AMICO MIO, Alessandro Squarzi by Hooncheol Ko
A four year journey with Alessandro Squarzi by Hooncheol Ko, introduction by Andrea Benedetti. Alessandro Squarzi needs no introduction. His style, which he renamed “Gipsy Classic”, enters the fashion dictionary by right.
His signature in the sector is recognizable by countless entrepreneurial successes achieved over time, in the perseverance and authenticity of his research.
The “trademarks” of the Alessandro Squarzi brand are now well known: the passion for vintage, mainly expressed in military jackets and jeans those lived in their DNA as a value, the black hole and the leather jacket par excellence.
And again the white trousers, which is exported from the summer season and extended to others essential items including the sartorial suit to synthesize the research and taste of this “Italian man” with a few but clear and well-defined “stylistic features”.
The style and entrepreneurial foresight that led Alessandro Squarzi to success are the results of hard work and passion reinforced by his true story, the usual old winning weapons. After the entrepreneurial success, the media arrived, thanks to Instagram and his way of using it: constant and reassuring, outspoken and sincere. With the addition of a strong photogenicity and a sense of elegance and spontaneous class, the image is widely spread through hashtags and profiles from around the world.
A self-made man never stops learning and evolving and when Street Style becomes a photographic genre. By shifting attention from the catwalks to the street, Alessandro has already attracted the whole new generation of photographers, or at least those who want to tell something. And at that moment, his image is shared on the most influential Instagram profiles and published in the most prestigious magazines.
The friendship with Scott Schuman, one of the most famous photographers of this “new” current, not only greatly increases his image but also completes the scenario. The true foresight was to bring the South Korean photographer Hooncheol Ko, a lover of vintage and a passionate scholar in masculine fashion, craftsmanship, details and savoir fair that only Italians know how to express with it comes to tailoring.
Their bond was born spontaneously, as if it had already been written that they should have become great friends. This link is told in the book, which began as a university project and turns into a 4-year reportage, where the key moments that led Alessandro Squarzi to become the influential character as he is today are documented.
The images that tell this report have the strength to show who Alessandro Squarzi is outside of what can be seen through social media. The photograph returns to the center as a point of view.
It is the research for a Korean boy who has left the energy of London to move to Milan and study what it means to be an Italian man today, through a character that is an emblematic example of the moment. The images focus on the man behind the business man and the style icon: the nuances of his journey, the challenges, the struggles, the brightest moments and the difficult ones.
These shots have the strength of the story, the heart of friendship and the curious and attentive gaze of those who admire, investigate, study and let themselves be captivated by Italianness, not only in clothing, but in culture, gestures, words, and interpersonal relationships.
This happens thanks to Hooncheol Ko’s lucid and external point of view, which catapulted into a decidedly new family/business system for a 26-year-old boy who comes from London and does not know a word of Italian, except how to order the best food at the restaurant .
The physiognomy changes over time together with the gaze of the subject: the farsighted one of the entrepreneur and the tender one of the father who has eyes only for his daughter, Allegra, who cuddles and holds close to himself, protects and worships her.
Hooncheol Ko, with An extraordinary discretion and extreme elegance has managed to overcome linguistic and private barriers of a man, to be able to tell the unpublished facets.