Bangkok--30 Apr--Saint Tropez
The collaboration between Massimo Vitali and Vilebrequin was inevitable: Vitali has been passionately photographing beaches all over the world for the past 20 years, and Vilebrequin has been dressing the chicest bathers since 1971. Together, they conceived an exceptional capsule collection where image, subject, and object come together thanks to a unique process of image manipulation.
An open-air gallery
Vilebrequin, the quintessential maker of high-end swimsuits, invited Massimo Vitali, the master of contemporary photography, to transform the beach into an open-air gallery. Just like Vilebrequin, Vitali invented a style. From the Venice Biennial to Art Basel Miami, his large-format, inescapable works transport you to beaches filled with bathers, where the water is crystalline and the horizon stretches as far as the eye can see. Vitali’s style is often imitated but never equaled. Very few have ever captured with such brilliance the beauty of a coastline and its ephemeral inhabitants.
The beach as philosophy
On Vitali’s beachscapes, we are invited to contemplate a careful and graceful vision of society. His success later in life, at age 50, gave him the necessary distance to achieve this—he has been called “the oldest photographer of the young generation.” Based in Lucca, Vitali began his career in the movie business, as a director of photography, before devoting himself to taking pictures. Since the 1990s, he has been passionately photographing beaches in his native Italy and all over the world. Vitali’s images are far from ornamental, and through them he aims to leave behind a testimony of the state of the world. For him, beaches are a form of philosophy. “They are a key to explain our lives,” he says. “Bathing allows us to wash away our problems and our sins. I think of beaches as contemporary purgatories.”
Image manipulation
The collaboration with Vilebrequin needed to happen in a way that made sense to Vitali. “This project was interesting because it went further than the images I usually make,” he explains. If we look closely at Vitali’s Vilebrequin photograph, we can see that the image itself appears on the bathing suits of several of the bathers, creating an endless sense of illusion. The technique is resolutely contemporary, but the atmosphere it creates is timeless. “We were looking for emblematic locales in the French Riviera that evoked the joy of the holidays in the 1970s,” Vitali continues. He chose the island of Porquerolles, near Hyeres, one of the few well-preserved vacation spots left on the Mediterranean that maintain a sense of authenticity. Vitali’s image appears in a capsule collection consisting of a Moorea swimsuit, the house’s iconic model, and a tote bag. The elements in the landscape are transformed in layers of color that go from azure blue to verdant green and sandy beige.
A reference point when it comes to swimsuits, Vilebrequin has cultivated elegance and fantasy for the past 40 years, staying true to the lighthearted charm and spirit of its origins in St Tropez. Vilebrequin swimsuits are durable and never go out of style. They stand the test of time, across generations of fathers and sons. Vilebrequin, an ambassador for the art of living under the sun, is uniting its men’s and women’s collections in a line of swimsuits, ready to wear, and accessories. Through this collaboration with Massimo Vitali, the house expresses its support of contemporary art and the preservation of coastlines.