Who is Gianni Serra?
I am fashion designer that is not young anymore , I have an endless curiosity and passion for art and fashion from as long as I can remember, it is a source of energy and guides me to develop myself.I was 17 when I decided that this is what I wanted to do and my mother pushed me to move to Milan. I left Sardinia and arrived in Milan in the late 80s . The town was amazing at that time , full of new ideas and great opportunities for living in the fashion world. I studied at Marangoni , and made an effort to learn more about theatre and contemporary art.
What motivated you to start your own collection?
I wanted to express my self and develop my ideas through fashon. It is nice that people are paying attention to what I do and that women feel comfortable in my designs.
After your degree in fashion you went towards theatre and art for inspiration and were basically self-taught?
My inspirations come from inside of me, they might be helped by a painting,an object, an atmosphere, a location, an exhibition, a book or all of the above merged together. What interests me is passing an emotion through my work.
What will happen with your line?
I think that my line is always evolving. For the ss collection I left total black which is signature for me. I wanted to see how my silhouettes worked in colors far removed from my own personal style. We don't know what the future is but when I look back at where I've come from I'm happy with what I've achieved. For now I show the collections in a showroom but in the future perhaps I'll do shows.
Do you consider yourself a minimalistic designer?
I don't like to be put into a box on this subject. I use many details and when we think of minimalists we think of less details taking away not adding to. Simplicity is yet another concept, I don't like to put too much into one garment. In the case of my cocoon dress, it looks very simple but the construction is complex and so it is the opposite of minimalistic.
What is the most important thing that has happened to you so far in your career ?
I have a particular background, I worked in the atelier of haute couture for ten years. I was confronted with a historic couture house. The old dressmakers showed me how to realize a dress from a sketch , laying the pattern and fabrics on the table, cutting the fabric, trying it on the mannequin , in order to get exactly what I had drawn. I understood how a dress born, and I had the pleasure of discovering the mysteries behind the dress, something that only people in the business understand.
This happened in Milan or Rome?
In Rome, where I had the good fortune to work with Gattinoni to Sarli, which were very prestigious houses at that time. I saw the ladies
