Bonaveri Magazine

A pyramid of Schläppi with the exact same pose:
heads tilted slightly forward and arms along
the body ending in a whimsical hand gesture.
All wearing the unmistakable colours, textures,
and patterns of Missoni.
In Gallarate, the town where in 1953 Ottavio and
Rosita Missoni established their eponymous
company, there is the MA*GA Museum where
in 2015, the “Missoni, Art, Colour” exhibition
revealed the aesthetics and references, the
hyperlinks of the Missoni world with Modern and
Contemporary Art and its inspirations, weaving
together Missoni patterns and clothing with
artworks such as those by Wassily Kandinsky,
Paul Klee, Sonia Delaunay, Piero Dorazio and
Lucio Fontana - all with the common thread
of geometry and colour, two themes close to
Missoni’s heart.
Missoni’s origins and path parallel the birth
of Bonaveri at that time when, right after the
Second World War, ‘Made in Italy’ was in its
infancy with entrepreneurs starting their own
activities and businesses, laying down the first
stones of the enterprises of tomorrow.
Luca Missoni, Artistic Director of Missoni
Archive, talks to us about this exhibition, a bit
of the Missoni universe, and present and future
plans. He also recalls another exhibition that
took place in 2006, when Bonaveri was already
his favourite partner.
Missoni on the one hand, and Bonaveri on the
other.
We did two important shows together. The last,
“Missoni, Art, Colour”, which we also brought
to London, was in 2015, whereas in 2006, we
did the first one, “Caleidoscopio Missoni,” at
the Provincial Museum of Gorizia in the Friuli
Venezia Giulia region. We had been acquainted
with Bonaveri by then. In any case we had
previously met and we knew about their work
because of the importance of mannequins in
fashion. In our window displays and exhibition
set-ups we have always tried to use something
that had a contemporary, evocative feeling to it,
the one thing that works in that one moment to
present fashion. It is the one thing we actually
can’t do without, the one thing that is really necessary.
What is the balance between the clothes and
mannequins?
In a window a mannequin is just a physical support
for the clothes - it must resemble and have the shape
of a person, but it is still just a support. Then there are
various aspects and ways of presenting things in stores.
A store window can be just a passing thing, a seasonal
display that follows that kind of communication at that
moment. Our collaboration, more so than just for store
windows, has been in exhibitions, where mannequins
are as carefully chosen as if they were picture frames
for paintings in an art exhibit; in this case they become
more relevant for us.
Would you tell us more about that “Caleidoscopio
Missoni” exhibition back in 2006?
The show in Gorizia was focused on the display of
Ottavio Missoni’s patchwork tapestries, so half of the
exhibition space was dedicated to artworks hanging on
the museum walls. The rest of the space was a series
of kaleidoscopic installations evocating Missoni’s
colourful “put-together”, where we absolutely needed
mannequins that weren’t just simple mannequins but
performers, figures that looked like a photo taken at a
theatre: they needed to have some sort of movement.
We also needed a chromed mirror finishing because
we played around with the idea of the mirror and the
effect of actual kaleidoscopes that create multiple
colours and patterns. From this sprang the need to
produce mannequins with some kind of surface that
could reflect the surroundings, distorting them or
creating unusual or confusing reflections like carnival
funhouse mirrors. This is how we researched and
collaborated with Bonaveri at that time.
Was this collaboration already under way then
on shop frontlines, or was it your first time
together?
Let’s say that here we worked together differently
than before: doing an art exhibition is different from
ordering a series of mannequins for a store, it’s more
than a business relation with a supplier. In this case we
entered into the project together and Bonaveri stayed
with us as partners, to the extent that we published a
small brochure, as a part of the exhibit catalogue, with
mirror effects suggesting the mannequins’ surface.
Bonaveri has always been more than willing to
meet your needs.
At that time a sort of partnership was set up.
When we start thinking about doing an exhibition,
we somehow meet to talk about what the project
needs. This happened when we did “Missoni
Art Colour” in 2015 at MA*GA Art Museum. The
idea was to create two big pyramids to display
a large number of mannequins. We needed at
least 100 identical
We have always
tried to use
something that had
a contemporary,
evocative feeling
mannequins! Sometimes one does exhibitions
with different types of mannequins that vary
according to the context around them, the
modular rooms and the space plan. In this
case it was a large pyramid that recounted the
history of Missoni’s fashion from the beginning
to the present day. We wanted just to use the
same support element to give the idea that the
Missoni language is timeless and contemporary.
We found a mannequin that worked perfectly,
except we needed 100 of them! And it didn’t
mean that there were necessarily 100 available
right away! Andrea Bonaveri certainly met our
needs.
The pyramid was unforgettable also from a
scenic viewpoint.
In curating exhibitions, sometimes you find
solutions you didn’t think of at the beginning…
At first we were given only a part of the Museum
- some areas were not accessible because they
had been damaged by fire several years earlier.
We developed the project going further into it
and seeing what could be done in those spaces.
Little by little the museum became increasingly
more involved and expanded the space allotted
to us. The museum director, Emma Zanella,
in the end made available the entire museum to us.
Then the project with columns of light and fabric came
about – the pyramid was further expanded and also
the number of mannequins, which actually turned
out to be 100. The 6 months long exhibition was later
extended a few more months and Bonaveri readily
accepted this commitment.
After Varese, you went on stage in London.
3 months later we had the opportunity to recreate the
show at the Fashion and Textile Museum. And once
again Andrea Bonaveri was extremely willing to help
us out.
New exhibition projects in the pipeline?
We are always keen on showing the Heritage of
Missoni! We are also working on developing our stores:
many new ones are opening in the coming months
and years. These are new developments on our
traditional themes. It’s like if you enter a house with
many references to Missoni’s history and heritage and
Bonaveri mannequins will be on stage in the windows.
What countries are you focusing on?
First of all, the United States and the East - Asia from
Singapore to Japan including China. This is the next
area of our interest.
Some more news in the house. Your niece Margherita
as creative director of the M-Missoni line with a rediscovery
of the Missoni Archive.
After having created through many years the archive
to function as a means for conserving our products
but also for projects of communication and research
and development of new products, I must confess I’m
having a bit more fun now. We have the availability
and possibility to provide new ideas, as in the case
of M-Missoni, so that someone coming here feels that
the past is still present. Thus the development of M is
very tied into the Missoni graphic history and how it
was imagined through the years. Should we do another
exhibit tomorrow, it would be in that direction.
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