Can you share with us some insight onto Angelo La Barbera.
I was born in a small town in the inlands of Sicily, Enna. Later on I moved to Milan where I graduated at Politecnico di Milano in Fashion Design, after that, I moved to London where I continued my studies with the MA Womenswear at London College of Fashion while also I had one of my first experiences in Fashion at the brand Sharon Wauchob. The MA acted as incubator for the brand ‘La Barbera’, where I could nurture my practice as a designer and develop my identity, allowing me to create the Brand organically.

What about your creative process, how do you start working on a collection?
I like to think about the creative process as something fluid, where ideas fold and unfold. I enjoy observing people and the society around us, I try to maintain the process as genuine as possible. I take pictures of what I find sparks my curiosity, I read books, I play with fabrics and shapes, I doodle, I take notes of ideas or simply word combinations that are intriguing, I go to art exhibitions…
Most of the times there is an idea that act as a stimulus and makes me jump back and forth between research, drawing and 3D development. The challenge is to maintain that idea genuine and at the same time ‘to contaminate it’ to create innovation and a unique point of view. The unpredictability of this process is what makes it beautiful and allows for creativity to really take place.

Can you tell us more about the inspirations behind your brand and your FW/20 Collection showcased here in our pictures.
‘La Barbera’ FW/20 Collection is called ‘Oggetti Quotidiani’. It is the first result of the brand’s study regarding the connection of people and objects. It all sparked when I was walking among the streets of London, I was just walking and observing the people passing by. I was taking notes and pictures of them. I started asking myself some question and speculating about why someone was dressed in a certain way, carrying that exact object in that position, so I started to think about the multiple ways the ‘object’ and the ‘subject’ where influencing each other. So I started building an archive of pictures I have been taking around my trips in London, Paris and Milano. Looking for common threads and everyday objects that were portrayed in these pictures. I also began studying a group of documentary photographers such as Elliott Erwitt, Vivien Mayer, Letizia Battaglia, Diane Arbus…
It is about portraying everyday life in its serendipitous moments. The beauty stands in the unpredictability of these moments and in the irony that they create.