The petit hotel that, for forty-five years, has housed the house-atelier of Gino Bogani, is a clear reflection of the skin of who inhabits it. Overwhelming and intimidating, as soon as she crosses the threshold, she unravels big and small treasures, which are revealed in gushes in every space, on every wall, in every corner. And one loosens up, before that vital journey where the history of its owner flows in a very personal and random way.
A visual magnet that makes the visitor’s eye jump from this collection of elephants from different parts of the planet; to that Swarovski turtle commissioned exclusively by one of the descendants of the Austrian house; to the image of that procession-sized Virgin, facing none other than Proust and Coco Chanel, who intimate from a crowded library that stands out among rolls of fabrics. A magical castle that is articulated through a somewhat steep staircase, with a floor covered in carpets from the Thousand and One Nights, and that satin-lined ceiling. And then, as happens with its inhabitant, the tension loosens, and one surrenders to the living legend, who is even allowed a certain well-acquired narcissism and vanity.
Then he opens up and confesses. Eternal love for cinema and opera. Maniac collector of ties, watches, shoes and gloves of all colors. Attentive in listening that does not miss any detail, with a perfect memory, he puts his share of humor and wisdom in his eternally dazzling anecdotes, which make his cobalt eyes shine. Not in vain are the sixty years dedicated to a passion, fashion. A vital breath, in that creator who always went directly to the body, managing to capture with his mixtures of impossible textures and colors, his indisputable stamp. Infinite and eternal, almost incomprehensible, he gets excited, withdraws, observes and jumps from one desire to another, with a fire that does not seem to go out.
News: How would it be defined?
Gino Bogani: It never occurred to me to think about it. I don’t like the word mod. Designer yes, and a creator, of course. I worked hard to remove the word modissto (with double that), when my name began to be known in the 60s, and I sought to dignify the image of people who worked in fashion, because at that time it was not a highly regarded profession. I am very detailed, but not obsessive as some think. I have a clinical eye, but not only for my work, because I have seen a lot of cinema since I was 12 years old. I would watch the movies, over and over again, just in case I had missed something. I am curious about all cultural and artistic manifestations, because they enrich my work, but I am not a gossip.
News: Was there a film culture in your house?
bogani: They took me to the movies because they knew I liked it and I watched all kinds of movies from a very young age. I would have liked to act. In my ignorance of age, I gave more value to the cinema than to the theater, but over time I changed my mind. Nowadays I would like to play an actor in something funny… or not funny.
News: Representing himself?
Bogani: No, I’m sick of me already! I’ve seen myself for eighty years! Comedy, drama or something gruesome. It can be in theater or cinema. But if I think about it, I would like to be behind the camera more.
News: Director. What would be his movie?
bogani: I don’t know, because all of a sudden I get excited about many things. I would make a vintage one. Very current, but with a very good book. A dramatic comedy. I would work with various actresses. I like all the ones I know. Of course there would be Graciela (Borges), Chiquita (Legrand), Susana (Giménez) Each one according to her personality. And of course Joanna!
News: How would you dress them? You already dressed the entire Tinayre family.
bogani: It comes out at the moment. I know what each one likes. If you tell me a yellow dress, I automatically think of Borges. Of the Tinayre, I only need Ámbar! Chiquita I know that she wears all colors, I dressed Marcela for the wedding too, although she wears shorter, and Juana I’ve been doing everything since 2020, and she can’t believe because everything is going for her. But it’s not about beauty, it’s something that she has and that makes everything work. It’s been a long time since I did anything to Chiquita…
News: A family of beautiful women, an inheritance. What did you inherit from your parents?
Bogani: Education, justice, honor. It’s something that I always repeat, and I can’t stop saying it because I couldn’t tell you personally. We were very close friends and the three of us were very close. They gave me freedom with limits. They also gave me perseverance and the will to work, but they were relentless.
News: So much history and so much avant-garde, wouldn’t you like to write a book about your life?
bogani: Ought. But I do not have time. I am sorry that there is no written testimony of my work. There are loose articles and opinions, but no one specified what I wanted to say, my message through my dresses.
News: What did he refuse to do?
bogani: Never deny me I accepted all the clients and all the models. When they come to see me it is because they like what I do. I don’t choose the clients. What I have not been able to do is when I realize that what they ask of me is nonsense.
News: And how do you say it? Is it subtle?
bogani: I’m subtle…Well, sometimes not so much! Because in the face of nonsense you have no other.
News: How does an only child deal with loneliness?
bogani: Fine. The pandemic had health horrors, financial horrors, but I was sick to be home. There are people who cannot be alone at home. I can eat alone in a restaurant, but those who cannot be alone have a psychological problem. I never did therapy or anything. I do a lot of therapy with clients. I know what I’m doing wrong, I know what I’m doing right and what I’d like to change, but I’m not going to change, why would I change it at this age?
News: Do you miss your mother?
bogani: I feel sorry that I was in Capri when it happened. And the worst thing was that they anticipated it. It was at the end of February, when I was in New York and they did an astrological chart for me and told me that I would be on the other side of the ocean when they would call me to tell me that someone close to me had died. That July, after the great ball of the Association of Friends of All Museums in Versailles (Paris), I went to Capri. Every day I talked to my parents. That afternoon the phone rang, and suddenly they say: “Hi Gino, your mom died.” Dad told me not to come back. I had a shock. I went down, and there was Amalita (Fortabat) with a group of people, and she must have noticed something on her face because she asked me what was wrong, and I told her that my mother was not well. She offered me her plane… it makes me bristle a bit to tell it. I went on with the trip as planned. But I’m glad I didn’t get fired. For a long time I couldn’t go through where they watched her, that she was in this room (her evidence room) but I didn’t see her. My father passed away 15 years ago. The deaths of my parents are the deepest absences for me, and I still can’t get over the pain of not having them physically with me. Because they always accompany me.
News: Do you miss not having a family?
bogani: Does he say he has children? I have asked myself the question several times. There are moments in which I think if it is not selfish on my part, but I think about what it means to have the responsibility of a family and I have a fit. Because having a family is easy, the joke is to take it down a path and maybe I don’t feel qualified for that. The passion of my work absorbs me a lot and to have a family I believe that you cannot be absent. I deeply admire those who can do it, but couldn’t.
News: He just received the Platinum Konex. In 2013 he had a retrospective at CC Recoleta. In 2020 he was summoned in the midst of a pandemic by Juana Viale to be the designer of his television debut, and this year he closed Haute Couture Week at Malba, celebrating his six decades with fashion with 79 mannequins and 180 dresses. Do you feel that it is a somewhat late recognition?
bogani: I don’t sit in the sunset to think that they were late. I still working. I dignified fashion. At that time, I valued being away from the media noise and press campaigns, as I once said, “I preferred the mirror in my atelier to any screen”, because it was always the reflection of the woman who wore my creations. It is always nice to receive recognition. It is also putting fashion in a cultural place that it did not have before. It should have been here before, but here it is.
News: How do you see fashion?
Bogani: A big disappointment. But I bank it because I think they are things that have to happen for better things to come out. I think there is a creative crisis. Make women ugly, devalue her, I don’t like it. That fashion serves to generate the freedom to choose, it seems very good to me, now creatively I notice it as crazy. It can be original, different, but not unusable and ridiculous.
News: When did this “fashion crash” start?
bogani: The first big change was the attack on the Twin Towers because later, in the airports, you had to undress, take off your shoes, your belt, and that led to the fact that you had to be comfortable. And then technology. That helped create what is called fast fashion, which is too fast and ends up being zero fashion.
News: Three things to get Gino Bogani excited
bogani: I don’t need three. Give me total freedom with a lot of backup, and you already have me excited.
