Photography by Mattia Guolo

Words SCARLETT BAKER  

Think of the most famous automotive brand you can picture, and the rouge tones of an Italian manufacturer are the only thing that would permissibly spring to mind. It’s one of the few car names in the entire world that carries such recognition and prestige whether you’re into going full throttle or not. Its global visibility is limitless. For Rocco Iannone, Creative Director of Ferrari Style, the brand’s fashion-focused faction, it means dressing a consumer who has a firm definition of who the masters in red already are. But Iannone is set on driving the vision forward, not dispelling your definition of Ferrari – merely expanding it.

“Ferrari is quite impossible to escape from if you’re growing up in Italy. And not just Ferrari but the entire automotive culture. But it’s Ferrari that really embodies the Italian spirit and the approach to beauty,” shares Iannone, who grew up wheeling red toy cars throughout his childhood, graduating onto Ferrari-fuelled video games during his teens. “There’d be movies and songs where Ferrari were represented that I’d listen to, so this automotive spirit has always been around me. Ever present, but not necessarily in a straightforward way. It’s something always around you, in the background.”

For Iannone, life, these days, is very much lived in the fast lane and has been for the past five years since the Italian designer, with a decorated history working for the likes of Dolce & Gabbana and Armani, became Ferrari Style’s first creative director. His tenure has seen Iannone use the brand’s 90-year history as a springboard to create a new livery: garments that not only decorate the body but allow the fashion and automotive worlds to hold hands.

Photography by Kosmas Pavlos, model Lawal Badmus at PRM. Full look FERRARI STYLE at FERRARI.COM

How does it all begin, Rocco? How do you bring a collection to life?
I think that today, the role of the director is to act as a curator of a brand. To be someone who must be able to understand the heritage, the tension, the feelings of the brand and transform all those elements into something relevant today. So, for me, it’s very important to start every season from these aspects, to translate into a different universe from the automobile world. I jump into our archives to read a lot and understand which kind of elements I can look at to transform into something else.

Do you have a favourite era or decade that you often return to?
It’s an amazing journey because I have 90 years of history to look through. Every time, you find something new about the company. Looking at the last collection, we approached it through a cultural lens and the world of art. This lens [allows for] the expression of a beautiful moment in time. It was so powerful when looking through the archives. I found a picture of Kate Bush, a very sophisticated, very refined, very conceptual musician, next to a yellow Ferrari from the ‘80s.

You’ve spanned over 18 years in the fashion industry. Bringing this universe to Ferrari, how does taking the helm of its clothing brand differ from a more traditional fashion maison?
This is very important. First of all, there is a part of my job that is very similar to what I did in the past because I am very fascinated by humans and history. What does this expression of human values look like? For Ferrari, it is very well known what they did in the past and, because of that, the brand has so much relevance from supercars to racing. Our brand has a very big audience, but everyone has a specific idea of what Ferrari must be. To bring fashion heritage to an automotive company is the challenge, to create a dialogue between them, too. That crossover is technology and innovation.

How do you navigate the pressure of delivering the vision of Ferrari when, as you point out, people have such a predetermined vision of it in their heads?
After five years, I feel more confident about it now. I understand the dialogue and the meaning needed to communicate. I deeply respect the heritage, but I cannot become obsessed with this, otherwise I could lose my perspective. I have to be decisive.

What have you learned from the automotive world?
That it’s the best thing I ever had in my life. I spent a lot of years in fashion, but sometimes, fashion is very much used to talking about itself. It can have a one-dimensional feel that can even feel narcissistic. Learning about another discipline is important as a human. You’re enriching your brain and you’re expanding your ability to see because when you’re learning a different discipline, it opens your mind.

How do you straddle the line between preserving Ferrari’s Italian heritage, while addressing a global consumer?
While we must always represent who we are and what our history means, it’s also about creating something that looks to the future, towards what is happening in our world. It encapsulates the feeling of today, and this, I hope people can embrace. It’s a conversation of tensions between the past and the present.

There’s an entire school of psychology behind colour and the emotions it activates within us. What do these feelings amount to for Ferrari’s Rosso Corsa red?
It’s an emotion behind a very particular process: the process of achievement. A way down a path of strength that you must follow. You must believe in what you are doing in order to achieve, even if it doesn’t reach the result. The important part is the aim behind the achievement, not the actual goal itself, but the process of getting there.

To cut through the noise of automotive overload, where else do you turn to for inspiration?
Exhibitions are always moments where you can learn something about the process of someone else, to investigate humanity, to investigate people and to understand something about them. Any opportunity to go to one, I will, so I can learn something new. I insist that our work is about people, about humans. So it helps to understand the thought process of others, whether its a musician or an artist.

You’re surrounded by clothes and accessories every day of your life, but what’s the last thing you bought for yourself?
I bought myself a pendant in Los Angeles, in the shape of a heart, and inside it, sits a little diamond.

And lastly, if you could see yourself reflecting in any Ferrari, which model would it be and why?
I am a boy of the 80s, and it was a very important time for me. So I’d choose the Testarossa model, but the white colour, which is filled with cultural relevance from its feature in Miami Vice to its appearance at the entrance of our latest fashion show. It’s a Ferrari that draws together these different creative universes.

Why white? Because it’s the opposite of what you’d expect from Ferrari?
Exactly. It’s a surprise, and it’s iconic.