Nino Cerruti, monster of elegance<

Milan-Malpensa Airport a decade ago, Nino Cerruti Voyage Incognito.But how can we not notice this Italian of a crazy class?The pace is slightly vaulted by the weight of the years, and certainly concerns related to the ready-to-wear house which no longer belongs to it but always bears its name and never ceases to change direction.As soon as he sees us, the silhouette is spurred, the face lights up.And Nino hasten to ask for "How is Paris?", His city at heart where he launched his clothing brand in 1967.

Last Tuesday at the Marino Marini Museum in Florence, which devotes the exhibition "il signor Nino" to his dressing room and his personal archives, this monster of elegance is still as remarkable. "I'm going to clopin," he said in a more than perfect French, but we are both ages-that of the body and that of the mind. In my head, I'm still 18 years old. I am curious to learn, to discover and meet people. ” The oh so lively eye, its current fashion analysis is most relevant. No wonder that one who is today the eldest of male fashion designers has been visionary in more ways than one. In addition to having "formed" Giorgio Armani, Véronique Nichanian (Hermès) and Stefano Pilati (Ermenegildo Zegna), Nino Cerruti was the first Italian to destructure the male costume, to turn fashion in art of living, to diversify his label in lines Sportswear, to dress stars on the screen and in the city ... Until July 3, it is an icon and a leader of contemporary clothing which is greeted in Tuscany.

Le Figaro.- More than a hanging of clothes, this exhibition "Il Signor Nino" by Angelo Flaccavento, with the support of Pitti Uomo, tells your passion for fashion.What is its starting point?

Nino CERRUTI. - C'est une très longue histoire. J'ai toujours choisi mes vêtements avec soin. Nous faisons un bout de chemin ensemble et je ne parviens jamais à m'en séparer. Aussi ai-je conservé toute ma garde-robe et nous pourrions réaliser au moins trois expositions comme celle-ci. Elle est comme un journal de bord et, outre me raconter, elle retrace une évolution de la mode masculine depuis les années 1950.

Why do you decide to open, in 1957, a men's clothing store in Milan, while the family business specializes in weaving beautiful woolens since 1881?

Textile has always been present in my heart.From the age of 10, I started to be interested in it, I wanted to learn from my father.At 20, it was the good Lord who decided otherwise.With the disappearance of my father, I had to restart my desires for youth and studies to devote myself to the family company.Upstream of the sector, we had no contact with the end consumer.With this Hitman store, my idea was to "verticize" our profession, to perceive market expectations, to better control the distribution of our products and to offer more services to customers.

Ten years later, you add another link to the Cerruti channel by launching a male ready-to-wear brand?

It was always the concept of sector, the idea of ​​better mastering our activity and making things up. The Lanificio Cerruti was dependent on the orders of the making which waited for shops to order them to give us the green light. In parallel, we devote a lot of energy to developing exclusives for each of our customers. Until the day I wanted to use them for myself. At the time, Italian male fashion was summed up with very traditional Roman tailors. I also came across a study by the American professor Ernst Dichter, relating to the unused desires and disappointments of Italian, French and German men. In terms of clothing, a strong expectation of more creative, less traditional, more colorful models emerged ... This document is always on my desk in Biella. It is a founding piece of my beginnings in ready-to-wear in 1967 in Paris. The following year, I presented a collection with men and women dressed in the same way. Diana Vreeland, then editor -in -chief of the US Vogue, found it very interesting. And success has arrived at high speed. The parades generated a tremendous advertisement for textile activity. In the early 1970s, the name of Cerruti radiated worldwide.

How to make a mini greenhouse from old windows (step-by-step)-https://t.co/miyd1enoi #garden #gardens #gardening https://t.co/tmd5tguno0

— Garden Sensations Sat Apr 30 02:59:10 +0000 2016

You were also the first contemporary to establish bridges with other universes, to dress stars, to diversify ... Why?

Italian fashion was very archaic and artisanal, guided by the traditions of Roman tailors and designers. I wanted to transpose these know-how and this high quality in an industrial process. All vanity aside, I believe I have initiated this great movement which transformed the "made in Italy" and gave it its international dimension and its current lifestyle. I remember, for example, that we talked a lot about the octane in the mid -1950s. In 1958 for the lanificio cerruti, we imagined a whole range of Ottanio fabrics around the color of this hydrocarbon. The launch took place in Rome. He mixed art of living, cinema and glamor with Anita Ekberg as ambassador, the manufacturer Lancia as a partner who had customized twenty-four limousines ... Later, I also called on Jean-Pierre Papin or David Ginola for loan advertisements -Men's male wear. Hugo Boss's communications director told me that I was crazy to associate my house with a sweat sport, that a footballer was not a seller for fashion ... today, what a big brand Has no links with stars or athletes?

How do you look at the sector today?

The system in which I have evolved no longer exists.In my time, there was a real consideration for creation.The stylists were untouchable people.In companies, everything was at their discretion.From now on, the order buttons for most houses are in the hands of marketing and finance.And we cannot expect these people a very sensitive vision of the future.Of course, there are exceptions.I am very admiring a Christopher Bailey who directs Burberry's style and affairs.He is one of the few to edit collections where there is not a chasm between what scrolls and what is really sold in store.There is also Alber Elbaz who excels at Lanvin because he has a lot of experience and talent.In another genre, I am also seduced by Victoria Beckham who understood everything in fashion and star system.She does not add and offers very portable collections.

In your opinion, most stylists are restrained!

Freedom is the first sources of inspiration for a creative.That said, he must not forget the purpose of his job or believe that he has filled his job because he had a great idea of clothing.As such, if I can allow you to make a criticism of Paris, it is to have always snubbed our Italian approach to imagine collections in the perspective of reproducing them in an industrial way.This has made all the success of transalpine fashion and, today, most of the major French brands are also produced on our side of the Alps.

Have you mentioned the evolution of the system, but has fashion itself also changed?

She is totally different.Before, fashion meant a "statement", a precise trend at an instant T. Today, this common point between multiple collections which made the trend no longer exists.There are a multitude of modes, more or less coherent, sometimes contradictory, for different audiences, and it is this diversity that is interesting.Recently, I participated in a conference in Berlin.Before my intervention, a Facebook representative recalled that he exceeded one billion subscribers.I added by stressing that the fashion sector had more than 7 billion followers on the surface of the earth.Today, everyone is interested in it.And in this, our job is exciting.We create the second skin of people.This implies exchanges, listening, research, sociability and human relationships that have no price and make the salt of our profession.

It's been some sixty years since you have been holding the reins of the lanificio cerruti ... If everything had to be done again, would you do it differently?

I lived well and I have the privilege that I am still allowed to work despite my great age.I have no regrets, except that in the evolution of the clothing sector towards the world of fashion, the fabric has lost its status of raw material and that the quality is often sacrificed.

Exhibition "Il Signor Nino", Marino Marini Museum, in Florence, until July 3.