Creativity isn't something that needs to be visual or artistic in the sense of a musician or a director or anything like that. I think creativity is the way that you go through life every day. It's the way that you find new ways of observing, new ways of adapting and new ways of making your life work, finding a new way to do things
Dark brown Kapok trees tower over you, softly contrasting the rich green grass and moss that lies upon their base. You can hear water flow in the distance and the twigs break underneath your feet as you take another step. Mushrooms sprout from the ground in various places, all different shapes and colors, some rounded and small, some flat and wide. Underneath, you can see the intricate natural patterns, all different from each other, each unique. All different, yet connected, connected by a thread throughout the entire ecosystem. The trees, the mushrooms, the streams, even the twigs on the ground, all exist together in harmony. This is the world Alessandro Tondolo takes us to, with his eponymous label Tondolo. His masterful layering, tailoring techniques, color, and fabric selection draw us into an environment only he can create so vividly. I had the chance to sit with him following his Spring-Summer 26 Collection press release to discuss his motivations, techniques, and background.
I know you've expressed interest in nature's fungi, mushrooms, and so on. When did the interest in fashion and nature start, and how did the two intertwine?
Alessandro Tondolo: Fashion was funny, it started sort of atypical, I was always into drawing things like anime and Marvel & DC superheroes from a young age. I loved fantasy like Lord of the Rings, and I always liked to create my own characters. I was decent at drawing, other than like the faces, so I would focus more on the outerwear and what the characters were wearing. That's where I started to discover the power of a jacket or the clothes someone is wearing, or when you watch films you can see how the outfit can inform who the character is. Then I started looking at Diesel back in the 2000s and a lot of niche artists, Rick [Owens] was still pretty niche back then.
And what about nature?
Alessandro Tondolo: It has always been something that has fascinated me. I wasn’t aware it would take such a hold on me but I’ve always been aware of how fashion has a negative impact on the environment. We never second guess where and how a lot of stuff is made. Obviously, like a lot of it has to do with privilege, like if you have the privilege to actually look and everything, it's become so, so easy for everyone to gain clothing that you don't think about it anymore, because sometimes it's also uncomfortable to think about it. This fast cycle that we live in, everything gets thrown away so quickly. We don't, we don't bat a eye, we throw a t-shirt out or not. But also with my Mexican heritage and Switzerland where I grew up, we were really aware of that which is beautiful. In Switzerland we were also so close to nature, there's so many little like woods and forests that you can go to and escape. I do kind of miss that from london just...touching grass
He talked about his time working on his master’s collection at Central Saint Martin’s. He wanted to make a focal point of his collection about mushrooms and their interconnectivity. What they represent in their ecosystem. His professors pushed back on his idea, not sure of the direction he wanted to take the collection. Alessandro wanted to take the idea deeper; he wanted to highlight the structures—especially the lamellae—and how they work together, and the often-overlooked parts deeply inspired him. He says, “I mean, in our busy lives. We seldom just stand back and look around, look at the plant. Look at the leaves. Look at the little structures. I find it beautiful. That's where like my fascination comes from, because I did forget that for a while.”
I was talking with a friend about one of your hoodies, and it was interesting. He said it resembled wood grain, like when you cut open a tree. Then, researching and seeing you talk more about the mushrooms, it did remind me of the connectivity. Do you think about that connectivity between pieces you’re producing for your collection?
Alessandro Tondolo: Yeah, we take it serious to certain extent, but we also need to think about like, sellability, commerciality, and everything. But so far, it's been a bit of a little story. So we started again, underground with the mushroom, the mycelium. It's something that connects to trees to create this web of information in a forest. So the next step for us was, looking at trees, looking at bark, that was the spring-summer collection, that's currently now in stores, it was inspired by different maple trees, especially like the maple bark trees. And then that kind of idea of how it grows. From there, we moved on to branches, which was the last collection. And then now we're at leaves, which is a funny joke. This collection is called, Folia Crescunt Inventum, which is Latin and means, leaves grow in the wind. Leaves are the things that often, you see it as a whole thing, but you forget to look at it as a singular aspect. It's something so vital for a tree.
Further, Alessandro Tondolo mentioned that this also ties into his brand being smaller currently, maybe because of the muted colors and not submitting to trends. Leaves Growing in the Wind resembles resistance; even in the wind, the leaves will still grow. He says, “We believe that we need to grow together; we need to work together to be more wholesome. There's a lot of sad stuff happening again. At the end of the day, fashion, we're not changing the world, but the little platform that we have, we hope to be a bit more mindful and holistic and bring in a community together.”
Alessandro Tondolo’s garments are highlighted by their uniqueness and creativity. We discussed how he incorporates pieces of himself into his work and keeps a consistent design language. He said this has to do with his ethnicity and upbringing. “I like to be very uncomplicated, easy on the go. I love to dress nicely, but sometimes, especially if you work in fashion, especially creating and everything, you don't have time to like look your best, just time-wise because you're gonna be in the studio, interacting with your team, you're not gonna be like in press events, you don't need to look fancy, but I still like to look good. I still like to do things that will bring me joy, but also will not make my life harder.”. Following this, he showed me exclusive pieces from the current collection. The outerwear was in a league of its own; the long sleeves and vest also stood out, with his signature design elements. A great through line in the pieces was their functionality, along with their beautiful design. He showed the lightweight hoodies and jackets, along with explaining the new materials he was using to make them fit for the summer weather. He added that he views the topic of climate change very seriously.
Although he still wants to incorporate some of his wilder ideas, “I still need to find that balance, so I always try to do this 30-70 approach, 30% is a bit more outlandish, a bit louder, a bit more experimental, and then 70% is the things that may not be shown on cover magazines, everything, but they get bought because they're cool, they're simple, and it's a staple piece that you can integrate into your wardrobe.”
We delved a bit more into his heritage and upbringing, the stark contrast of growing up between Mexico and Switzerland, and also his Italian heritage, with his dad’s side being from Italy. Usually, you would hear someone with so many different cultural backgrounds gravitate to one more than the other. Alessandro talked about each with pride and how he was thankful for the way they shaped his life and view on fashion in their respective ways. “I was always forced to adapt or change my environment, which made it easy for me to just observe and then try to assimilate in that, not to change my identity, because I have my own identity, and I promise you that takes time to kind of understand who you are. But yeah, I'm quite sure of who I am.”
Shifting back to fashion, I asked Alessandro Tondolo to describe his days in university at CSM and how that experience was for him. He pointed to being unsure at first of how his brand would work, mostly because of how time-consuming the pieces are to produce, and also because he doesn’t use any synthetic materials. The time to be creative and develop ideas was a bit more generous compared to owning his own business now, he added. Citing having to do a lot of the things no one wants to do, constantly ordering materials, and managing production. “You don't have to think about making money during your M.A. Collection.”. He even mentioned wishing he had prepared a bit more for his career after graduating, and hopes future students will. “I think it is important that you do prepare yourself a little bit better on what comes afterwards, because you often feel quite empty after, because you do your master's and you're busy 24/7, then you come out of it and you don't know what to do. “Hey, what's coming next?” The market is so saturated, getting jobs is so difficult. I mean, I was lucky enough to be approached by two really nice brands, but I was so sure that I was already doing my own thing. But I have friends who haven't had the luck of finding nice jobs. So it's not easy, it's not easy at all.” Even though in his own words he says, “It’s not their job.”, he wishes universities to help students who are very talented and creatively navigate the business side of the industry post-graduation.
What would be your biggest piece of advice for anybody just graduating from uni? And like you said, kind of feeling left in this feeling of emptiness.
Alessandro Tondolo: Just be aware of who you are, don't try to build something on a trend, because a trend might get you a lot of reaction quickly, but if you're a designer and you're just solely built on that trend, it's gonna go away as quick as it came. I think a lot of people especially with with instagram, tiktok and all the social media. You are you feel like you're expected to like just like grow up overnight. Sometimes it's good to start small because then you can scale it bigger, a bit easier. I think because we were approached by Dover Street Market and an SSense, straight after our union we were like, okay, we need to have a collection. Well, I think for us maybe would have been good to just have a capsule of three to four pieces and then grow that. For us we had like 20 pieces and then 40 pieces and that’s tough, especially for a small team, I have one person Leo who's like my right hand side and the rest are my interns. It's kind of difficult to keep track of everything that we're doing and sometimes you get excited you have so many ideas but it's important to know when to drop those ideas and when to cut them.
To wrap things up, I asked Alessandro one last question.
How do you define creativity in your own words?
Alessandro Tondolo: Creativity isn't something that needs to be visual or artistic in the sense of a musician or a director or anything like that. I think creativity is the way that you go through life every day. It's the way that you find new ways of observing, new ways of adapting and new ways of making of making your life work, finding a new way to do things. Parkour is a perfect example. I mean, sometimes it looks really stupid if you don’t know how to do it properly but if you know how to do it, it's a creative way of expressing yourself.
