As a young girl growing up in Italy in the 80s it was practically impossible to avoid being surrounded by the advertising campaigns of two brands, Fiorucci and Benetton. Between the two brands I preferred the former, but it was Benetton’s ad campaigns that always generated endless debates and scandals. There was one name behind these brands' campaigns, Oliviero Toscani, a man who shattered every conventional idea regarding the role of advertising.
A collaborator of seminal fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, Toscani always paid great attention in his reportages and photo shoots to culture, trends, social problems and issues, crazes and fads. I distinctly remember how every time a new Toscani campaign for Benetton was launched, there was also a huge debate on television. Campaigns such as the one featuring a photo of a man dying of AIDS in a hospital bed surrounded by his grieving relatives or featuring an electric chair became embedded in people’s minds.
Toscani’s campaigns or photo shoots were often considerate provocative and offensive, heavily criticised and sometimes censored. Yet I always thought that there’s no point in making an advertising campaign or in being a photographer if you can’t stir a great debate with your images.
Toscani's new project, the exhibition “Workwear - Lavoro Moda Seduzione” (Workwear – Work Fashion Seduction) which he co-curated with Olivier Saillard, will probably stir further debates.
Organised with the help of the centre in communication research Toscani founded, La Sterpaia, “Workwear” focuses on the connection between work clothes/accessories and fashion design. One theme explored by the exhibition - safety in the workplace - is particularly relevant to the times we are living in.
The catalogue that accompanies the exhibition - available in Italian and English - is published by Marsilio Editori and Fondazione Pitti Discovery and features an interesting iconographic research on work and fashion.
If you want to know more about “Workwear” which is on until 8th February at Florence's Stazione Leopolda, you can read my interview with Oliviero Toscani on Dazed Digital.
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