands – and Albini grasped their growing importance and the simultaneous
construction of the Albini icon that easily found a place on the international scene with the leaders of the times
such as Halston, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, and Ossie Clark.
The book is not a chronology of Walter Albini’s life. Rather, it is a portrait of a designer who, now more than
ever, seems contemporary and current, a source of references for a new generation of fashion designers who
look to him as a paragon of pure, crystalline talent, who was able to look at the history of fashion to create a
new, revolutionary grammar to break with the past and find unexplored ways of presenting his collections.
His men’s non-collection for the summer of 1979 is crucial in this sense: it was an exhibit with twelve outfits
shown on panels. The clothes he skillfully put together belonged to designer, photographer and journalist
friends: “We have to learn the freedom of dressing outside the box. Consumerism produces objects, not styles. I
look around, I choose, I combine and I present”.
With its wealth of images and texts the book presents a unique story, a fresco of the years that changed not
only the history of Italian fashions, but the history of Italy as well. Albini’s words to Anna Piaggi concerning his
1979 spring/summer collection best convey his creative restlessness and his imaginative strength: “For me,
each outfit tells a story, of love, of anger, of violence. Each one is a moment, a person, a place, and each has a
role, like in a theater. To change clothes you have to change your attitude and spirit, and take on a new role.
Every time, every season, every collection…...”.
Thanks to I SPIRIT VODKA and CIOCCOLATO LA MOLINA

ALL POWER TO THE IMAGINATION
WALTER ALBINI AND HIS TIMES
Edited and curated by Maria Luisa Frisa and Stefano Tonchi
Assistant to the editors Gabriele Monti and Irene Guzman
Cover artwork by Francesco Vezzoli
Texts by : Flavio Albanese, Carlo Antonelli, Gloria Bianchino, Cristopher Breward,
Mariuccia Casadio, Angelo Flaccavento, Maria Luisa Frisa, Gabriele Monti, Ivan
Paris, Simona Segre Reinach, Mauro Tinti, and Stefano Tonchi
Biography and fashion show chronology by Manuela Soldi
225 pages, 500 illustrations.
Italian and English edition
Series Mode, a Fondazione Pitti Discovery publication, Marsilio Editori.