The union of two half-apples – Locatelli the smiling decision-maker and Zambernardi the gentle provocateur – who apparently have nothing in common has created the unexpected, in a slalom between serendipity and diversity, and the intersection with Graziano Giordani – the embroiderer par excellence – The result is surprising: a room with furnishings where everything is covered in embroidered wood. It is an unprecedented work technique. The conversation with Massimiliano and Fabio is proof that harmonised diversities produce an extraordinary effect and where the overused term “tailoring” shines its own light. Nullus Locus it’s the name of this project – it is a metaphor between architecture, interior and hospitality, an equation that plays the game with space, speed and time, imposing new rules of the game: a game for adults who allow themselves to be accompanied inside a never-before-seen wunderkammer, which can change shape without losing its identity.
Fabio, close your eyes and without thinking, tell me: what does design have to do with fashion and theatre?
I don’t have an immediate answer because in my life many things have happened by chance, without strategy, even when I wasn’t involved in fashion. Theatre, for example, came about by chance, with Filippo Timi we did five shows, he inspired me and I set off with energy and naturalness. Of course in theatre, fashion is a theme that enters easily even if I deliberately chose the path of ‘wrong fabrics’, not in line with the narrative of the script. In fact it all started because I stumbled upon an interesting encounter.
After 38 years at Prada and with the knowledge that I no longer want to re-enter the fashion world, I still hope that things come to me naturally, I don’t look for them but somehow wait for them. And the collaboration with Massimiliano Locatelli is also the result of a coincidence, we have been friends for many years and I did not expect what happened to happen. It was Massimiliano who called me one day and said ‘look at this thing here, isn’t it interesting?’, a little light went on, it seemed to me that what I – unknowingly – wanted was happening. And here we are.
Massimiliano, close your eyes and without thinking tell me: what do you have to do with Fabio Zambernardi?
With Fabio, as he said, we are bound by true friendship, the people you are with eventually get to know them, you know who you are dealing with. The interesting thing about this project is that there were several moments when choices had to be made, I would send Fabio my observations and related questions, and although I am not exactly a democrat, I knew that Fabio’s answers would instil doubts in me, and when they arrived I would reflect on them.
Here, the answer to the question is “I trust Fabio’s thinking and welcome his notes because they come from a person who has a different point of view”. I am not someone who changes his mind easily, in my daily life I am used to deciding whether 1, 2 or 3 quickly and frequently, Fabio entered my system and broke this loop. We have a mutual friend who often told us “you two should get married”.
Reading the presentation, the feeling is that there is a new level of tailoring, is that so?
Certainly this is another level of tailoring, the manual skill of the design is important if not fundamental. Embroidery can be applied anywhere, let’s say that Nullus Locus approaches fashion, which is the queen of – precisely – tailoring. The fact that every actor in the project (client, architect, craftsman) can intervene and contribute creates a sharing that is a nice added value.
Do you already have a project in mind?
Yes, this room is going to a beautiful art and design gallery in New York in September: an artist, after seeing the pictures, became interested in the project and requested it.
