Interview with Simonetta Gianfelici, talent scout and creator of the contest “Who’s on next?”
A great connoisseur and fashion scholar, before becoming the talent scout who is today the founder and creator of the competition “Who’s on next?” In collaboration with AltaRoma, Vogue Italia and Pitti Immagine, Simonetta Gianfelici was an internationally renowned model, immortalized by photographers of the caliber of Helmut Newton, Miles Aldridge, Paolo Roversi and Peter Lindberg, and she lent her face for numerous advertising campaigns and commercials, as a testimonial for beauty brands such as Dior, YSL, Chanel and Helena Rubinstein.
She has shown on the catwalks of Balenciaga, Comme De Garçonne, Dior, Fendi, Ferrè, Versace, Gucci, Hermès, Gaultier, Della Renta and Valentino and has collaborated with Thierry Mugler and Vivienne Westwood, of whom she is a friend and muse.
1. In an hectic and multifaceted world, how important is it for a creative young person to be multitasking?
Finding solutions by hybridizing very different areas is fundamental; not accepting that “something is impossible just because it has never been done before“.
In this perspective, it is necessary to expand your cultural horizons as much as possible, communicating and cooperating with different realities and nourishing your curiosity, even outside of your own sphere. In a system where everything tends to standardize, only inventiveness, imagination and curiosity can make the difference.
2. What is “Who’s on next?” and how much is it important for the promotion of young creatives?
Who is on next was born in 2005 with the aim of promoting not only creativity but also the Italian textile and manufacturing industry.
Creative young people represent the present and the future of our country. They are the absolute innovators, the skilled pioneers in finding unusual solutions.
Many talents that emerged from the project Who’s on next? today are creative directors of established brands, to name a few Arthur Arbesser from FAY, Paul Andrew in SALVATORE FERRAGAMO, Gabriele Colangelo from GIADA.
3. How much do you think training is important for tomorrow’s talen?
There is no doubt that talent does not belong only to creatives. It belongs to every profession and role; tailors, cutters, modellers, are traditional, ancient activities; the creation of a product of excellence, long lasting and of the highest quality, for example, will often be entrusted to their hands and will be their training and their audacity in experimentation to give shape and concreteness to ideas.
The training process requires awareness, time and commitment, elements necessary to acquire specific skills and knowledge. But the environment in which this happens is also important.
Modartech is the favorable environment for translating one’s inclinations into tangible results and it is precisely here that the figure of the teacher, mentor and talent scout is inserted, who, in precise circumstances, is able to intuit the inclinations and predisposition of an individual to enhance them and bring them to completion.
Learning, studying, experience, these are the keys to become artistically unpredictable.