The new aesthetics of Milan according to Coma Cose and SHOE

Fashion is changing. In a world where the future seems ever closer, trends and styles continue to evolve following the needs of new and increasingly younger audiences. It is a change that can be felt on the streets of Milan - and of which SHOE, the brand founded in 2006 by Marco Samorè, has become a spokesman by signing easy and informal but above all genderless collections to dress a new generation. Since its inception, the brand has grown up to the opening of the first Milanese flagship store in Brera and, for this new and important step, it has collaborated with a duo of singers who of the Milanese aesthetic are two experts: the Coma Cose. It was to them, who among other things are preparing to launch a new album, that we asked a few questions about the city and how the style of its streets has evolved. «Milan is a city that we love and that we feel moves and transforms symbiotically with us», the two said. «Perhaps it is so varied that there is not just one Milan but in the same city there are so many micro-worlds and ways of experiencing it that you never get tired of it». And of evolutions there were: Milan was the stage for the hipster movement that Coma Cose had chronicled in Inverno Ticinese, but also the main junction of the streetwear phenomenon that was reflected in the title of their first album Hype Aura. 

A series of vintages, including the two Nostralgia's second album, in which the duo's relationship with fashion has also evolved. «For us, fashion is like the music we make», the two explained. «We also like to mix different genres but the elements must be few, neat and chromatically consistent. Going back to the era we live in, an artist's aesthetic is almost becoming a problem, a look lasts the time of a shot and if you invest too much energy in it you run the risk of misleading your followers by deviating from musician to influencer in a few steps. For us, fashion should reflect our daily personality». A discourse that is well suited not only to two creatives who have experienced Milan on their skin for years but who feel the need for a sincerity and frankness that the lightning-fast cycles of contemporary trends instead exclude. One can understand from here the birth of their connection with SHOE - a brand that of an authentic and informal language has made its stylistic signature. A kind of feeling also recalled in their album: «We felt the need to stop and write about the feelings we were experiencing out of the blue, the idea of feeling sucked into the vortex of a "preconstituted" path was narrowing us down. In our opinion, it's time to stop and talk about the fact that it's not all sunshine and roses, making problems explicit is always the first step to solving them».

The renewed focus on social and ethical issues, the turning without false retreat to reality, also has a correspondence in SHOE's attention to ethics. Indeed, over the years the brand has invested heavily in sustainability through a collaboration with Treedom to plant new trees around the world, making packaging with 40 percent recycled plastic as well as lines of down jackets and beach shorts produced using entirely recycled plastic bottles. The opening of the Brera flagship will take this strategy even further, becoming a collection point for secondhand garments that will be destined for recycling and reuse. A concern for the world in which it operates, coming at one of the brand's greatest moments of expansion, which corresponds to the shift in gear and commitment that Coma Cose wants to transpire in the new album. «Now that our fan base has greatly expanded, we feel the desire to share ethical reflections on the present», explained to us the two who, among other things, in preparation for the release of the record took a break from social media, from the «cosmic bewilderment» which stems from the fact that «being up there one always feels that everything has already been done. By detaching instead, we are able to give space to the more normal things in our lives. In general, social is slowly transforming, and in the welter of information having a more unified communication makes it clearer who you are».

Photos Mattia Guolo

Styling Giorgia Cantarini

Mua Assia Caiazzo