Personally, I don’t equate Monaco with fashion per se, but more so with style, specifically lifestyle and personal style. I find that the residents of this small country are not trying to dress to fit in but rather to communicate a certain level of “belonging to”, while injecting individuality within these constraints.
Think of all the made-to-order haute couture gowns you see on the red carpet of the Bal de la Croix-Rouge and the customised Hermès Birkins dotting the tabletops of the Café de Paris. The Monaco customer is savvy and looking for something unique and exclusive, because really, who wants to keep up with the Joneses when you can be the Joneses.
When I heard that frequent visitor to the principality and staple on the charity gala circuit Filippo Bruno Tornaforte was launching something called “AristoPop” I had to find out more.
Partnering with Italian television star Tommaso Zorzi of “Riccanza” fame (Italy’s answer to the “Rich Kids of Instagram) Tornaforte who previously worked with Ralph Lauren and Yves Saint Laurent has created a new concept of fashion that combines the essence of the aristocratic style with the personality of contemporary pop.
For Tornaforte and Zorzi, to be “AristoPop” is a lifestyle fueled by carefree luxury living and being vaguely avant-garde.
With references drawing upon London High Society and 1970s Soho New York, the collection shies away from the current trend of extreme representations of wealth and takes the aristocratic high road with a twist.
Intended to unite these concepts with real artistic and cultural research, their target demographic is rather tongue in cheek – in their words “spoiled rich people” who like to have items that represent a level of upper class belonging almost creating a “brand inner circle”.
With an array of products in all sorts of iterations from neons, to metallics, leopard prints and for the more conservative clientele, black, everyone is sure to find one piece in the AristoPop universe to enter into the inner circle of Tornaforte and Zorzi.
AristoPop is available online at AristoPop.com from October 15.
Instagram sensation and style blogger Louis Pisano writes SuperficialLivingDiary.com. Article first published October 3, 2017.