Marta Represa: Where are you both?

Lotta Volkova: Paris.

Gaia Repossi: Both of us.

Marta: How have you been since all this began?

Gaia: It’s been different phases. On the one hand, I definitely had a sort of panic about being forced to isolate and change my routine, as well as the lack of
human contact and the inevitable work reset. But on the other hand, it was also pretty wonderful to have time. I was explaining to my team, if we’ve been kind of slow, it’s only because we’ve had the time to prepare everything and look deeper into our needs and what we want. It’s very strange, though; a lot of things have come out of this rethinking.

Lotta: I’ve been in a sort of love-hate relationship with the situation. The first couple of weeks I really, really enjoyed it. I never imagined this could happen to
us, to have this break during which the whole world stops, and you are forced to stop. It’s not like you’re missing out on something; it’s a complete detachment
from anything and everything. And I was really enjoying living this newly found, reckless, irresponsible lifestyle, like a teenager, hanging out, chilling, watching movies, catching up with this endless list that had accumulated over the years, rediscovering little hobbies. After a couple of weeks, it started to wear off, and then we heard there was another month of quarantine, and that meant obviously no travelling, no kind of physical freedom whatsoever. Suddenly it starts to get to you. It’s emotionally extreme, in a way. As we don’t even know what’s really going to happen, we can’t really make plans; we don’t know if it’s going to be another two or three months or six. The whole of 2020 has been crossed off the calendar.

Marta: Have you been able to keep any sense of work-related normalcy?

Lotta: My job is about communicating with people and about collaboration; at least, that’s how I look at it. All that has been really put on hold. Now everyone is asking the question of how we’re going to do editorial shoots. Everyone is trying to create solutions, but there’s still a lot of questions. I’ve just signed a new client, so we have started our meetings via Skype and Zoom, and that’s been quite fun. Normally I’m quite video shy, so I really had to overcome this. It’s interesting to start a new experience with someone you’ve never met.

Gaia: Except for the calmer environment, nothing has really changed. I meet online with the studio head and the design team, and it’s almost the same dynamic. I spend half the days with them, then I also need my time to draw. It’s the same process, just done through a screen, but we are having to think out of the box. Do we need as many collections? My principal desire now is to come up with something for next year that will be strong enough to be a hit within these new expectations, which are massive. I’ve literally been asked to rethink our entire proposition because of this situation, environmental expectations and a flooded market.

Marta: And then there are the safety concerns.

Gaia: We don’t want to take risks, so we’re not going to the studio. A few people will go in from next week to use the 3D printers and do mock ups.

Lotta: How are you guys doing the prototypes? Have any of your designers actually been making things at home?

Gaia: We have the 3D pros; one of them can actually sculpt things. We’re still at the drawing part of the process, though. We have more time, because instead of June we’re now delivering for September. We’re producing about 10% of what was planned for the year. We’ve been able to go back to concepts and ideas that stand out, and that’s precious.

Lotta: I function best when I’m in movement; I find calmness within that somehow. I get so many work-related ideas in planes and trains; I’m so used to that.
Going out into the world, seeing people and contemplating life is also a very important part of what I do. These days I’m going inside myself, exploring art, books and films for a different kind of inspiration, while everything has been put on hold. That’s not in itself a bad idea. I agree that the fashion industry has been spinning out of control at such speed that no one really knew where they were going and no one knew how to stop it. A positive thing we can take from this strange situation is the time to rethink, to look back on what we’ve been doing and aspects of the industry. Time in general; you need time to develop things. There’s so much overproduction of clothes, and I’m not really sure we need that many or will want to spend that much money on them. We need to rethink the industry and make it more human; give people time and rest.

Gaia: There’s also going to be a chain reaction as a consequence of all this, including an economic recession. Generally, when you’re challenged, when you have fewer means, you’re forced to come up with better. We’re a generation still following what the previous one was doing in terms of patterns, collections, and presentations – and they have even grown in recent years. So we need to ask the question: do we need all these collections, these presentations. Lotta, you work with brands that have been aiming to change the whole system.

Lotta: That’s what I always find quite funny: they try to change it and then they always sort of fall back into the same positions. That’s how it’s been over the last couple of decades. Like, there’s a trend for a different type of casting, more real faces, but then suddenly everyone goes back to supermodels. It’s funny how the industry has to go back to what it’s used to and comfortable with. But now we’ll definitely – hopefully – need to change the way we look at things.

Gaia: Doing that would count as a success. Those that can change should. The generation behind us is so much more prepared than we are, especially the young students fresh out of fashion school. Whenever I do a talk, the only questions I get from them are, ‘Will the industry change? Will it become sustainable?’ We have to listen.

Marta: Will it be possible to return to fashion’s pre-Covid comfort zone now? We’ll no longer be travelling across the world for a day’s work, for example.

Lotta: That’s not really needed – Zoom works! We really need to look at what’s essential, and reduce certain completely outlandish aspects of it. Essential travel will need to happen, but there’s just so much that has been going on that has been unnecessary.

Marta: How will shoots change, for instance?

Lotta: I haven’t really thought about it until now. I feel like there have been a lot of similar ideas going on, like doing Skype or FaceTime covers. Which is fair
enough, because during quarantine it has been the only way to do it. I’m just starting to think about this. I hope we will work more locally, with local talent, and try to think of other ways even if, right now, it’s all a kind of mystery.

Gaia: In our company, we are lucky to have a big space, but if we need to see each other, it will still have to be a maximum three people at a time. Other than
that we’ll be rotating or continuing to telework, and we’re not thinking of travelling for work until September. Even if expenses will be drastically cut, people ike you, Lotta, need to keep producing imagery, because if we can’t gather together, then we’re going to need to showcase our pieces somehow. So image is key right now, whether it’s digital or otherwise.

Lotta: It needs to remain as strong as possible. It’s one of the only ways of promoting and somehow showing what you do and your product. Right now the
methods that we can use to work are very limiting.

Gaia: If only three people can gather at one time, that means mini-productions. Other than that, people have been talking about virtual presentations and
showrooms, with everything becoming even more digital. I mean, look at us now; there are ways to do it and image shouldn’t be sacrificed: consumers need to feel that the brand they’re looking has a soul. Objects are not enough.

Marta: Will fashion weeks change significantly as a result of this?

Gaia: I think so. Have you seen that the men’s and haute couture might go digital? Virtual presentations and imagery will be key, or maybe it will be small
gatherings, old school one-to-one presentations…

Lotta: But you can’t just switch everything to digital. For now, there’s nothing we can do. I’m sure the fashion weeks in September and October are also going
to be cancelled. Brands will have to do digital presentations, but I don’t know even how that’s going to work, just in terms of hiring models. Or will they be some kind of edited video or animation? It’s great that people are trying to find new ways of doing things, though. On the other hand, it will be a shame to miss the real, physical experience and that rush you get when you see a show and it’s all unexpected and exciting. Fashion can be an art form, and you need to have an emotional response, that special feeling. It would be a shame to swap that for a Fifth Element world. Again, as we said, fashion – unfortunately or fortunately – always falls back on its old ways, so possibly next year, if there’s no new Covid, fashion weeks might be back.

Gaia: But the recession will be real.

Lotta: Young designers and small brands are going to be hit so hard, and unfortunately a lot of them will go out of business. Luxury brands will lose cash flow for sure, and cut budgets majorly and brutally for future projects, but they’ll survive.

Gaia: They’re going to have to reinvent themselves regardless. Smaller, family businesses are going to have to rethink their whole strategy or put the key under the door, which is really sad. Even big houses are going to be hit massively and are going to have to react. At the same time that will force change, so hopefully some good ideas will come out of that. Finding new purpose, creating for the Earth, being green. Thinking as a customer, a lot of brands are going to be selling comfortable clothes. Like what you’re wearing, Lotta.

Lotta: As a stylist, I obviously use voguerunway.com, and it’s shocking to look at all those brands and hundreds of shows a season and think, what would I actually buy? I mean, I buy a lot of clothes. I’m obsessed.

Gaia: You made the right choice with your Adidas collaboration! [Laughs] Which is what you’re wearing right now!

Lotta: I am!

Gaia: We’re now looking for comfortable clothes more than elegant ones. Things like, I don’t know, cute little pyjamas with a strawberry print. That’s what’s selling now.

Lotta: I bought two pairs of pyjamas in the past two weeks! [Laughs]

Gaia: It’s what we need.

Lotta: But it’s just as important to think about what we don’t need. There are a lot of brands producing clothes I don’t find necessary.

Gaia: Has your closet really been inactive for two months?

Lotta: My closet has been having a very exciting revival-recycling moment. I’ve been wearing all its street looks while walking my dog. And it’s having a good
sunglasses moment, too!

Gaia: I have been wearing my yoga gear outside; I don’t care.

Marta: Fashion is also about dressing up and gathering, during fashion weeks and at other events. Can the fashion community continue to exist without that real-life contact?

Lotta: I’m quite surprised that there’s so much happening on Instagram. At the beginning I wasn’t really participating in anything, but now I’m a bit bored, I’ve started to look for things – and there’s so much going on, almost too much! For instance, last night, I was listening to this Nina Kraviz live DJ set from Russia in my bath, then doing an online yoga class, then there was an online dance routine. It’s been very entertaining, just in a very different way. Although, yes, personal connection has definitely been missing, and it’s a shame.

Gaia: Social media is bringing people closer in this situation, and it’s funny because all the links I had – professional links that are also friendly ones after working together for 10 years – have been connecting, sometimes even more, and not just to discuss work directly, more like regularly checking in.

Lotta: I’ve been FaceTiming with lots of friends from around the world who in normal circumstances I wouldn’t have had time to see because I’d be working,
travelling or jetlagged.

Gaia: It feels like we’re living in the 1960s, but with more technology.

Lotta: Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, WhatsApp… I’ve been using them all for work to talk to clients. We’ll see if that starts changing as regulations progressively
loosen. Right now, everyone is talking about promoting things on Instagram stories; that’s pretty much the tool.

Gaia: Communication at the moment is key, especially anything that can spark a thought or emotion. But our communications have also been really straightforward; for instance, we have been more descriptive than usual in the e-shop because when stores reopen in Paris, how it will be? Will there be plastic sheets at the tills? Will we accept cash? Will customers be helped by a lady in a mask? Like this Matrix shopping experience.

Marta: How do you combine those safety standards with welcoming the client and creating a community?

Gaia: I think it’s about sticking to online shopping for now. If you really want to try something on why not, but to me, it feels a bit surreal.

Lotta: I never really used to shop online. Now I’m changing my habits, but I do miss going to the store and trying something on, sometimes being surprised by certain things. I still love the old-school process of going to a place, being received, having the time to discover, touch fabrics. I don’t find items well-presented online. It can be frustrating.

Marta: There are a lot of returns with online shopping as well.

Gaia: There are, and we’ll have to be a lot more permissive going forward, too. ‘Sure, try it on, think about it.’ [Laughs] The industry was taken by surprise, and it’s not like it’s exactly full of tech people.

Lotta: All the younger brands are a lot more efficient, though.

Gaia: Yeah, they were ready.

Marta: Do you think the wider industry will go greener?

Gaia: We don’t really have a choice. A lot of people have been talking about it, and we’ll definitely need to go with it. We already have a few projects in the
company, and they’re definitely going to be validated now. We are three generations: the more senior that handles the company; then there’s us, and we’re super sensitive to it; and then there’s the youngest, which is pointing its fingers towards us, asking, ‘What are you doing? Why aren’t you changing things?’ I still have a size of company that allows that kind of questioning. For bigger structures it might be more of a challenge, but the recession will allow the combination. Look around: there’s no pollution; there’s no need for anything. We’re not going to have the means to produce as much or generate as many expenses. Fashion week pollutes as well.

Marta: That raises the question of wholesale. Gaia, how do you usually do wholesale and will that change?

Gaia: It depends. Sometimes we just launch a collection through images, sometimes we do one-on-one presentations in our showroom. So that’s not going to change much, except there’s going to be even less product. I’d like to get creative and express more through fun storytelling with the theme of the collection; maybe invite talents to think freely about interpreting it. Then there’s this big discussion: do people need collections or just individual items?

Lotta: I think with jewellery that’s part of it; you can do things your own way.

Gaia: Maybe it’s more interesting to edit the collections into items.

Marta: What are you looking forward to and not looking forward to the next few months?

Lotta: I think it will be quite scary to see lots of people on the streets all of a sudden. The other day I was walking around the neighbourhood and I saw a bunch of people approaching me, and I honestly started to get really anxious.

Gaia: I’m scared for the people I love, and my teams. We were all quite exposed during the last fashion week, but now with the desire to reopen the economy… I do wonder whether the decisions that are being taken are the right ones. People are already expecting a second wave of infections. We have to be cautious and ready.

Lotta: I just don’t think that things will go back to normal. That’s the bottom line. The darker the times, the more creative people awaken and react, so I am excited for all the new projects, the new ways we will create and discover. It’s an interesting time to be alive, for sure. I’ve got my small capsule collection with Adidas coming up at the end of June. We’ve been working on it for about two years, because the cycles of sportswear brands are way longer. It’s about 10 pieces.

Gaia: What was the inspiration?

Lotta: I went into the archives and picked out pieces that were relevant to me, like a particular 1960s and 1970s East German-style sportswear. The collection’s tracksuit, for example, was inspired by the first tracksuit Adidas ever made. I’ve approached it more in a styling kind of way, picking what’s interesting and then adjusting the fit, making it more modern. I’ve tried to avoid overdesigning. The clothes are more real and functional. It was a really fun, interesting project.

Gaia: It’s very cute; I like the shirt.

Lotta: Thanks! I like the functionality of the details, too, which you don’t get in fashion. It was supposed to launch in May, but it got postponed, like everything else. So now we’re launching at the end of June. The campaign launch and shoot have also been cancelled, so we’re thinking of other ways to promote it.

Gaia: I’ve working on some cool new pieces, too; not very many, but some really good ideas. We’re still at the drawing stage, so it will all come together in 2021. I’m looking forward to it – I just want to wear them!