Cristina Cucca

occupation: designer

Angela, our Milan correspondant, said that Cristina’s love of the clean and linear comes from her experience of living in Berlin, which has been the capital of “rational aesthetics” since Walter Gropius of the Bauhaus. In fact, her love of shapes can be seen in her designs, where she creates conceptually conceived geometric pieces that allow a person’s personality to form the garment, rather than the garment forming them. For Cristina, it’s all about discovery, whether it’s finding fifteen different ways to drape a rectangle or digging through a pile of clothes at a psychiatric hospital, one of her favorite places to hunt (at one point in her video, Cristina points out how this institution uses the exercise of uncovering old clothes as a way of escaping their reality). I love how Cristina rolls up a pencil skirt and belts it, and the way she takes a man’s tie and throws it around her neck. In keeping with her Sardinian heritage, she loves black, but will venture out to white, navy, gray, and brown, always with the underlying minimal line. There are not many moments where I am tempted to leave my layers, Victorian bustles, and chunky rings behind, but after seeing Cristina, now is one of those times.

If you like Cristina, you might also enjoy Lauren Boyle, Fatima Al-Qadiri, or Crayon Lee.

Giulia Brunello

occupation: stylist and PR

“Many people say that I look like Lady Gaga, but I don’t think so. I had my hair like this before her. I wear what I want to wear, I don’t have stylists that dress me up as they want me to look. I think I am much more real than she is.” Giulia Brunello

This is our first in a series of features from Milan done by SLU’s own Angela Grossi. Giulia has the kind of attitude I love. Cool and confident without being blocked by pride, she is so totally accessible, enthusiastic, and genuine. Her friends call her Giulia Smith because of her love of British culture, everything from punk to Vivienne Westwood are fetishes and her favorite fashion moment is Elizabethan for its crinolines and bustiers. She isn’t big on vintage, but wears her grandmother’s riding hat with her Ramones t-shirt and killer over-the-knee boots with verve. You can see the huge influence of music and Balmain on her style by her reference to Madonna’s Celebration video and in her studded dresses and leggings. However, despite Giulia’s adoration of Anglo culture, to me, she is still so Italian in her very feminine high-waisted skirts, stilettos, and raw sensuality.

Keisha Davis

occupation: actor, nanny, and shop girl

“No one is going to be a better me than I can be, so I have to do it right.” Keisha Davis

Keisha feels that being bigger challenges her to have to be more creative with her clothes. She likes the opportunity to be inventive, and she is. I love the way she made the one-shoulder metallic dress for her “diva” look, how she mixes her boyfriend blazer with a tie-dye head scarf, and most of all, how sharp she is in her Gwen Stefani-inspired sleeveless fur coat/vest with her grandmother’s ’70s glasses, belted biker shorts, tank, and pumps. Keisha is refreshingly open and unaffected by what people think of her. She feels that people give her funny looks when she is walking down the street because they don’t feel that someone her size should be expressing themselves in their style. I have found in doing SLU that all people who go beyond what’s common, no matter their particulars, are judged publicly. What makes Keisha so special and a leader is that other people’s judgments only fuel her fire. And the freedom within herself to “put the wrong things together at the wrong time and make it right” is the definition of style.

If you like Keisha, you might also enjoy Akeem Bazaar, Daliah Heeger, or Amee Carter.

Ziva Naumann

occupation: retired executive director of a nonprofit law firm that she co-founded

“I’ve moved from one country to another, leaving everything behind me. Taking just what fit into a suitcase. I took the pieces that are not replaceable.” Ziva Naumann

Ziva was born in Palestine and was in the Israeli underground, transferring illegal arms, food, and documents. Her great-grandfather and grandfather were from Poland and had a textile plant that supplied fabric to Saville Row and the Russian Army. I can see her heritage coming through in the “guerilla tactics” with which she monomaniacally pursues authentic clothing that does not have a stitch of machinery in it. She has the instincts of a bloodhound when it comes to the handmade details of anything from the Sinai or that is native in origin, whether it be Bedouin, Yemenite, Indian, or Mexican. She rarely frequents a conventional shop. Accumulating happens in the most unconventional of ways, and Ziva is her own designer. When she saw a village of people wrapped in a fabric she loved, she stayed an extra night to have it made into a dress, or she buys a bag made by a woman on the street that is being sewn from discarded leather strips. While in Jericho, she convinced the owner of a restaurant to sell her an embroidered jacket off of his wall. As deeply as she is into every thread, Ziva is equally dedicated to assisting the working poor of Los Angeles and family law, which she has been doing since 1981. Soulful and stylish, Ziva is our own modern day tribal warrior for the cause of being memorable and mattering.

If you like Ziva, you might also enjoy Ellen Fisher, Luxor Tavella, or Donna Harrison.

Olivia Weeden

occupation: student

“I’ll be getting dressed to go out somewhere and I’ll get dressed three times. Then finally, I’ll just take everything off, make a big slit up the back, turn it upside down, safety pin it, and walk out the door feeling perfect.” Olivia Weeden

I love how Olivia’s entire wardrobe changed when she bought a motorcycle to travel on in the City. She went from floral dresses to layers of drapery, hooded sweaters, and leather. Her ingenuity takes her as far as to take a blanket that she found from Eastern Europe and turn it into a strapless dress to stay warm, and to turn an antique scissor into a necklace, in case of emergency. In fact, her accessories seem to be both time-honored and utilitarian, like the camera bag she uses as a purse. However, practicality doesn’t always rule. Despite Olivia’s recent obsession with shades of gray and degrees of warmth, she is suddenly in the mood for neon pink nail polish, orange lipstick, and denim jackets over peach chiffon.

If you like Olivia, you might also enjoy  Tay Trong, Zana Bayne, or Angela Nam.