Paola Navone

ed: What did you do last Sunday?

pn: I was in Trieste, a very special and energizing city. Blue sea and windy sky. A place where food, languages and religions are mixed together in an extraordinary cultural contamination. You feel in the middle of nowhere. You feel that everything is possible.

ed: How important is fashion to you and what’s your favourite piece of clothing?

pn: I have a very strong attraction only for very few things. I keep as piece of art some timeless pieces by Romeo Gigli’s earliest collections, and some amazing pieces designed by Issey Miyake. But my everyday point of reference in fact of fashion is Asha Sarabhai, an Indian designer, I love the timeless beauty and simplicity of her creations. All my wooI comes from Eskandar since ever. Everything is mixed together with T-shirts and little else. Everything leaves for many years. Everything is mixed together.

ed: What book or film would you recommend and why?

pn: A book. WABI-SABI for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers by Leonard Koren. It’s an extraordinary book about the beauty of simplicity. About the wonder of imperfect, impermanent, incomplete and unconventional things.

ed: You have the chance to initiate a cultural revolution. What will you do?

pn: I am a dreamer. I like to imagine that everything I do, trying new ways, is a little revolution. In design I like to promote little accident. In life I like to provoque surprise.

ed: What is your favourite travel destination and what hotel/resort should everyone visit at least once in their lifetime?

pn: I’m a passionate traveller. To travel has always been a pleasure for me, a style of life, a way to thinking, a necessity. I can travel for many days or for few hours. I can take a trip to a flea market hunting for antics, to Tibet to discover new kitchen tools, to Greece to swim and catch sea urcins, to a supermarket to look for food, to Africa to look for indigo textiles, to Venice for the art biennal, to Shanghai to meet friends, to my favourite bar for a drink.

ed: What was in your opinion the biggest ever faux pas in architecture/design/art/fashion?

pn: There are no faux pas in life. Only decisions.

ed: Who has influenced you most?

pn: The thousands of people I met in my gipsy life.

ed: How would you define “cultural identity”?

pn: I spend my time promoting contamination between things, styles and cultures. My idea of “cultural identity” is a rich and colourful melting pot.

ed: When is an idea a “good” idea?

pn: When you decide that an idea is the right one.

ed: At last but not least: you are entitled to a single question. What would you ask?

pn: What do you like for dinner?