Discovering Pitti: Pierre-Louis Mascia

Pierre-Louis Mascia modelling one of his designs at his Pitti Uomo stand.

Greetings from a sunshine then rain then sunshine soaked Florence. After longing to go to this sartorial feast for as long as I can remember I am finally here in this beautiful city for Pitti Uomo. I've dreamed about wandering the stalls and observing the impeccably dressed gentleman in all of their pomp and glory. The reality is just as good. In just two days I have amassed enough content to keep the blog active for many months to come but I'm finding it difficult to sit down and post. As the thunder reverberates around the sprawling exhibition spaces I have just enough time to introduce one of my favourite finds, Pierre-Louis Mascia...

You might not be familiar with the name Pierre-Louis Mascia, but you would have undoutedly marveled at his work while flicking through your favourite magazines or nodded approvingly while surfing the internet. Mascia is a talented and world renowned fashion illustrator but a few years ago, the French artist launched his own accessory brand. A few seasons on and Mascia's designs saw him nominated for Who's On Next/Pitti Uomo. This exciting contest is dedicated to new talents – Italian or Italian-based – in men’s fashion, promoted and organized by Pitti Immagine in collaboration with AltaRoma and Uomo Vogue. Competition for the main prizes was particularly fierce this season with FQR by Fabio Quaranta winning the award for pret-a-porter and AI_ by Andrea Incontri winning the award for accessories. Over the coming days I will introduce you to the full lineup but for now, I'd like to introduce you to Mascia's accessories line...

Pierre-Louis Mascia started his accessory line with a bag inspired by composer Maurice Ravel. He focused only on this bag, producing different versions of the same model and this piece became rather successful. After that he imagined Ravel, a 30s dandy, with another accessory and added to his wardrobe a scarf. Mascia felt it was the best choice, as a scarf allows you to mix your artistic inspirations - such as paintings - with the functionality of an accessory. He began working on different motifs, mixing cashmere, traditional patterns and paintings. It felt a bit like cooking, throwing into a cauldron different ingredients, it was fun yet very interesting. Recently Masica has added jumpers and jackets. In a way, this is a natural progression, a way to grow taking one step at the time.Perhaps next season he will add trainers to the lineup.

Mascia's collection of scarves with floral motifs and prints evoke an expressionistic style with intense and unusual colour combinations and bold strokes matching his aesthetics of refinement, luxury and distinction. His inspiration comes from paintings or from artistic movements such as the Art Deco. There are many artists he loves such as Kees van Dongen, Richter, Alphonse Mucha, Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Jenny Holzer, Peter Knapp and Tim Walker. He unearthes original prints in old European and Indian textile archives and breathes fresh life in to them in his bags, shawls and scarves. The particularly soft, fine materials such as silk twill and crêpe de chine are treated with innovative techniques that bring huge savings in water and power resources while creating something utterly beautiful, a feast for the senses...

Many people have contacted Mascia asking how to best tie his scarves or to offer an idea for a new style, so he recently asked a friend to shoot a video of himself styling one. He soon realised that different people have different ways of tying their scarves, so started asking his friends how they did it and it soon became a sort of fashion viral! If you've not done so already I urge you to visit his site and see the videos for yourself.

Mascia's how to videos

In such a brief period there have been so many appetite whetting discoveries but Pierre-Louis Masica's accessories line is one of my favourites.