I am in Love with the design vision by young Italian designer MATTEO CARLOMUSTO. During Fashionclash Festival he unveiled his MURCIELAGO S/S19 collection. ” I love the raw part of every simple thing, but at the same time I’m fascinated by the human mind, which is able to give life to something unique that is not found in nature.” Read our interview with the young talent below.
Name: MATTEO CARLOMUSTO Age: 24 Hometown: Florence (Italy)
Menswear or Womenswear: Both
KALTBLUT: Fashion – My Religion.. what does this means to you?
Religion certainly has a strong influence in the Fashion Industry because it affects the culture, history and customs of each individual people, but it also causes discussion because it concerns fundamental issues such as the condition of man.
I think that a Designer is not just a fanatic self-centered who gives voice to his ego through the clothes he offers. I see Fashion in a completely different key: I love to dig deep into what I do and everything I do pretends to make sense. I think that a great Designer has a great responsibility, like a singer, a writer, a director: to teach, or in any case to deal with topics, which are often uncomfortable. We are spokesmen, we are masters who carry a message, for this reason “Fashion is my religion”, with only one difference, however, that I also reported through my clothes my disappointment about themes that society often does not want to face cause they’re fearful, cause they’re uncomfortable, cause they’re repressed, cause they’re not so bold.
KALTBLUT: Hello. Welcome to KALTBLUT. Why have you decided to participate at FASHIONCLASH Festival?
It’s very stimulating to work on own projects, cause even if there is a common thread between them, each collection is a different world and each collection is a film that deals with different themes.
Last year I took my previous collection to a psychiatric hospital abandoned in the Czech Republic and to the famous Berghain in Berlin. I was talking about fetish and my personal struggle against social impositions such as gender’s and religious restrictions like that of Islam.
Every film has its time and its space, and I think this new route was perfect to have been represented there. Fashion Clash is the biggest springboard in Europe today and I’m honored to have been part of it this year. The Fashion Clash Festival was very stimulating and gave me so many positive emotions. Also, I found a very organized Team and the people were really hospitable. I’m really satisfied.
When you look at your own creatures on the catwalk is an amazing feeling, but the most important goals to achieve in your career, or at least at the beginning of this process, is to look at people’s reactions and appreciations and then finally people who wear your clothes and FashionClash gave me this opportunity.
KALTBLUT: Can you tell us something about the collection you presented at the FASHIONCLASH Festival 2018? What was your inspiration?
Right now my mind is fascinated by bodies: from the animal world to the human figure in all its forms, I love to see them together as a single body that gives life to something new. For this reason I love the raw part of every simple thing, but at the same time I’m fascinated by the human mind, which is able to give life to something unique that is not found in nature. The reading of my projects is interpreted in the best way by subcultures and denigrated communities, like the young queer who make a new image that nature has not given them and the society try to hide, but that actually exists. And it has always existed.
I find my inspiration in the submerged world that I love to shape with my personal taste. I love the gay scene and the drag scene of past generations. Through my work I would like to pay homage to all those who helped my generation to be free. The new aesthetics of MATTEO CARLOMUSTO in MURCIELAGO SS19 is a claim and an exaltation of the erotic, but it does not abandon completely the image of bondage and the arabic concept.
The final result is an ambiguous compendium between a human body, a machine and a reptile. It’s bizarre, but the thing that inspired me a lot in this new project is the image of green Lamborghini. I see the Lamborghini Murcielago as the main metaphor behind my inspiration, cause it’s an example of a creature that arrogantly rides the road proud of itself.
KALTBLUT: What kind of material did you used for the collection?
For this collection I mainly used Vinyl, a fabric I’ve been using for a long time. It’s a fabric that I love cause it’s coherent with the themes I speak of, cause it has so much history and cause it has a good fitting. Adding to this of the coated fabrics as fake reptile leather and a very summery technical fabrics. For the first time in a long time I added a cotton garment to a green shirt.
KALTBLUT: What challenges did you face during the design process?
The biggest obstacle in my design process is the production of my clothes. Because I don’t have a real production but I still have an adorable seamstress who helps me in the tailoring of these little creatures and for this reason the organization of my sample has slowed down.
But there is so much love and a lot of work behind them.
KALTBLUT: How would you describe your self and your work?
I’m an eternal dissatisfied and therefore I’m an anxious person who carries on his projects in continuous transformation. I don’t like to appeal, I prefer others to judge my work.
KALTBLUT: What would you say that is the biggest influence to your design process?
I love to characterize my brand with my personal taste but I admit to being influenced by the trends of the moment. I am a victim of the trends but I love to exaggerate them.
KALTBLUT: If you had not become a fashion designer, what would you do instead?
I danced for 11 years. When I was 18 I had to choose whether to abandon my life as a dancer or take a new path in the Fashion Industry. I would have been a contemporary dancer maybe?
But I prefer to be a Designer.
KALTBLUT: Who’s your dream client?
RIHANNA!!!
KALTBLUT: What was the first item you have ever designed? And who was the lucky one to get it?
So, this question is very funny! One of the first items I designed and created were two violet satin Joker outfits for the carnival party of my village in Italy, which my little girlfriend and me wore in 2008.
KALTBLUT: What can we expect from you in near future?
The next step I hope is to make my collection walk on the V Files catwalk, See my piece wear by Arca and finally start a real production of my clothes to formalize my brand.
KALTBLUT: Where can we buy your fashion?
I’ll tell you soon.
Website/ www.matteocarlomusto.jimdo.com
IG / @matteocarlomusto
FB/ MATTEO CARLOMUSTO
BACKSTAGE PHOTOS by Enrico Berni
Special thx to fashionclash.nl
