ADAM KIMMEL
MENSWEAR COLLECTION  F/W 08-09
is the DISCOVERY FASHION PROJECT
FOR PITTI UOMO 73
Istituto d’Arte di Porta Romana, Florence
10 January 2008

On the occasion of Pitti Immagine Uomo 73 (9-12 January 2008) the Fondazione Pitti Discovery will present the exclusive preview of the Adam Kimmel menswear collection F/W 08-09 with an event-installation at the Istituto d’Arte di Porta Romana in Florence.

One of the leading designers of this generation, Adam Kimmel, a thoroughbred New Yorker, gets his inspiration from the “masculine attitude” of the American art world of the 1940s-1950s, and from New York’s cultural dominance during that same period. He starts with a concept of function, then he develops it by refining the industrial aspect imbuing it with a laidback elegance to achieve a perfect balance between research on materials and evolution of shapes with citations and references to the works of Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Arshile Gorky, Ted Joans and Neal Cassady. The cult item in his collection – that the designer has opted to make in Italy – is the jumpsuit revisited with contemporary sensitivity and an eclectic choice of fabrics.
Kimmel started creating and designing clothes for his friends: the artists, musicians and photographers of today’s New York scene such as Jack Pierson, David Armstrong, Ryan McGinley, Dan Colen, Banks Violette, Rita Ackermann and every season he has them wear his creations in a look book that is shot in his studio by his brother Alexei Hay. The FW08-09 presentation in Florence will be a performance of fashion, art and photography, curated by Neville Wakefield in The Istituto d’Arte in Florence – a lively creative workshop – which seemed to be the perfect place to stage the collection and present Kimmel’s concept of fashion.

Adam Kimmel was born in New York in 1979, and that is where he still lives and works. A degree in architecture and a passion for contemporary art are the creative lymph that flows through his body. His collections are available in some of the world’s most prestigious fashion stores such as: Bergdorf Goodman and Jeffrey in New York, Colette in Paris, 10 Corso Como in Milan, 10 Corso Como Comme des Garçons in Tokyo, and Dover Street Market in London.