Marco de Vincenzo at the Pitti Uomo 89

Date with the young leader of the new wave in Italy

Born in 1978, the wonder boy of style hails from Messina. His career has been unusually direct and explosive: first in his high school class (humanistic studies), he moved to Rome for his Fashion and Costume diploma from the European Institute of Design and got his first job as a member of the Fendi style office team when he was 21.

The inseparable assistant of Silvia Venturini Fendi for the accessories line from 2000, he also had a magnificent obsession: designing clothes. He says that his years with Fendi were magnificent, that he learned everything you need to know about how to do a successful project and that there, in that special hot-house, he was allowed to work in total creative liberty.  Today, he is still Fendi’s head designer for leather goods, while he contemporaneously directs his own clothing label.

He made his entry in 2009 during Haute Couture in Paris and, in the same year, won first prize in the Who is on Next? competition. Since then Marco de Vincenzo has become a fixture in the calendar of the Milan fashion week. The recent agreement with the Lvmh group confirms that his future will be luminous. 

A sketch of his style? A mix of minimalism and decoration, new materials and development of borderline materials too, lean vertical silhouette, with surprising sobriety and elegance, not overdone and without distorting women’s bodies. Air brushed colours, metallic smears and surrealistic graphics.

We will be delighted to see him during the Pitti Uomo days as the Womens Wear Guest Designer in a fashion show that will be the occasion to re-open the Niccolini theatre, much beloved by the people of Florence.

Student at IED of Rome. The importance of schools.
A fundamental value. At school, you discover that you are not alone, and you can share your dreams.

You made your debut during Haute Couture in Paris. Why did you choose high fashion?
Because it was necessary. I wanted visibility, but I did not have a project for industrial development yet. So I could count only on creativity.

Who’s on Next? That was your launch pad. What happened later?
Everything that brought me to this point. Ready-to-wear, expansion, difficulties, discovering that I am tougher than I thought.

The difference between couturier and designer?
I believe that couturier is no longer an appropriate term. Designer is the word that best defines the versatile figure of a person doing creative work today.

You often speak of codes. What do you mean and what are yours?
Codes are the language you use to tell your story. I use colour, texture and eccentricity.

Ten years in maison Fendi. Joy and despair.
Only joy. Only experience. Only opportunity.
The switch from accessories to clothing? A natural thing. After 10 years, I wanted to live fashion at 360 degrees.

What is creativity for you?
A privilege. The capacity to transform things without being afraid to share your point of view with the others.

What will signing a jv agreement with a colossus like Lvmh mean for your work?
More serenity and greater vision.

They say you are an expert about materials. Which do you prefer and why?
I don’t have favourite materials. They all stimulate my creativity, each at the right moment.

What image do you have of the woman who buys your clothes?
She’s a collector of special clothes. She has a mixed wardrobe, she does not follow the trends but only her own instinct and emotional reactions.

You are considered a designer of the new wave on the rise, the way it was some years ago in Antwerp. Do you manage to talk and exchange experiences?
Yes. And we share a good number. We know that we share an important responsibility, that is of the generation turnover, but I don’t see stress in any of us.

Do you like being the wonder boy of style? What makes him so good?
Perhaps I am good at defending my normality. Actually, I don’t really feel so different from the school boy I was.