Transcending a Club: Vitelli’s 14 Hour Cosmic Dream show
Vitelli’s presents its fourteen-hour Cosmic Dream fashion show within a rave. The knitwears crafted by Vitelli contextualized in their cosmic imaginary for Lampoon RuVido
Cosmic Club on lake Garda
Twenty one yellow stars ornate the entrance doors to what was once the Cosmic Club on lake Garda, northern Italy. The club, established in the eighties was instrumental in disseminating a new genre of electronic music: Afro/Cosmic Disco is a whisk of African rhythms, funk, jazz, and electronic music, characterized by hypnotic beats and psychedelic soundscapes.
The genre also drew inspiration from African and Middle Eastern music, as well as science fiction and cosmic imagery. The use of heavy percussion, synthesizers and drum machines transported the club into a futuristic and virtually otherworldly field. In dialogue with the music, DJ’s there elaborated their own visual displays within their sets, often incorporating elements of science fiction.
The club was transformed into a galactic landscape through the use of lasers, shiny bright stars on the walls, a spaceship DJ set pedestal and strobe lights that created an immersive experience. The use of smoke machines and other special effects also added to the galactic atmosphere.
14 Hour Cosmic Dream show during Milan’s Fashion Week
This club is the backdrop to the collective imaginary and ethos behind the work of Milanese fashion brand Vitelli. In an urge to transcend the spirit of the Cosmic Club, the brand staged its SS23 collection as a 14 Hour Cosmic Dream show during Milan’s Fashion Week earlier last year. The show was imagined as an immersive experience of art, fashion, music and performances during a fourteen-hour happening in an abandoned factory in the Bovisa district. The knitwears crafted by Vitelli were contextualized in their cosmic imaginary.
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Patrick Bienert and Vitelli – raving as an emotional state of communion
In the midst of this happening, portraits were taken as part of an ongoing collaboration between photographer Patrick Bienert and Vitelli on the subject of «raving as an emotional state of communion where individuality and collectivity coexist, in particular through the layered and multi-dimensional act of dancing». The photographer extracted personal moments of self expression from the collective rave, translating a sense of togetherness, similar to the one experienced at the Cosmic Club.
Vitelli – A foggy setting
The photographs were set in a similar atmosphere. A notable element of the show’s atmosphere is the foggy setting. As the fog rolls across the dance floor, it creates a hazy ambiance. The fog machine also serves a practical purpose – by reducing visibility, it helps focusing on the music set.
It also creates a sense of intimacy, with the fog wrapping around the dancers and forming a sense of closeness. The dance floor was surrounded by large sound system devices that performed both as the scenography and as a wall of sound throughout the space. The position of the speakers at head height allowed the sound to directly surround the clubbers and immerse further in the hypnotic setting.
Palestra da ballo – the power of music and community
The Cosmic Club owners referred to the club as a palestra da ballo – a dancing gym. The club could accommodate up to seven hundred people, with most of the space dedicated to the dance floor, leaving little room for seating. This led to a constant flow of movements and fluids – sweat, drinks and drugs- among clubbers.
While the entrance to the club was reserved to a few due to the capacity of the space, hundreds of other clubbers gathered in the parking lots and spent their nights listening to illegally duplicated cassette tapes of the DJ sets played inside the club. The galactic setting intramuros the club expanded into the open air: in the sky filled with stars and the limitless body of water just outside the club. The clubbers were all part of a transcalar indoor/outdoor gym session.
The Vitelli cosmic silhouettes similarly are attuned to their surroundings. Their fluid movements involve muscle engagement, especially in the legs, core, and arms. The models/clubbers photographed by Bienert were dressed in a riot of colors and styles, each expressing their individuality through their clothing and movements. Some are dressed in bright, flowing dresses that twirled around the legs, to airy knotted pieces that allowed their bodies to move with the music.
This eclectic collective embodies the brand’s semantics, which are centered around the spiritual power of sound, generating new forms of togetherness and self-expression. The spirit of the Cosmic Club is not just a place to dance, but a space where people come together and express themselves in new forms. These photographs are testaments to the power of music and community.
Vitelli
Founded in 2016 by Mauro Simionato and Giulia Bortoli, Vitelli was initially born as a semi-artistic project offering small capsule collections. Slowly production has grown to a full collection and a debut at Milan Fashion Week in September 2021.
