Vogue: I know for your London shows, the venue is always really important to you, whether it’s a market, your daughter’s school or a local community centre. Where did you decide to show in Milan?
Well, the whole concept is really different. When we went to Italy last time, we wanted to do what we did in London but do it in Italy. It was about finding a surprising location, leaning into Italian culture. This time, we wanted somewhere totally blank, so a location that didn’t particularly evoke emotion in and of itself. The concept that we are bringing is going to be the transforming element. The building is not of any particular importance, either historical or cultural. It’s a fairly neutral, blank space. I’m sure that has been used for lots of shows before. It’s what we’re going to do with the space in terms of the build and everything there, that’s what’ll be exciting.
Vogue: What inspired this shift?
We’re referencing ourselves a lot. Looking back at the archives and asking a lot of questions. What have I explored in the past? What am I currently into exploring? I asked myself and my team, where do we find beauty? Where did you find beauty in the past? What is the current landscape? What is being proposed by lots of people? What are we proposing that’s in contrast to that or can exist alongside that?
I don’t want to fall into a pattern of finding a formula and just going, ‘That’s my formula, people like it, so I’ll do it again.’ As a creative person I don’t find that particularly inspiring. I’m assuming that if I find it repetitive, other people might too. I trust that people are willing to go on a journey with me.
Vogue: If it’s a departure from what we’re used to from you, what can we expect to see?
The last few seasons we’ve done shows have been very particular in terms of the location, as you said, the location has been very symbolic. The casting has been very symbolic, it’s been about characters. You can feel the person and you can recognise that person. So I wanted to push myself and I wanted to ask myself other questions [this season]. I’m still very interested in those things, but I wanted to go beyond that.