What it means to be creative women in our generation

Acre Magazine’s latest editorial explores the power of creativity through the intersection of four different female creative personalities.

Each with her own artistic background, they assert themselves in different creative contexts that include music, design, fashion and photography.
Thus their identities are closely linked to their passions, in which they manage to capture many perspectives and forms of artistic expression, creating a multidisciplinary way of working.

Creative people have always done it: they mix practices and delight in crafts. However, just because the worlds of design and the arts see themselves separated from each other, it does not mean that the same applies to creatives.

Let’s start from the beginning, tell us your story and your background.

Here we are, then, my story. When asked I ask back if you want the short version or the full uncut version. Short version: my mother is Chinese, my father is Sicilian, I was born on the Island of Elba, we often moved for their work. I moved to Milan to begin the degree course in Industrial Product, continued with a master’s degree and a double degree with the University of Beijing, Tsinghua University. I should have left in February 2020 and stayed for a year and a half, for obvious reasons unfortunately I stayed at home in Milan, proceeding remotely with the Chinese university. It was precisely not starting and having the plans completely messed up the engine for me to act in a reactive and consequent way: I had to focus on new goals, but first I had to find them.

During the summer I worked for Lampoon Magazine as Head of Visual, where I introduced myself to the editorial context of Milan, creating my first “network”, also driven by a desperate lack of social relations. I tried the first “cheeky” approaches and I attended some NSS Magazine shootings in Production. The network was getting thicker and thicker.

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Currently, you are part of the sustainable and revolutionary ‘This, Unique’ project. Why was it born and what are the objectives of your team?

In the last year, I became Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of This, Unique. We are born to put people at ease about the naturalness of their bodies, wanting to touch all the socially stigmatized issues. Why not start from the menstrual cycle, a topic considered inconvenient regardless of gender, a symbol of a “feminine” connotation (we are supporters of the motto “not all women have periods and not all who have period are women”) repressed, ignored, omitted by the public.
You don’t want to or just can’t talk about it, it creates discomfort in dealing with the subject.

An inconvenience that, as many will know, is equally experienced: on the communicative side, on the product side, bought for most of the cases at the supermarket, on plastic that irritates as well as polluting, and on the modality side, which requires you to physically go to the month and it’s an aseptic experience.

So the project starts from here, from normalizing the dialogue and improving the experience of the cycle by taking care of people with a cotton product that is hypoallergenic for the person and compostable for the environment, since it is completely plastic free. We cover taboo-free topics weekly in our Periodica magazine and plan to extend our exclusive cycle care and wellness line.

I can only be satisfied if I can do it with a women’s project, dedicated to the visibility of women that solves a problem of under-representation using creativity.

Marilù, Textile Designer & Graphic Designer at Hearst

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Tell us something about your story and background.

I have always made love with my world: I adored every form of art, design and architecture. For this reason, the choice to undertake my first studies in industrial design was (almost) targeted: unlike other faculties, the approach of the university I attended (the Polytechnic of Bari and later that of Valencia), it gave the possibility to touch more spheres of design. 

For this reason, I love the shape of a Sottsass fork just as I love the seat of Cassina’s Superleggera, and in the same way I am excited by a garment by Iris Van Herpen or I am fascinated by the idea of ​​making an abstract idea real in the my head through software.

When I work on my digital graphics, I focus a lot on the colors and textures of the materials I can create, how can I make them interact and the matrices I want to obtain: it’s a bit like working with yarns, isn’t it? Lately I’ve been trying to bring this idea to fashion sets and similar projects: the goal is to create real abstract fabric graphics and make them an integral part of the scene. 

You are currently Graphic Animator and Video Editor for Hearst Magazine but your passion is also fabrics. How did you approach these two worlds and which one do you feel closest to?

The world of Graphics and what concerns it has always been very present in my creative path: I consider it an important and essential means to elevate and communicate any creation or product I make. With Hearst, I had the opportunity to approach the world of print and later digital by comparing myself and working for magazines and large-scale clients, particularly in the world of fashion and interiors, maturing even more.

Love for fabrics is something that I carry with me from university and that in my small way I try to continue to cultivate thanks to external projects.

I started weaving hemp when I was twenty simply out of curiosity and I asked for “asylum” (laughs) at the only hemp museum in Italy located in a wonderful and remote village in Umbria, Sant’Anatolia di Narco. Here they welcomed me and taught me how to weave on the huge looms of the past and we collaborated together and designed sensory paths woven in hemp for visually impaired people. It was very exciting to understand how a fabric or a material in general can become the maximum bridge of emotions and sensations between product and human being.

Which world do I feel closest to? I would say both: they are part of my daily life and I strongly believe that they can influence each other as well as the fact that I feel constantly stimulated and intrigued by both sides.

I place a lot of faith in the sensitivity and in the eye of us women, I always believe that it is essential to make our “face of the coin” known in the creative sector: we have a completely different attitude from that of men and this should be seen as a ‘ wonderful opportunity to always have two ways and two approaches, different but congruent.

Ines, Creative Director, Stylist, Manager & Talent Acquisition at A Better Mistake

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Hi Ines! Tell us a little about your background.

I still can’t briefly summarize my background but I’ll try. First of all, I’m from Barcelona, I’m 24, I’ve been working as a creative in the fashion world for 8 years already and I’ve lived in Milan for almost 3 years. I define myself “fashion creative” because my work doesn’t have a specific name; I studied Fashion Design but in my life I worked as a designer, stylist, art director, producer, creative director, content creator, graphic artist… like so many from “Gen Z” who work in the fashion world (laughs).

Right now I work for a new brand, A Better Mistake. This project is very important to me and I care a lot about it. It was born during the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. It was certainly not easy but at the same time it resulted in very stimulating, and I love challenges.

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Born in Barcelona and based in Milan. What influences did these two different realities have on your creativity?

Barcelona and Milan are not as different as they seem. Both are very European cities, open-minded and with a strong young identity. In my opinion, creativity has not been so influenced otherwise it has been enriched for both cities. Barcelona, ​​gives me that avant-garde and fresh vision, instead Milan made me learn more about culture and aesthetics. I honestly feel very blessed to be sharing my life between these two beautiful cities.

While fashion, what impact on your creative personality?

For me, fashion and creativity have always go hand in hand. Fashion is much more than a channel to express creativity. My creativity is always based on a purpose within the fashion world, the great thing is knowing how to play and reinvent yourself in a different way to express your ideas.

Sofia, aka CCRUEL, music-addicted and part of Knick Knack family

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Tell us something about your musical project.

The maturation of my artistic taste initially arises thanks to the experience with Knick Knack, a collective I have been part of since 2014, a group of creative and passionate young people with the aim of presenting new, fresh sounds, belonging to the electronic subculture, in the Apulian context. giving life to parties and festivals such as Sagra Elettronica, which hosted artists such as Electric Indigo, Stanislav Tolkachev, Ancient Methods, Lee Gamble, Aisha Devi, Arcangelo, members of the collective.

Living in Milan and having been lucky enough to be able to frequent socio-cultural spaces such as Macao, Leoncavallo, Cox-18 – when it was still possible – then allowed me to get to know an even wider range of artists and nuances from the world of electronic music.

The first mix like CCRUEL, “NoLongerAVirgin”, was released on my Soundcloud channel last year, the next was released for the ISF channel, Area Audio Ascolto e Ricerca. Last month another mix was released on the Bolognese collective’s MixCloud channel, Undicesimacasa. Now there is something in the pipeline that I am working on, among the future projects there is also that of getting closer to DAWs, but like all projects it will take some time.

When was CCRUEL born? Which artists are most influential in your music?

Ccruel was born in 2020 after many years of listening and research, I consider myself primarily an attentive listener, the rest was a consequence. That for music is a passion that has always accompanied me, the psychedelia of Pink Floyd and the work of Tchaikovsky and Chopin are the first childhood memories related to sound, thanks to my parents, who are also passionate about them.

During the years of growth this interest has remained constant, leading me to immerse myself in research and in the vinyl collection, ranging between different genres. Starting from post punk with Throbbing Gristle, Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, Borghesia, Cure, up to exploring numerous shades of electronic movement from ambient, IDM, glitch, noise, d’n’b, jungle , hardcore, grime, with artists and bands that have marked different periods of my life.

In recent weeks, the debate on the ZAN decree is, however, highlighting problems that have existed for some time and have not yet been completely overcome. Any discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, should be legally punished and opposed on a social level. In the musical universe we can and must move together to oppose these clichés.

Credits

Art director & Styling: Federica Intraligi

Photographer: Gaia Olga Bianchi

Ass. Photographer: Carlotta Zamboni e Riccardo Montanari

Editorial design: Federica Borghesio 

Make up artist: Giulia Panaro

Clothes courtesy of PWC