Some stories are just more vivid, more exciting, more colourful when told directly by their protagonists. This is why we asked Luca Missoni to sit with us and talk about the brand that since 1953 bears the name of his family.

Luca Missoni, proud partner of EFHA since its very beginning and longtime supporter of the Europeana initiative, opened the door of the archive he directs, situated where his parents Ottavio and Rosita founded Missoni back in 1953. Walking around the archive, Luca showed us the actual objects to which the digital files he kindly shared on our online repository, and we were thrilled to listen to the anecdotes that these objects hide, and to the reflection on the wider social and cultural scenario of the 20th century they allowed.

This is how the series True Colours. A Vlog Series with Luca Missoni came about. The conversation revolved around three main themes, linked to the practices Luca Missoni experienced in his years within the family business, each one informing one episode of the series: Family, Technology, Heritage.

Of the Same Stripe: Values, Business, Family focuses on the idea of family as a defining feature of Missoni, as well as an interesting characteristic of most Italian fashion houses. The story of the family unveils how the path of the brand and that of the family are inextricably linked to one another. Here, Luca also deals with the underlying meaning of being an Italian fashion brand, and how the creative and productive approach of Missoni was central in the definition of Italian – and global – prêt-à-porter.

Strong Ties: Art, Technology, Fashion ties together the main areas in which Missoni moves: art and technology. The importance of art influenced the definition of the early codes of the brand: stripes and colours. Technology is present from the ideation stage all the way through to the physical craft, as a tool to turn intuition into reality and abstract motifs into a wearable knitwear, abiding by the rules of comfort as well as of fashion and style.

Archiving Memories, Crafting Heritage looks at the everyday practice of the archive, critically considering the experience of maintaining a physical archive but also wanting to have a digital one that can be more easily shared and communicated.

The Missoni Archive was amongst the first institutions that understood the global cultural relevance of the materials it preserves; the experiences described by Luca Missoni are truly invaluable in understanding what it means to be involved, day after day, in the valorisation of the heritage of a brand that is also the history of his own family; his words also highlight the importance in carefully editing the ‘traces’ history leaves behind, and allow to turn them into something that can induce innovation, creativity and reflection.

The series is part of the Europeana XX. A Century of Change project, which focuses on the 20th century and its social, political and economic changes. We are honoured that Luca Missoni is part of the Europeana XX as ‘Ambassador of Change’ in the Europeana XX project: an initiative aiming to retrace the twentieth century and its social, political and economic changes through archival documents available on Europeana.