International fashion designer

Ferretti-to-wear - interview with fashion designer Alberta Ferretti - Interview

Alberta Ferretti has always been driven to fulfill her dreams: At the age of eighteen she opened a boutique in her small Italian hometown, and thirty years later her world-renowned designs are helping to restore the word grace to the fashion lexicon. Far from the classic stereotype of the self-obsessed, self-aggrandizing fashion designer, however, Ferretti has long been an admirer and supporter of other designers, whether on the racks of her first boutique, or as part of Aeffe, the company she owns and runs with her brother Massimo Ferretti and which produces and distributes designs for a whole range of some of today's most-respected designers and labels - Jean Paul Gaultier, Moschino, Narciso Rodriguez, and Rifat Ozbek. On the occasion of the opening of her first Philosophy store in New York City's SoHo, the designer behind the collections Alberta Ferretti and Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti talks about why she has always been drawn to the many-sided world of fashion.

INGRID SISCHY: Alberta, the first thing one notices about you is your modesty. It's not exactly a quality fashion is known for. What got you to fashion?

ALBERTA FERRETTI: I was born into it, maybe even born with it in my blood. My mother had a small atelier and that's where it all began. It was in Cattolica, a small town near Rimini on the Adriatic Coast. In the '60 and '70s it had a vivacious international tourist scene. It was the world of Fellini. I have beautiful memories of touching fabric and materials, of the seemingly huge women who used to do the fittings, of the vivacious atmosphere. When I was twelve or thirteen years old, my mother decided to close the atelier, but it remained in my mind and I wanted to touch those fabrics and work with those materials again. So when I was eighteen I opened my first boutique in Cattolica, which offered the work of other designers. Maybe because I had never forgotten my experiences in my mother's atelier, my goal was also to produce a special line for the boutique, something that wasn't out there for women at the time. Of course, maybe what I made wasn't all that special, but the pieces were different enough for people to take notice.

IS: How did they do that?

AF: An agent came to the boutique to sell me things and he noticed the pieces I had made that were hanging in the shop. "Who made these?" he asked. And I said "Me, Alberta Ferretti." He suggested I try to put them in more stores.

IS: You once told me that when you started out you didn't feel you were great enough, so you decided to help other designers.

AF: Yes. At twenty-two, I started selling other brands: Krizia, Armani, and Versace - he was just beginning then. It gave me the chance to have all these different styles in my hands and notice the differences among them. I realized even then that there was a larger world outside Cattolica, and if I was going to be successful I would need to learn from other designers.

IS: So this whole idea of teamwork, then, of respecting other voices and of supporting them, is something that's been a big part of your philosophy from the beginning.

AF: Yes. It was this experience in my boutique that initially led to my thinking: Why not produce for others? Why not have other brands in a company? I wasn't afraid that they would threaten the Alberta Ferretti name. My main point - also for life in general - is to allow women to choose what suits them, what's best for them.

IS: Today the company Aeffe, which you own with your brother, produces and distributes Moschino as well as the lines designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, Narciso Rodriguez, and Rifat Ozbek.

AF: Yes, we have various lines created by people with such different personalities, from different cultures and backgrounds, which we love. They're all independent, individual voices.

IS: It's different, but not unrelated to your past with the boutique in Cattolica.

AF: Yes, only before it was just me running things; now, thank God, my brother Massimo Ferretti is here beside me. After he finished his studies he dedicated himself to the company. And my son Simone is of great help as well, so now I can put more of my time to designing.

IS: Let's go back to that, to the beginning of the Ferretti line.

AF: At first I did the line without thinking too much, but I was enthusiastic and very tenacious. Tenacity is the main quality of my character. This tenacity has helped me throughout my life. Then in 1981, in Milan, I showed my first collection, an experience which was very, very frightening for me. I remember it brought on one of the strongest emotions of my life. Still today, even though the stomach pains before a show may be less, it is just as frightening.

IS: Why?

AF: Because every time I present a collection I am afraid of not having given enough, of having maybe disappointed the audience. But unlike many other beginners, my first experience was a success - both the audience and the press really liked it. After that I had, maybe, some less successful periods; and now, again, I feel more secure.

IS: Until recently, I think, fashion betrayed women a lot of the time. Only lately has it become more about what women really want. Somehow fashion seems to be more tuned in and less trivial - the best of it seems to be trying to treat people as human beings and not as objects.

AF: Designers have realized that women are not following trends as much anymore. Designers have more respect for women, they understand their needs, they understand their bodies. The dress is no longer the protagonist; the woman is. Now the dress must adapt itself to the woman. Both male and female designers have come to understand this. It's a question not of gender but of style and mentality.

IS: Can you remember when you were starting out, what it was about fashion then that frustrated you?

AF: I felt that women needed something more. Then I got pulled more into the fashion world myself, and I started doing things that maybe weren't what I really wanted to do. Later, about five or six years ago, I realized that I had to go back to how I started, recapture that same spirit. It's in that spirit that I am creating now.

IS: To me your designer voice seems to be talking about grace. I feel like I always notice it in your collections - and gentleness too. I also notice - and this is a word that gets misused often but, yes - prettiness. And lightness. Am I seeing what you intend to be there?

AF: Yes, you might call it the rich possibilities of our time. It's very delicate and very subtle. It's not only the lightness of materials like chiffon - lightness can come from something heavier, like boiled wool. Lightness can be in the workmanship.

IS: You have another line, which complements Alberta Ferretti, called Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti.

AF: Yes, we started it in 1984. Philosophy seemed to be the perfect name because philosophy is something that cannot be imposed. I never want to impose anything, so the name had to be about freedom. It's a line that has a younger attitude and allows me to experiment with many things.

IS: You have Just opened a special Philosophy store in SoHo. Welcome to the neighborhood.

AF: Out of all the neighborhoods in New York it is really my favorite - it's the neighborhood that feels closest to my personality. I love New York because you can move from area to area and each time it seems like you are in a completely different place. But what's beautiful about SoHo, I think, is that you can actually see the sky. The building we're moving into is right beside the Rizzoli bookstore that I've always seen in movies and photographs - for me it's like a monument. IS: If you were to pick something that you think is missing from the fashion world, and that you wish was there, what would it be?

AF: You mean in terms of clothing?

IS: It doesn't matter. Anything. It can be clothes, it can be a feeling . . . it can be anything. Something that is missing that you wish was in the fashion world, and that you would like to put there.

AF: A magic wand.