SPECIAL PROJECTS

THE BOOK: EMILIO CAVALLINI - MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION

This whimsical art book-with silver cover and die-cut jacket-is dedicated to Emilio Cavallini's passion for art and his creativity as a fashion designer. Emilio Cavallini is a high quality italian brand, offering a touch of class to the hosiery industry.
The Emilio Cavallini style is unmistakable for its creativity: geometric cuts, optical motifs, strong colors. Since 1980, when the Emilio Cavallini brand was registered, the designer has been strongly expressing his determined style: unconventional, eccentric, ever changing. Currently Emilio Cavallini is working on an archive with the patterns and techniques he developed in 40 years of design. He also nourishes his passion for current and ancient art. This passion leads him to build art pieces of various forms and dimensions using tights as if they were strings.

About the Author
Benedetta Barzini is an Italian actress and model who established a successful fashion career in New York City. In December 1966, she was named one of the "100 Great Beauties of the World" by Harper's Bazaar.
Today she's a journalist and teaches history of costume in Urbino and in Milan. She's also a "visiting professor" in many European universities like the one in Lisbon.

Publisher: Skira

Buy this Book


"The book is an unbelievable paean to this fashion accessory that was raised to the level of an art form via Cavallini's talents and manufacturing abilities and facilities..."Style Maniac

"The book comes encased in a piece of hosiery which provides a firsthand example of the ingenuity and creativity that was involved in the process of raising the profile of leg wear and hosiery and stockings to fashion leg wear that will withstand the test of time-and now has a place in the annals of fashion history." New York Journal of Books

"Encased in a silver cover wrapped in an example of his signature open-work hosiery, 'Emilio Cavallini' offers a fascinating look into the creative mind of the Italian designer who redefined women's hosiery-and made it a desirable and collectable artistic medium." Hamptons.com

"It's wearable art. And then it's actual art as well: Cavallini uses his stockings as though strings to weave complex spiralgrams and geometrics you can hang on your wall. And then there's the art of the book itself, with its lavish photos and silver foil cover sheathed in sexy black cut-out tights. It's all an over-the-top treat..." Style Maniac

EMILIO CAVALLINI - TRIENNALE DI MILANO

"If I want to be myself I need to find someone equal to me, inside of me", with these words Emilio Cavallini welcomes people who will be visiting his art exhibition which is scheduled to be held from the 16th to 27th of February in Milan at the art gallery "Triennale".

The path that the artist is choosing to take is going to be rather suggestive thus taking in consideration the small spaces given to him by the Triennale.
His exhibition is going to have as a main piece a central installation that the public is going to be able to admire whilst is made.

Cavallini in fact is going to start making this central piece a few days before the inauguration of the gallery and will keep on going as the public starts visiting.
This installation in its own creative expression of the mind could be considered as a "mental trip", which in its own universe inspired by the "Le Modulor de Le Corbusier" (The Modulor is an anthropometric scale of proportions devised by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier) takes inspiration by real human proportions.
Cavallini granted us time to explain his approach to his central installation: "Above a squared platform 4 by 4 a structure made out of plexiglass of 231cm is going to be built. The height of the structure is going to be calculated using the "Le Modulor de Le Corbusier" deriving from this scheme measures, geometrical proportions and mathematical proportions relative to the human body; in this case my height (180cm) plus half my arm span. I will unify the walls of the parallelepiped with kilometers of grey strings, mathematically calculated, in a way to leave an empty space for a niche that could theoretically contain my own body.I want to obtain an imaginary room in which its space will be fractionated from thousands of strings that will only leave in the middle my own persona. it's an installation that is born from a reflection of all that I have seen and lived not only art wise. My ideas will merge together with mathematics and architectural principals to create a unique reflection of my own self.

This art work is part of a new kind of Suprematism and abstract constructivism taking place in the present time. The absence of color seen in many tonalities of grey shows the object that is seen but you can't picture it you can only feel it.
This is how you create an object outside the art boundaries ready to communicate with whoever finds himself on the same wave length. This is where art is the man and art is the representation of its persona".

The idea that the artist wants to give with this cube constructed in front of the viewer is to indicate an existential path careless of limits or boundaries, a place where you can do whatever you want and your only necessity is to understand the route you want to take. The strings in the installation represent a path, the infinite length of it represents the time necessary to achieve the dream of a lifetime.
This is why the introduction to the art gallery was made from the thoughts of the artist, this is why it's so important to establish a dialogue between the public especially with an installation in progress,he's trying to build a continuous interchange between the people.


Emilio Cavallini Trasfigurazione
from 16th to 27th February 2011, viale Alemagna 6 - Triennale di Milano

Discover the artistic project: artwork.emiliocavallini.com