Discover Maite Catti

1. Please introduce yourself to our readers. 

My name is Maite Catti and I direct videos with a particular focus on fashion. While working on photo series’ with magazines such as Elle and Vogue in the past, I started to develop films and installations to communicate fashion in more progressive ways, exploring opportunities to further involve the viewer and make characters and clothes come alive. 

2. Can you tell us something about your year in Milan at the “Instituto Europeo di Design”? 

While studying for my MA in Fashion Communication at the Utrecht School of the Arts, I was given the opportunity to do an exchange with this institute. The Instituto Europeo di Design (IED) is completely different from the Art Academy in the Netherlands, as they are less conceptual, less liberal and more practical and technical. As such it was a great learning experience. Also, living in Via Malaga, a local community of artists in the courtyard of a former factory, was truly inspiring, with photographers, sculptors, models, musicians, painters and designers all living, working and partying together. 

3. How did you get from fashion design to fashion communication? 

Although I enjoyed designing, I also wanted to explore new platforms, to search for ways to bring narration and interaction into fashion communication. 

4. How come you speak so many languages? 

I never really studied those languages, but I was born in Spain, I have an Italian father and a Dutch mother, who communicated in French to each other. While living in Milan, Paris and London later on I was able to improve them. And at the moment I am living in São Paulo and learning Portuguese. 

5. What makes directing special to you? 

Video is a great platform for visualizing fashion, while being able to work with people from different disciplines. I love bringing together a team and seeing how everyone adds value through their own individual strengths and talent. With video you can show art and fashion with narration, movement and sound, and it is a particularly strong medium to translate moods and emotions. 

6. How do you personally define “fashionclash” or “a clash with fashion” for yourself? 

For me fashionclash is communicating fashion in alternative ways, for example by showing it through different media as video and installations. Due to technological innovations and the increasing amount of new platforms it is possible to innovate and influence the standards of how fashion is communicated and interpreted.