During Fuorisalone 2024 and on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Vogue Italia, The Vogue Closet was presented for the second time, an unmissable and fascinating event held at the magazine’s Milan headquarters, transforming it into an immersive experience.
This year’s theme, curated by the studio (AB)NORMAL, was a journey through the six decades of the magazine’s evolution. The idea was to create a closet that could hold both the clothes and the stories of these years, capable of narrating the revolutions in fashion.
The inspiration for this project comes from the works of Thomas Demand, a German photographer famous for creating spaces, ideally offices, where ideas, thoughts, and inspirations are shared and merged like a great collective creative process.
To emphasize this aspect, Francesca Ragazzi, Head of Editorial Content of Vogue Italia, suggested to the event’s audience to imagine each room as a part of the entire creative process and to immerse themselves in it through the images, sounds, materials, and installations used to best represent the various areas and moments.
Inkiostro Bianco, also for this edition, contributed to the project by using wallpapers and carpets that best represented the layout of the magazine and the theme designed for the event. The graphics were custom-made according to the artistic directives of the studio (AB)NORMAL, with the idea of representing not only the milestone reached by the magazine but highlighting all the various details that characterized it.
The long corridor was decorated on the walls with wallpaper depicting the InDesign editorial program grid and enhanced by a carpet shaded in tones of blue. Additionally, arches were installed, also decorated with the same wallpaper, to visually extend the path and give it a more distinctive touch.
The first room, Inside Backstage, tells the story of a closet before a photo shoot: a space full of clothes, shoes, and accessories hanging on large clothes racks. These clothes, in particular, are the most iconic ones used and subsequently shown on the magazine’s covers and images over these 60 years.
Next is the Icon Archive, the room that collects the particular and much-appreciated scrapbooks of Lele Acquarone, one of the historical signatures of Vogue Italia. Inside this space, both actual clothes and three-dimensional cardboard models depicting others were attached to the walls, reflecting the idea of scrapbooks.
Creating What’s Next, the third room, was born from the collaboration with Mattel Creations, aiming to show how toys can transform into works of art. This is evident from the installations present both in the center and on the sides of the space, as well as some collectible pieces on display, such as the Kartell x Barbie collaboration and the limited-edition Hot Wheels by Daniel Arsham. Moreover, this room is one of the most dynamic and interactive, thanks to the possibility of writing, drawing, and representing anything on the available wall space.
Continuing the journey, we enter the room 60 Years of Freedom, born from the union between Vogue Italia and Ford Mustang, aiming to narrate the sixty-year journey of both companies. To celebrate this milestone, illustrations by Costanza Starrabba were placed on the walls, associating natural and stylistic elements within an infinite landscape, indicating the new and numerous paths to explore.
The event concludes inside The Sound of Closet room, designed as a simple room but enhanced by Bianca Muniz’s project: a soundscape reminiscent of typical fashion show sounds, allowing visitors to feel more immersed in the environment.
In this second edition of The Vogue Closet 2024, Inkiostro Bianco’s products found their maximum expression, fitting perfectly into the artistic concept devised by the designers of (AB)NORMAL, to narrate a sixty-year story made of colors, screens, pages, and grids, following the idea of a magazine as a source of numerous and varied forms of communication.
The Vogue Closet 2024 certainly represented an unmissable appointment for all fashion and design enthusiasts. With its ability to combine creativity and innovation, the event once again confirmed Vogue Italia’s influence, offering a vision of what fashion can be. We look forward to seeing what it will bring us next year, but we are sure it will continue to surprise and inspire us.
