Views of Fashion: Renata Molho, 80s Fashion Enthusiast

Were the 80s the golden age of fashion? In this month’s Vice, Renata Molho, a wild child Italian who styled countless models during the time, seems to think so. You can read the full interview  or check out some great excerpts that Jezebel picked out below.

On being a young, low-on-the-totem-pole stylist:

“I instantly learned that the difficult parts of this job are the small ones. When you have the amazing dress and the famous photographer, you don’t really have to do any work.”

On the vibe in Milan in the 80s:

Easy money, constant partying, and one out of two people in the street was a foreigner. It was a very superficial atmosphere, but it was vibrant. The fashion money funded the arts. Think about the Fiorucci store that was entirely painted by Keith Haring. There was a sensation that everything was possible.”

On why no one should go to fashion school:

“These schools today are pretty useless. They are very theoretical. What do you need theory for? Nothing. What you need is experience, to have lived and seen and done other things in life. I taught for a while and I used to tell my students: ‘Seeing one picture by Chagall is much more important than reading all the issues of Vogue ever published.’”

On Giorgio Armani, whose biography she penned:

“Studying him and talking to all the people in his life, I think I managed to understand the reasoning behind some of his actions. There’s a telling episode in his life. When his life partner, Sergio Galeotti, died, the only daily that mentioned AIDS was Rome’s Messaggero. Immediately after that, Armani canceled his advertising account with that paper. It became something of a media scandal. Researching him as a person, I see that as an act of love aimed at the preservation of a man’s dignity rather than an act of spite.”

On what happened after the magical ’80s ended:

“Everything turned into a soulless homage to other things we had seen before. Think about the era of successive revivals that began after the 80s. For example, even today in most runway shows the music is nothing but a mix of 60s, 70s, and 80s music. It’s a big empty hole. Nothing is exciting anymore, and most things are tremendously boring. Often, the best things are written by unknown editors and journalists, while the big names seem to sign things off with their left hand. Haven’t you noticed that nobody expresses an opinion anymore?”

I sort of wish I wasn’t born in the dead center of the 80s. It might have been fun to do what I do now back then. Of course, I’m pretty sure that would have been impossible, since I’m not that great of a writer and blogging didn’t kick off till a few years ago. Skip that the 00s rock, fuck the 80s and their inferior technology.

Drinking Milan [Vice]

Photo The Satorialist 

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