A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

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When we talk about Naples, we always have the feeling that we are talking about something new, incredibly exotic, particularly remote and absolutely attractive. At the same time, Naples never changes in the media narrative that has always accompanied it, it remains immobile, anchored in a mixture of tradition and superstition that made it a difficult time to understand. But if you step away from the clichés and look at Naples' development with the necessary distance, it's not all that different from other Italian cities. The modern explosion of Naples is in fact not an explosion, but a development that the Covid pandemic slowed down but could not stop. To those who tell you that 2023 represented the explosion of the city, answer with the data of the 2018/2019 biennium, which talked about Capodichino airport as the airport with the highest growth rate in Europe, or the cultural ferment that had higher traits than the current one. Of course, Napoli had not yet won the Scudetto, but thanks to this work they would soon.

More than five years ago, the idea of the New Naples was born, from a Nu Genea recording that wants to narrate a city that reappropriates its origins, to revive something that recalls the past, but in a contemporary key. A simple recipe, it seems: tell Naples to those who did not know it; reveal secrets, Napoli Segreta, and hope everyone falls in love with the city. Well, that's what happened.

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The new digital cover of nss magazine takes as its starting point the desire to tell this success in depth, to move away from the simple celebrations of today and examine who built it today, while still remaining the protagonist. It is thanks to these widespread protagonists that the public has come to appreciate and love Naples. In fact, to adore it.

Indeed, the editorial that opens this project has a name that accompanies the entire project: J'Adore Napoli. A tribute to certain stylistic elements of the 2000s as well as to an idea of aesthetic and tourist Neapolitanism at a time when the tourist core seems to be making it master again.

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But J'Adore Napoli is more than an editorial, it's a narrative rebranding project of a city, inspired by what Milton Glaser did in the back of a taxi in the 1970s when he was commissioned to design a logo that could revitalise tourism from New York. From this sketch came perhaps the greatest city branding campaign of all time, which has shaped the idea of New York souvenirs and fashion associated with the city. J'Adore Napoli is a tribute to the city, a range of souvenir products that every tourist or city lover should have. A defined branding that ranges from fashion to football to lifestyle and aesthetics. A physical pop-up project that, as of today, will be accompanied by an online shop that you can access in advance by signing up for the nss magazine newsletter.

 

 

People who love Napoli

Photographer and Video Direction Eleonora D’Angelo 
Videomaker Roberto Bontà Politi 
Stylist Francesca Donnarumma 
MUAH Emanuela Farano 
Text Francesco Abazia
Art Director Alessandro Bigi 
Ediatorial Coordiantors Elisa AmbrosettiEdoardo Lasala
Photographer Assistant Matilde Gucciardi 
MUAH Assistant Claudia Coccoli 
Models La VesuviaManuela Renza BassoliElisa Del GenioGiovanni BuselliGianluca SpagnoliLuisa FormatoValerio MutoRoberta MingoCiro Tolomelli

Special thanks to Mimì alla Ferrovia.
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J'Adore Pino D'Angiò

The story of Pino D’Angiò is one of redemption that ended up changing the life not only of the singer-songwriter but also of all his collaborators, the city of Naples, and an entire new generation of lovers of Italian disco. Born in Pompeii in 1952, D’Angiò was one of the leading figures of the disco genre abroad, having reached the top of international charts in 1980 with the now-iconic song Ma Quale Idea. We call it iconic because, more than forty years later, it still echoes in the clubs and most renowned theatres in Italy, from the Apollo in Milan to the Ariston in Sanremo.It was precisely there that Pino D’Angiò’s voice, although weakened by several illnesses and surgeries, broke into the hearts of a new audience, from the stage of DiscoStupenda—an event organised by producer and DJ TommiBoy—at the 74th edition of the Italian Song Festival, where he was invited by the competing group Bnkr44 for the cover night. The figure of Pino D’Angiò transcends eras and generations, having always been adulated by the United States but only recently rediscovered by the Italian public. His incomparable sound, which sticks in your head and runs through your veins, making even those who normally don’t feel like dancing move their feet, has been widely recognised through awards (he was the only Italian to receive ASCAP’s Rhythm & Soul Music Award in 2001) and prestigious invitations (the only Italian invited to Sony Music's World Tribute to the Funk in 2003). But what made Pino D’Angiò a voice apart from the rest was his personality—exuberant, and surprisingly paternal. He was the black sheep of Italian music: he didn’t even want to be a singer in the '80s, yet one song was enough for him to break through abroad. He didn’t want to return to performing in 2023 either, yet one concert was enough for him to realise that, in the end, he had never really left.

«Pino changed my life, but we really changed each other's» — Tommiboy

The latest project from the Italian singer-songwriter, “J’Adore Pino D’Angiò – Recorded in Naples,” brings together not only his greatest hits but also the places and people who have supported him in recent years: his band, his son Francesco Chierchia, collaborator TommiBoy, Bnkr44, and even Naples, the cultural cradle of Italian disco. The album was recorded in Posillipo, against the blue backdrop of a terrace overlooking Vesuvius, and it was a true open-air concert that caught the attention of the entire neighbourhood, with people leaning out of their windows to watch the last show of the master of Italian disco.The project began to take shape two years ago when TommiBoy convinced D’Angiò’s son, Francesco Chierchia, to give him his father’s phone number. «He didn’t want to go back to performing; I spent months trying to convince him until, in the end, he said, ‘Enough, you’ve worn me out, I’ll come, and let’s just do what we need to,’» recalls the founder of DiscoStupenda. «I was thrilled to work with my idol, who I later realised was like a second father to me.» The night at the Apollo was a success, bustling with young people who couldn’t wait to sing along with D’Angiò, who, in turn, was completely surprised by how well his music aligned with the tastes of the new generations. From that moment, the funk of Ma Quale Idea took off again, climbing international charts and taking its author on a special world tour, accompanied by an all-Napolitan live band, leading up to his collaboration with Bnkr44 on the Sanremo stage.

«He wanted to make fun of the stereotypes of the time, sometimes he enjoyed writing very serious texts, others very ironic, but always with a touch of realism» — Francesco Chierchia

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If in the 1980s the irony of Ma Quale Idea went unnoticed—perhaps a victim of a culture still tied to the very macho figure that D’Angiò was mocking in the song—it finally received the recognition it deserved in 2023. «He wanted to make fun of the stereotypes of the time says Chierchia, recalling his father’s brilliance. «Sometimes he enjoyed writing very serious lyrics, other times very ironic ones, but always with a touch of realism.» And while the “Dandy” persona, as Chierchia calls it, would disappear as soon as D’Angiò stepped off the stage, the lightness and humour of his songs remained intact even away from the spotlight. For Andrea Balbucea, D’Angiò’s keyboardist, he was «the most star-like star I’ve ever seen, without being one at all,» while guitarist Alessio Pignorio remembers, «He managed to disarm us all with his jokes, to the point that we just stared at him, not knowing whether he was serious or joking.» For all his colleagues, D’Angiò was an idol turned father figure, a friend with exceptional magnetism who, as TommiBoy puts it, made you dream of having known him during the golden age of disco music. «We often joked that it would have been great to do everything we did together in the '80s—we would’ve loved to be the same age.» However, the age gap that separated the singer-songwriter from his collaborators was only superficial, as Bnkr44 recalls, and in fact, it became one of many things that D’Angiò could draw upon for his jokes. «Working with Pino has been one of the most fun and spontaneous experiences of our career,» the members of Bnkr44 say. «There was a natural connection, a shared humour, and a bond that felt both fraternal and paternal at the same time.» Together, they reinterpreted Ma Quale Idea for the 74th edition of the Sanremo Festival.

«He was an example of how to do this life, of what it means: I met an intelligent, cultured, tender, strong, ironic, funny person. The biggest star I have ever seen, without being one at all» — Andrea Balbucea

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Beyond the intoxicating sound and surprising irony of his songs, what will truly stay with us from D’Angiò is the uninhibited way he got back in the game. The same freedom and unruliness remembered by Chierchia, TommiBoy, Balbucea, Pignorio, and Bnkr44 were the winning elements of his comeback—a genuine way of being that reached ever-wider audiences precisely because he had no intention of doing so. As TommiBoy puts it, he chose to return to singing not because he wanted to «re-enter the mainstream world» but to «have fun,» and the same was true for his tour, the Sanremo performance, and the live concert in Posillipo—his final career project. «We decided to do what he liked in a world that had completely changed compared to forty years ago.» And if that isn’t the very essence of Neapolitan disco-funk: freedom, the desire to have fun, and a healthy dose of groove.

Mix & Master Maurizio Loffredo presso "Gli Artigiani Studio" - Formello (RM)
Photographer Francesco Freddo
Cover Art Director Alessandro Bigi
Editorial Coordinator Francesco Abazia
Producer Elisa Ambrosetti, Cecilia Corsetti
Creative Director Gianluigi Peccerillo
Project Manager Alessia Sciotto
Interview Adelaide Guerisoli
Special Thanks to Tommiboy

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