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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J'Adore Napoli | Image 456154

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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«I live in Naples and I will always live in Naples» - Interview with Eduardo Scarpetta

For Eduardo Scarpetta, acting is a personal matter. He says so himself in our interview, but this is confirmed by all the projects he has participated in over the past few years. From Qui rido io, a film that tells the story of his great-great-grandfather, a renowned actor and playwright who shares his name, to Storia della mia famiglia, where he plays a man facing his last day of life, it really seems like the roles he plays are tailor-made for him, each one a piece of fabric representing a different aspect of his life. Even in cases where the characters are far removed from his personal experiences, like Michele in Ferzan Özpetek's remake of Le Fate Ignoranti, or Jacopo Barberis in La Legge di Lydia Poët, Scarpetta's roles still manage to reflect his personal values, one of the actor's most profound and unyielding qualities. He tells us that acting goes beyond mere entertainment because he knows that when a project reaches millions of people, it has the power to make a difference. With his feet firmly planted on the ground and close to his roots, not even the success of the American action comedy Mafia Mamma, starring Monica Bellucci and Toni Collette, has convinced him to leave his hometown. «I live in Naples and I will always live in Naples,» he says through the screen of a video call. He talks about the Riviera di Chiaia and his rides on an electric bike through the city center streets, the chaos, Neapolitan art, what he believes in, and the projects that, for now, he keeps hidden away.

Scarpetta has experienced firsthand Naples' renaissance in Italian and international popular culture, from tourism to the Scudetto, from "Mare Fuori" to Sorrentino. «I remember when we were filming L'Amica Geniale six or seven years ago, there were at least six sets around Naples,» the actor recalls. Precisely because he is well aware of the limits and difficulties nestled in its streets, Scarpetta's love for his hometown is boundless. «At times it's unlivable, there's traffic, and total anarchy reigns,» the actor laments, but he quickly adds that if Naples weren't like this, he wouldn't be able to recognise it. After all, to truly love a place, one must have known its worst sides, as the most experienced globetrotters would say, facing its problems head-on and learning to deal with them immediately. With thirty-one years of experience in the city, Scarpetta still sees Naples with the same wonderstruck eyes as those discovering it for the first time.

«Naples is open; it always welcomes you, never sends anyone away. I always hope that, in all artistic forms, it is portrayed with the dignity and beauty it has, and not watered down or depicted poorly»

«I live in Naples and I will always live in Naples» - Interview with Eduardo Scarpetta | Image 520722
Tanktop DOLCE&GABBANA, jewels IL CORALLIERE.
«I live in Naples and I will always live in Naples» - Interview with Eduardo Scarpetta | Image 520724
Full Look GUCCI.
«I live in Naples and I will always live in Naples» - Interview with Eduardo Scarpetta | Image 520723
Full look FENDI.
«I live in Naples and I will always live in Naples» - Interview with Eduardo Scarpetta | Image 520722
Tanktop DOLCE&GABBANA, jewels IL CORALLIERE.
«I live in Naples and I will always live in Naples» - Interview with Eduardo Scarpetta | Image 520724
Full Look GUCCI.

Italy treats cinema like a box of memories rather than a blank canvas for something innovative, often doing so with Naples, stumbling into stereotypes in an attempt to sell it beyond its borders. Decade after decade, clinging to the corners of a faded postcard image, nostalgia is in command at the box office. Scarpetta, who has worked with international directors like Özpetek and Catherine Hardwicke, believes that Italy is still too attached to stories centred around male figures. «Women always end up playing “the wife of” or “the partner of”,» the actor says. «I was talking with Matilda [De Angelis] about Lydia Poët, and there are really few roles for women with guts. I have the fortune to choose.» And indeed, in 2023, he chose to fly to the States to act alongside Monica Bellucci and Toni Collette in Mafia Mamma, directed by a female director; or, the year before, he chose to work in front of Özpetek's camera for Le Fate Ignoranti. In the series, the LGBTQ+ community is portrayed in a raw, passionate, and unfiltered way, an image that now still struggles to land on Italian screens. «Honestly, if he had wanted to make the series in Italy this year, I don't know if they would have allowed it,» Scarpetta says, considering the control the Italian government is exerting over local productions. After hearing his positions on the political impact of cinema and the role of films in teaching the public fundamental values like equality and humanity, it's natural to wonder if in the near future we might see him in the director’s chair. «It will happen soon,» he says. Although he remains somewhat vague, he makes one thing clear: «I want to do it my way, with whom I choose, and in the way I want, without impositions.»

The next project in which we will see the Neapolitan actor is Storia della mia famiglia, a Netflix series directed by Claudio Cupellini that retraces the last day of Fausto's life, played by Scarpetta. «I lost my father to throat cancer when I was eleven and a half; in Storia della mia famiglia, I play a character who dies of lung cancer,» the actor tells us. «In the studies I did on the various stages of the disease, in the cough I mimicked, I found many analogies and many memories.» The series is dramatic, he adds, but it's full of comedic moments that he deeply appreciated. «And drama stems from comedy, it makes you empathise with the character so that the drama hits even harder.»

«The roles I've played are all serious ones, but I think of myself as a comic actor. Comedy is a matter of mathematics; it's a miracle that has to happen in a certain way»

«I live in Naples and I will always live in Naples» - Interview with Eduardo Scarpetta | Image 520719
T-shirt J’ADORE NAPOLI, trousers ANTIK BATIK PARIS, shoes SEBAGO.
«I live in Naples and I will always live in Naples» - Interview with Eduardo Scarpetta | Image 520721
Tanktop ANTIK BATIK PARIS, suit DIOR, necklace IL CORALLIERE.
«I live in Naples and I will always live in Naples» - Interview with Eduardo Scarpetta | Image 520720
Tanktop ANTIK BATIK PARIS, suit ZEGNA, necklace IL CORALLIERE.
«I live in Naples and I will always live in Naples» - Interview with Eduardo Scarpetta | Image 520719
T-shirt J’ADORE NAPOLI, trousers ANTIK BATIK PARIS, shoes SEBAGO.
«I live in Naples and I will always live in Naples» - Interview with Eduardo Scarpetta | Image 520721
Tanktop ANTIK BATIK PARIS, suit DIOR, necklace IL CORALLIERE.

Since Scarpetta mentioned that there might be a screenplay bearing his name hidden away somewhere in Riviera di Chiaia, one can't help but ask what genre he writes, when he writes. «Nonsense,» he says. «Because most of the time it still sends a message to society; there's always satire in nonsense.» Whether it's a late 19th-century series, a film about his great-great-grandfather's life, an all-female American action comedy, or a show about a man's last day, Scarpetta's work will never be just about entertainment. «I always try to be part of projects that aren't just ornamental; I believe our craft sends a message,» says the actor. «I always want to do something that matters.»

Photographer Carmine Romano 
Stylist Roberta Astarita 
Make up Claudia Coccoli
Ph. Assistant Luca Tarricone
Stylist assistants Mattia BoscoloMartina Parisi
Artist Eduardo Scarpetta 
Interview Adelaide Guerisoli

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