FRANCESCO RAGAZZI TALKING ABOUT TIME, MILAN JUNE 2018,
PHOTOGRAPHED BY TASSILI CALATRONI
“ I LEARNED FROM MISTAKES, THE MORE MISTAKES YOU MAKE, THE BETTER YOU BECOME. AND ABOVE ALL I’VE ALWAYS BELIEVED IN WHAT I WAS PURSUING. IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND THAT WHAT YOU DO WORTH IT. ”
“ Palm Angels occupies pretty much all of my life. It’s not just the working but also the thinking. “What’ s next? What could I do better? What am I doing wrong?”. It’s time consuming but also so rewarding. Being creative doesn’t mean anything without execution, so time is very important. My personal life is made by my family, that’s the only thing that can take me away from “work”. I wish I had more time for myself, more gym, more time for hobbies… But now it is what it is and I am happy. In my case the great advantage is that what I do is also what I love. Being a very creative person, I tend to get easily bored and working in such a fast and stimulating industry is what keeps me going. Also the people that surround me are a great source of energy. I often find myself to be astonished by the passion, talent and constant strife for self-improvement that you experience around our office in Milan.
I BELIEVE THAT THE ONLY WAY TO GROW TOWARDS SUCCESS IS TO TAKE ONE STEP AT A TIME. IF YOU DO WHAT YOU LOVE, SUCCESS WILL MOST LIKELY BE YOUR ONLY CONSEQUENCE.
Also finding your own balance and remembering to live life at its fullest is very important under my point of view. Palm Angels was born as a photography book, but even before this, it was the desire to express myself. It was, and still is, a journey that started with the need of a personal and creative outlet. It all began in 2007 when, after having finished a photography course at the School of Visual Arts in New York, I asked myself: ‘’And now what am I going to do?’’. My initial ambition was to find a job as photographer’s assistant, but at that moment there were no concrete opportunities. So I decided to start an internship in the press office of Moncler. I remember I hated that job, but looking back, I was truly in the right place at the right time. Back in those years Moncler was experiencing a moment of great growth which allowed my career to take a big jump, going from intern to creative director in just a few years. Surely, my experience in Moncler, which I am still living today, was the university I never attended, and allowed me to learn the necessary basics to grow both personally and professionally and build my own path and vision for Palm Angels. After having worked several years for such a great brand, I felt the desire to do something of my own. I resumed my passion for photography and started traveling to Los Angeles to document the life of skaters in Venice Beach. After several months, looking through what I had done, I realized that the material I had collected was an interesting starting point to create a book. I therefore proposed the project to Rizzoli International Publications, who published it in 2014, exactly 4 years ago. I would say that the book was a sort of manifesto for Palm Angels. The next step was to create a lifestyle in order to approach and create a dialogue with my consumers. This lifestyle has today become a fil rouge for all activities that rotate around the brand and is what allow us to continuously grow in a harmonic and consistent way. Fashion has now a meaning for me, like the book a few years ago.
I look back and I was a very calm kid, I could spend hours playing or listening to music, it always helped me to dream and imagine things. Something that still helps me today. It is essential for one to be a dreamer. It may seems absurd but where I am now is absolutely where I dreamed to be. I learned from mistakes, the more mistakes you make, the better you become. And above all I’ve always believed in what I was pursuing. It is so important to believe in yourself and that what you do worth it.”
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