MILAN — One can easily tell why Alessia Pellarini ended up working in fashion. The word fashionista would perhaps make her lift an eyebrow, but her passion for fashion is palpable from her mirror selfie-clad Instagram account and especially from the bubbly creative details her latest venture, The AP Archive.
Pellarini got started as a junior designer at Prada in 2000 and left as design director 10 years later. She joined Chloé and finally landed at Fendi in 2012 as design director, where she stayed for 11 years.
After leaving the position in February 2023, last fall she established her archive of about 3,000 fashion items the designer has amassed since the late ’90s — a testimony of the evolution of brands such as Celine, Balenciaga, Comme des Garçons, Maison Margiela, Prada, Chloé, Fendi, Chanel, Gucci, Richard Quinn, Marc Jacobs, Sacai and more.
There are items Pellarini conceived in her top-tier design positions, bought and was gifted.
Case in point: She got married in a Prada yellow and brown dress from the brand’s spring 2004 runway that was never produced but was given to her for the special occasion.
Alessia Pellarini sporting a T-shirt from her capsule for The AP Archive.
Filippo Fortis/Courtesy of The AP Archive
“The AP Archive was born by chance, I never had this precise goal, but it came about organically after years of buying and scouting for [fashion pieces], from my obsession for clothing and fashion in general,” Pellarini said. The designer left her design director position at Fendi one year ago and is now focusing entirely on the archive project.
Realizing how vast her wardrobe was and that fashion pieces would risk getting damaged, she pondered opportunities and ruled out selling the archive.
“Why not give these archival pieces a second chance instead? I don’t like to call it a wardrobe even though it’s literally my closet [filled with pieces] I loved and found interesting or that I had designed, even items I never wore but had the opportunity to buy,” she said.
“The whole thing got out of hand and suddenly I had 3,000 items,” she said with a laugh.
Based in Milan inside a warehouse space in the city center completely revamped by architectural firm Studio 2046 led by Daniele Daminelli, the archive is open by appointment to industry professionals seeking to rent items. Pellarini describes it as a “cocooning microcosm” or “theater” decked in dusty pink curtains and flooring and filled with design pieces. An online counterpart is instrumental in reaching a broader audience and offer rental opportunities to the public.
The latter front has been moving slower than Pellarini expected, and she’s now dropping a small capsule collection of T-shirts and sweats bearing the cheeky slogan “I have nothing to wear” hoping to raise awareness of her services.
“It’s self-mockery and a riff on all people like me complaining about having nothing to wear, despite their closets being full of garments. It’s about leveraging a relatable object like a T-shirt to make the service better known to people,” she said.
Compared to the physical location displaying the full archive, the website lists about 100 items, including vintage mink coats and Chanel silk twill bomber jackets with gold chain prints, garments in signature Prada prints through the years, as well as Demna’s Balenciaga gear.
An editorial image by Bohdan Bohdanov with art direction of Alessia Pellarini and Benedetta Urbini for The AP Archive.
Bohdan Bohdanov/Courtesy of The AP Archive
“There are so many pieces that are personally or professionally close to my heart,” she said, mentioning a suit from the Gucci and Balenciaga “hacking project,” which she associates with her friend Davide Renne, the late designer who died last November aged 46.
Looking back at all the pieces she’s acquired, Pellarini reflected on the evolution of both her personal style and fashion as a whole.
“There are pieces I used to wear so much 20 years ago that made me realize how much one needs to get accustomed, particularly to proportions, which have evolved the most over the years,” she offered. “Fashion’s a cycle but what I’m keener on doing is to give back currency to past aesthetics, no matter the era a particular garment belongs to; there’s always a way to make it relevant again for today,” she said.
Clothing and accessories are split in categories by value, with multiple rental price tiers. They reflect the item’s inherent or historic value and are always compared to the original retail price, which, Pellarini said, was also an interesting examination of luxury fashion’s upward pricing trajectory.
Alessia Pellarini’s The AP Archive headquarters in Milan.
Francesco Dolfo/Courtesy of The AP Archive
Asked if putting her creative spin on the small AP Archive capsule collection a year after parting ways with Fendi triggered a desire to return to the fashion design field, Pellarini acknowledged she needed a break from the corporate world.
“I’m planning to come back as a designer…but I’m managing this archive as a brand…I’m still giving voice to my creative spirit, only in a different way,” she said.
Source: WWD