Transcript of interview with Nicola Finetti
Fashion label: Nicola

I was living in Argentina and it was very bad. Argentina was like now - it was economically and financially bad and so somebody told me I should go to Australia - the country of the future, so you can make money or I don't know what. And so I came here and it was quite difficult for me because I didn't have very good English and I tried to invent something to be able to start. And when I was starting, I made a lot of connections with people, and so it was quite easy for me to go there and buy clothes and to sell here. And after I think two or three trips that I did, I decided to open a shop. And after that, things went very very well. And I was more involved and more involved and after I started eventually to think that instead of doing a little production, I could make collections. And then I started, and it's history now.

When I went inside the Museum in the archives to look at things, I was inspired by a lot of things but after… I think there are some sort of concepts or some sort of thoughts that I'd had before too, and when I went there and I saw all these clothes that had taken on new life… There were all these old clothes that were deteriorated by moths, or perhaps ruined by colours or dyes. So they were more or less deconstructed - not deconstructed - but they were going to pieces.

And I saw how these things had changed. Like before they had been something and after they had become something else. And when I saw these things in the archives, I saw these dresses that were now taking a different form from what they'd been before. When they were deteriorated, there was a new beauty, it was different. So it was quite interesting how something was changing but was still alive.

And that was really my inspiration and what I eventually did with the dress.

I like to show the skeleton of something. And be able to give to a garment the life that was after… Because what happens… You can have a fantastic garment, OK, done and everything… But what I saw down there in these garments that were destroyed - but you have a new life with the skeleton and everything. So I was trying to get that sort of concept translated into something that was new - because I had to do it. And I didn't know how to eventually make that sort of deconstruction - shall I destroy the dress? So I used some sort of acid to create the sort of same inspiration really. So I gave to this dress a different life. But the challenge was like more or less to try to treat the dress with acid and build at the same time a beautiful dress. And really give a new life to something that is all destroyed.

I think it is a continuous confrontation between opposites, like dark and light, black and white, or, like, sometimes the dark part of myself comes out with a very soft and romantic way too. So really it's a continuous dualism or confrontation between opposites. Because I am an architect, I am still an architect really (laughs), so I don't know if this - it has to be I think between architecture and fashion design - any type of designing; there is a connection. But I think what's happening to me is that I'm a free spirit and really am going everywhere, trying to find myself, and I'm landing in different situations. And this, I think, will be the last one. I hope so.

- Nicola Finetti