Bonaveri Magazine

Bonaveri, Schläppi, Aloof, Sartorial and Tribe…are
the names of some of the nearly 20 collections and
ad hoc ideas created for all needs and purposes in
the 20,000 square metre factory which turns out
15,000 pieces a year between mannequins and
bust forms starting from the preliminary clay figures
to body scanning, from ancient craftsmanship to
the latest technologies.
Aloof, we can say, is the mannequin most requested
for display in the most famous and glamorous
department store windows worldwide. However, all
Bonaveri collections and proposals, from the bust
forms to bespoke creations, find in the marketplace
the occasion to dictate new aesthetics and styles.
“I just feel it and
I do it. I can’t
define a vision
or a default
strategy”
In all honesty, when I’m asked how and why, I don’t
know. I just feel it and I do it. I can’t define a vision
or a default strategy, I don’t know whether or not it’s
because I see further into the future than others…
for this reason, my interviews might appear strange
because I can’t define my methods…it’s more a
question of instinct.
Up to now your intuition has never been wrong.
[He laughs] The few things I’ve done in my life
have turned out rather well. Now we’ll see what
happens with the last one, the acquisition and
relaunching of Rootstein. I firmly believe it’s a
passion that has turned into a work opportunity
and I feel I’m responsible for making it become a
story of resurgence and an occasion to broaden the
horizons of our work. I really like this mannequin,
which is the polar opposite of our stylized ones. I like
Rootstein and always have. I have always admired
this company founded in the ‘50s in London by Adel
Rootstein, and devoted to realistic mannequins. So we
took this step.
Your role. You are divided between two worlds: the creative
and managerial one, and your office reflects this.
Quite. It’s the right balance. I am not as creative as an artist
but I don’t live just for numbers, on the contrary. Let’s start
from the beginning if that’s ok.
Of course.
Basically, I didn’t want to do anything at all [He laughs].
You wanted to live off your father’s company?
To tell the truth, there wasn’t much money. My father came
from a situation in the ‘70s when the company was just a
little setup that handled orders utilising outside suppliers.
It was really small.
But the beginning sounds like a story out of a novel.
Bear in mind that my father was a pioneer in the business
in the ‘50s. He started off with a bag of gypsum, newsprint
paper and a package of clay. With this he sculpted the first
mannequin, loaded it onto a bicycle-drawn cart and cycled
around to try to sell it. It’s that part of post-war Italy that
today we dream of. There were a lot of people like him
then and they laid the foundations for many companies
while building up the Italian economy. My dad was one of
those people. From this rather poetic but laborious start
full of hardships, we move on to the end of the ‘70s when I
entered into the business end of the company.
Were you studying?
I was young…I had a lot of ideas floating around in my head,
lots of distractions. You could say I was never a model
student [He laughs]. The choice of my secondary school
was by pure happenstance.
What kind of school was it?
It was a training institute for tour operators. I was really
fascinated by trips that I had never taken and I still had no
clear idea of what I wanted to do in the future nor a secret
dream.
In the meantime did you do some traveling?
No, no trips. As I said before there was little money at home,
so I started working half-heartedly in the factory. I would
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