ASPESI STUDIO


ASPESI STUDIO was founded as a multidisciplinary laboratory and research platform where the brand's heritage of values enters into dialogue with contemporary and lateral visions. It is a Wunderkammer of the present, a space for observation and experimentation where different languages, disciplines, and sensibilities come together to open up new perspectives on the ASPESI imagination.

The project involves students from the most prestigious international fashion schools and is open to collaboration with artists, designers, and researchers from contexts far removed from the fashion system. These influences give rise to a constantly evolving creative community, a network of relationships and projects that contributes to expanding the brand's cultural heritage over time.

At the heart of it all are the values that define ASPESI: authenticity, essentiality, and research. ASPESI STUDIO is the space where these principles continue to be questioned, evolve, and find new forms.

YEAR 1 _ NABA X ASPESI


ASPESI has involved the NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, a leading institution focused on arts and design.

The NABA × ASPESI collaboration is designed to involve NABA students in two distinct creative paths, dedicated to the reinterpretation and communication of one of the brand's iconic garments. The choice fell on the 13 Più shirt, with a specific focus on workwear aesthetics.

The students of the specialisations in Fashion Design and in Fashion Styling and Communication of NABA Fashion Design, worked respectively on the development of the garments and the construction of the related narrative project, giving shape to a real campaign. Each student presented their work, but only two projects were selected as winners: Susanna Frara for the specialisation in Fashion Design and Nicolò Sbaragli for the specialisation in Fashion Styling and Communication.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS OF SUSANNA FRARA


Taking inspiration from historic work shirts, analysis of archive photographs and functional details has allowed these elements to be reworked in a contemporary key, with special treatments applied to the chosen fabrics.

Susanna has designed two versions of the 13 Più shirts for ASPESI STUDIO. The first version is made of 100% cotton, in Albini multicolor striped yarn-dyed poplin. The garment is made of extra-fine striped cotton poplin, following a special coating process. This colored finish adds dynamism to the texture of the fabric, creating variations in density and interesting visual effects on the details of the shirt.

The second version is a wide-ribbed jersey shirt in wool and cashmere. Again, the garment is made from jersey using a special plating process. The blue color is applied to the raised parts of the ribs, creating a vertical striped effect that reveals the natural color of the untreated wool/cashmere between the ribs. The value and uniqueness of these garments lie in the manual nature of this treatment, making them unique in appearance and color.

The two models are on sale exclusively at the ASPESI store in Milan San Pietro all'Orto, starting April 3.

TELLING THE 13 PIÙ: NICOLÒ SBARAGLI'S IDEA


The idea subverts the tradition of puppet theater, in which the puppeteer remains hidden to preserve the magic of the show. In this proposal, however, the curtain disappears: the two puppeteers are completely visible, motionless and standing in a neutral pose, wearing ASPESI shirts that are also replicated in miniature on the puppets.

This creates a parallel with the craftsmanship involved in puppetry, which requires numerous stages of design before reaching the stage. Showing the puppeteers, who are usually hidden, invites the viewer to reflect on what lies behind the images and products we are used to seeing already defined. The puppeteer's gesture becomes a metaphor for the creative gesture: a human intervention that brings matter to life, in line with a vision of craftsmanship, research, and attention to detail.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC CAMPAIGN


In the foreground, the puppets enact a micro-narrative. The tone is ironic, at times surreal: the characters argue, chase each other, challenge each other, and repeat everyday gestures.

The photographic concept alternates between wide shots and details to construct the narrative inside the shack, captured through the gaze and visual sensitivity of photographer Carmen Colombo.

The contrast between the childlike theatricality of the puppets and the silent presence of the puppeteers generates a visual short circuit, creating a suspended and timeless poetic dimension. The viewer no longer observes only the product, but also the creative “mechanism” that animates it.

BEHIND THE SCENES: PUPPETEERS ENEA PIGNATTA AND AXEL BABINI


The protagonists of these shots are puppeteers Enea Pignatta and Axel Babini.

Enea Pignatta is an Italian artist active in the visual, musical, and performing arts. A director and author of short films and music videos, he also trained in puppetry and popular theater, experimenting with new forms of expression based on traditional ones, with particular reference to the work of Angelo Cuccoli. Since 2014, he has been writing farces that are still in the repertoire. At the same time, he collaborates as an actor with the Teatro del Drago in national and international contexts.
Axel Babini is an Italian artist working in photography and cinema. After training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, he continued his studies at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig. His practice develops through film and photography projects related to travel, landscape, and image construction, with a particular focus on narrative processes and devices.