Today I’m

Submission by Giorgia Colonna and Anna Paola Loliva Words by Nastasia Khmelnitski

TODAY I'M presents the four-part creative experience, which ponders on the idea of freedom of self-definition. Each part is a new perspective through a different lens characterized by actions, color, and styling.

Green light gel: offers a play with the thought of having three hands. Red: opens up a feminine angle via styling decisions while moving through yoga poses. Blue: proposes a different emotional background of self-confidence and indifference emphasized by an over-sized, slightly more masculine look. Finally, grey: symbolizes a limitless amount of possibilities - to be. Distorted, lo-fi sounds and the iconic DV camera accompany the series connecting the pieces to one powerful concept of discovering the personal, deep desires towards the goal of self-realization.

TODAY I'M is a series of short video films that revolves around the idea of freedom to realize oneself in any possible way. The project is a collaboration between the Italian creative team and Vìen, a clothing brand, and a multidisciplinary creative project launched by Vincenzo Palazzo. We speak with the team about identity and personal freedom of expression, distorted stylistics of music engineering, yoga poses, and masculinity vs. femininity in styling.

Art Directors Giorgia Colonna and Anna Paola Loliva Videographer Giorgia Loliva Styling Roberta Console Talent Olimpia Taliani Clothes Vìen

‘I can say that Today I’m deals with the idea of being whoever you want whenever you want. It’s all about the freedom of expressing yourself, combining any kind of garment because you must follow your soul and your flux of consciousness.’

— Giorgia Colonna

Let’s speak about the project and the collaboration with Vìen on the topic of ‘Today I’m.’ The project explores the idea of freedom of self-presentation and the freedom of being through the prism of the brand’s new collection. What was important for you to preserve in balancing out the brand’s identity and your creative vision? How did you achieve it? 

Roberta: Today I’m - was born in a couple of hours. I was bored at home when the other girls called me asking if I wanted to jump into a project for Vìen. I love the brand... so of course, I was in! 

We had to do something ironic, fresh, and cool to emphasize Vìen’s multiple attitudes. It's a mix of genres and items, a contemporary way of thinking about femininity through the menswear wardrobe, a new concept of fashion that embraces both street style and couture. That’s how we came up with this idea as we totally agreed that Vìen’s woman must feel free to express herself and her feelings with clothes. She can be whatever she wants… and I personally do that when I get dressed!

Anna Paola: Today I’m - is a project that expresses the way to be and at the same time not to be: to be able to get out of the rules and invent one's own, to overcome the canons and stereotypes, not to define oneself in labels, to have 3 hands or (why not) to be blue... Vìen is a brand that embodies these many alternative possibilities to feel feminine with a punk attitude while wearing men's clothes.

Giorgia C: Today I’m - was born out of Anna Paola and I. We were in my kitchen, desperately thinking about something we could easily realize the day after, and that can also reflect Vìen’s multifaceted identity and its versatile soul. In fact, how to translate into images Vìen’s contemporary vision of identity has been the biggest issue we faced when we start thinking about the project. 

I can say that Today I’m deals with the idea of being whoever you want whenever you want. It’s all about the freedom of expressing yourself, combining any kind of garment because you must follow your soul and your flux of consciousness.

The music in the project emphasizes the spirit of youth and resistance to norms. What was the atmosphere you wanted to create on set and in the frame? Which music did you play on set?

Giorgia L: I find the lo-fi style for those disturbing sounds capable of outlining a change, a rupture of thousands of personalities that you are free to have. This is a sound that moves the static. The same instrumental base that changes speed and tone, as if we are accompanied by a single and personal soundtrack, capable of being versatile over time. 

Anna Paola: Can's music, the German avant-garde group of the 70s, guided our creative process. The project is told through distorted sounds without precise linearity. Can’s music has no beginning or end. It's the infinite distortion of the theme of a thousand-dimensional space: rock, free-jazz, and sometimes psychedelic sounds.

What were the main guidelines to create the looks and styling? Tell about some of the ideas for the use of color, shapes, oversized pieces (resembling a cut of men’s clothes or uni-sex today).

Roberta: When I’m on set, I always try to match my deeply female soul with a touch of masculinity with styling. I didn't have any guidelines to create the looks. I just followed my flux and thought about what I would love to wear if I were the star! That day, when I arrived on set, I found out very few pieces (the logo t-shirt, a couple of dresses and pants, a very big skirt and a white shirt) and a big light-blue belt with which I created the big hat Olimpia wears in the video. 

What were the main guidelines to create the looks and styling? Tell about some of the ideas for the use of color, shapes, oversized pieces (resembling a cut of men’s clothes or uni-sex today).

Roberta: When I’m on set, I always try to match my deeply female soul with a touch of masculinity with styling. I didn't have any guidelines to create the looks. I just followed my flux and thought about what I would love to wear if I were the star! That day, when I arrived on set, I found out very few pieces (the logo t-shirt, a couple of dresses and pants, a very big skirt and a white shirt) and a big light-blue belt with which I created the big hat Olimpia wears in the video. 

What stands behind some of the choices connected to the aesthetics of shooting on a DV camera, the color of the light, and using certain yoga poses in one of the parts? 

Roberta: I was taking yoga lessons, and I’m really obsessed with the poses as they are challenging, but at the same time, they make me feel good in my body. So, I thought, 'why not?', it would be totally in the mood of Today I’m. It was fun to see Olimpia trying to play with those poses.

Giorgia L: With the use of the DV camera we wanted to create freestyle, outside of any restrictions and accessible to all. The colors create different settings, in which the character moves in the different mental states:

Green as a return to the natural state, search for nudity, in which new forms of body perception are sought.

Blue as stillness, a state of uncertainty. In a kind of magical antidote, we are looking for a way out of the restrictions of almost a courtly but disturbed environment.

Red as rupture, change. A state of maximum energy as if you were possessed. Yoga helps you to perceive the soul and body as two separate entities that must coexist in harmony.

Gray, placed between white and black, is a hybrid and indefinite color. In gray, we can be what we want.

What was the most challenging or the most satisfying moment from the shooting day?  

Anna Paola: The most satisfying moment during the set took place when we realized that we could freely and naturally express what we felt. The project was born as a flow of consciousness... In fact, we let ourselves be inspired by situations, music, and Vìen’s clothes, through a playful and creative atmosphere.

Giorgia C: To start realizing that our idea was coming true in a very spontaneous way has been the most satisfying moment of the day.