In the contemporary fashion there are spaces for the circulation of ideas, they are openings to the possible, to the stratifications of the present, prolific places of self-management. It is theindependent underground, the place in which to stay in order not to be, to keep alive the dialectic necessary for the evolution of customs in society; Paris, with its gigantic structure of haute couture and prêt-à-porter, of seasonal emerging artists who are almost always carbon copies of some enfant terrible of the twentieth century and maisons open to their patronage, it is his ideal home. Niche within the niche, there is a small portion of creatives who still feel the need to devote themselves to a type of research that smacks of the old fashioned way, where by “old” we must take as an example that long period that goes from the end of the Seventies to the early Two-thousand. It is the case of Meta Campania Collectivepoint of convergence of the emotional amazement of the flâneur and the investigative behavior of the cool hunter.
Jon Strassburg and Heiko Keinathi founders of Meta Campania Collective, they met in Milan twenty years ago “one was in merchandise and business, the other in advertising, we immediately looked at each other with curiosity, we soon understood that the right time would come to build something together”. Unique random event in the history of the brand opened in 2020; the rest is analysis, experience, method, working relationships that have become trust and familiarity, and then a radical choice: turning to those inside the art world. “Lives and works inis our motto and the synthesis of a journey”, says Strassburg, getting to the heart of current events, “an expression used in artist biographies to give him physical and temporal coordinates which seemed perfect to us to also define the character of the ‘clothing we design: something so casual and well made that you can wear it on any occasion’.
Also at the Venice Biennale, where with an operation that is a performance within a performance Meta Campania Collective dressed the four protagonists of the Luxembourg pavilion. Far from being a sponsor or partner, “it was like making fashion play a role, making it enter the context that for us is the reference one”, an objective also achieved with respect to the diversity issues dear to the duo. “We were an instrument and not a catalyst of attention: wearing the garments of our latest collection, the four artists, Bella Báguena, Selin Davasse, Stina Fors and Célin Jiang, called by the curator Joel Valabrega and coordinated by Andrea Mancini and Every Island, they projected us in their language, it was exciting also because, it’s rhetorical but true, each of them has a very strong personality.”
A significant step for Meta Campania Collective: far from the dimension of commercial exchange, there is the recognition of an indie nature to be valorised. The same one that animated the campaign for autumn-winter 2024/2025 presented in the official calendar of the Paris Chambre during the last fashion week and signed by Mario Sorrenti. “We left him carte blanche, there is a relationship of knowledge and trust. He involved his children, who are artists, and their friends, a collective from New York. In these shots we see a lot of energy, movement, dance, voice, we recognize an important part of us.” The over thirty shops from Tokyo to Los Angeles, via Athens, Beijing and London show (and sell) Meta Campania Collective that they liked the result. In Italy, from August, we will have 10 Corso Como in Milan and Ex Voto in Naples. Observed closely, this wardrobe speaks volumes, it has its roots in the modeling of minimalism, the heart in that workwear tradition inherited from the great American names and edited in the never intrusive vintage stylings with which the Japanese interpreted us, and the head, as it should be, a bit in the air, to give that twist to the look that is the mischief of the eclectic, the nonconformist. A plus goes to the fabrics, which are Italian and come from those companies “with which we have established a relationship of trust by working together on the product, a personal and professional exchange that does not have the rigidity and coldness of industry”. We can learn more about Meta Campania Collective by taking a look at the official website, where we find a series of obviously irregular podcasts in which “we hear from people who usually remain in the shadows, it’s an idea that came to us to enhance what they do for us or which we simply believe deserves to be explored further.”
Browsing on a platform where everything is in progress, there is, static, poetic, reassuring and unexpected, the image of a webcam that from that small town of Meta, in Campaniafrom which we finally discover the name of our guest, offers us the wonder of a lesser-known perspective on the Gulf of Naples.
