LAGENTE: THE ART OF MAKING AND MIXING AS A SHARING OF CREATIVE ACTIONS.
The name Lagente says a lot. With an apostrophe (l’agente) according to its etymology, it means “one who does” but also one who represents, who stands in for. When article and noun are fused together instead (la gente) it represents collectivity, a group. Twenty years ago a company was founded in Milan that has successfully united these two realities, including them even into its name: Lagente represents, safeguards and accompanies fashion designers and their ideas on the road to success. Davide Dallomo is the founder and current chairman. We asked him to talk to us about the art of making, mixing/creation and creativity.
On one of the walls in your Milan offices there’s a strange equation: creativity = capital. Is it a warning? It’s a quote and I like to think that’s where it all started KUNST = KAPITAL: creativity is capital, human and financial, it means transformation. It’s a concept I really believe in. Ideas can generate money, money can generate money but money can’t generate ideas. Creativity is wealth because it can create real value, i.e. work and because it can conceive and create a new world.
Creativity and the art of making: what’s the connection? When we talk about creativity we include everything. What our company, Lagente, does is applied creativity and therefore the art of making fashion. We are involved with clothes, accessories and jewelry. Everything that surrounds, clothes and adorns the bodies of men,m women and kids. My dream though would be to work with creativity in general, extending our business to other fields. We work alongside designers as a sort of interface, or privileged confidant. I use the expression because we have over 20 years’ experience and we’ve seen a lot of case histories.
Lagente has been in the fashion business for a long time, working alongside some big names in the world of fashion design: Antonio Marras to Massimiliano Giornetti, Hussein Chalayan, Gabriele Colangelo and Alessandro Dell’Acqua, just to mention a few. What distinguishes fashion from the rest? Fashion is a huge business that employs millions of people. This is the first detail that comes to mind. But the way people dress also reflects habits and tradition. Fashion has always accompanied the evolution, and sometimes involution, of mankind. From a creative point of view the anthropological aspect is fundamental: the person being dressed is someone who thinks, has certain objectives, weaknesses and, above all, actions... Society changes customs and customs change society. The economic side meets the sociological and anthropological one.
What are the ingredients nowadays of creativity in a world such as that of fashion which, as always, travels exaggeratedly fast? It’s true. This exaggeration is due to the duplication of the solar year, which in fashion has two annual appointments. Dressing accompanies us, it’s not an art form but a form of the art of making. In this sense the art of making is an applied, studied art. In this light, it is essential to teach anthropology at fashion college. Today it’s a fundamental skill for a designer. Sharing and mixing, when speaking of creativity and the present are vital, to my mind.
What have the biggest hurdles been so far? In over twenty years of work sometimes the limit is precisely that of being too tied to fashion, which means running the risk of being arrogant. For example I have often had dealings with projects commissioned by the LVMH group which would have been perfect for Apple. But this didn’t happen. Ideas and creativity shouldn’t be divided and as far as mixing goes, there’s still a lot to be done. The arts of making can be shared on an individual basis: some of my skills may be the same as yours and vice versa. Ideas haven’t changed but professionals have. Today they are more complete, more qualified. They encounter greater difficulty and training is harder and more selective; you have to fight to find your own space. In this light, our role is probably more necessary than ever.
In March you have new offices opening in Paris, over a hundred designers revolve around Lagente. There’s a Green project reserved for the young. A lot of new things are happing in the company, what are your expectations for the future? The changes happening at Lagente involve turning a highly personalized profession into a business. Thanks to a team led by Riccardo Vannetti we are achieving this and I’m hopeful for the future. We work with the ethereal, with ideas and with the intangible. It’s a very delicate business which requires great attention and respect. This is what.