Pitti Italics, the Fondazione Pitti Discovery program that promotes and supports the new generation of Italian fashion designer with great international potential, has given space and reflectors, during the 89th edition of Pitti Immagine, to Federico Curradi. Curradi, a 40-year old florentine designer, has a resume that includes an important past collaboration with Ermanno Scervino and more recently the creative direction of the male line of Iceberg.

This participation at Pitti coincides with the launch of a line with his own name, so a lot of expectations for a designer who is already very much loved, who captivated the audience with a particularly impressive presentation, a post-atomic scenario, including gas masks and display cases with plants, a clear reference to environmental issues, and an invitation to respect nature. We chatted with Federico Curradi on this occasion and here's our interview with him.

MODEM: When and how did you approach the fashion world? When did you realize that it would be your job?
Federico Curradi: I approached the fashion randomly, I started working for a tailor as a boy, for me it was a job like any other to raise a bit of money, then I became fascinated by it and I started to do my own things, until an important experience at Ermanno Scervino.
Fashion has no boundaries, it is fun to be influenced by many aspects: social, artistic, psychological, natural. It's like building a big puzzle.

Among the steps of your career, there’s the work as creative director at the male collection of Iceberg. What are the most important lessons, the legacy that working for Iceberg has given to you?
Federico Curradi: To become creative director for an important brand like Iceberg was the time when I covered that role, it was definitely a great honor.
To give your point of view to a historical brand like Iceberg, and try to make it contemporary and cool, it was fun and very challenging.
A great professional experience, the opportunity also to meet with the press, have the chance to explain your own work.

Now a brand with your own name. Can you tell us something about the collection that we have seen in Florence and which are the cornerstones of your work, the main features?
Federico Curradi: The idea was to build a collection with a strong personality, but at the same time an ethic collection, for the choice of materials, the idea of producing all in the territory of Florence.
A different concept of luxury, in which there are rules to follow, and the focus is not only the business in itself.
The result is the design of iconic and timeless pieces, that can live indefinitely without becoming old after a season, and that can also be to adapt themselves to different concepts of style.

A fascinating presentation held at the Dogana of Florence, how the suggestions of the staging dialogued with the collection, which was the message behind all?
Federico Curradi:The concept is very simple and reflects the rules that we have set for the realization of the collection: on one hand there’s the respect for nature, eco-friendly fabrics and yarns and at 0 Km, the craftsmanship; on the other we have the industry, pollution, business without borders.
The installation at the Dogana represented all this. The masks of the models connected to cylinders with flowers inside are the clean air, the human need of real things, the craftsmanship, the respect for our surroundings; Instead pollution and cement that were present in the installation represented the industry, the law of numbers and the disfigurement that the man makes every day to the world in the name of the money god.

Which man will wear your creations and which are your reference icons?
Federico Curradi: Definitely a conscious man, a man who is aware of the world he lives in, with a strong personality.

Plans for the near future?
Federico Curradi:Perhaps to decline this concepts for a woman project.

Stefano Guerrini ©modemonline