Angelo Galasso, 51, has been hailed by the Financial Times as "this generation's most inventive image-maker". And the editor
of GQ once suggested that he should be made the patron saint of office workers because he made open-necked, high-collared shirts fashionable. Galasso's signature "watch-cuff" shirt has been exhibited at the Design Museum and his extravagant menswear has many celebrity patrons, among them Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Michael Caine, David Beckham and even Tony Blair. Having begun his career in his native Italy, he now lives in London and recently celebrated the first anniversary of his flagship Knightsbridge store.
Life has shown me that we don't realise our own power. When you believe in something, you can achieve it, but only if you commit to it one hundred per cent. If you don't believe in it, you won't succeed. We can do what we want. The only thing that separates us is the strength of our wills.
I grew up in Puglia in southern Italy. My father was a chief of police and my mother was a teacher. We were a large family, so you had to fight to have any attention. I always had a strong belief in myself.
The south of Italy is a very hot place. You need a siesta in the afternoon from April to October. So from 1pm until 4pm I'd be watching people and seeing how they dressed. Then I'd start to think how I'd like to see them dress. And then very slowly it became a passion.
You need to have passion in order to believe in yourself. It's not something they can teach in school, it's something you have inside you that grows like a seed.
A lot of the best Italian designers come from the south. Gianni Versace, for instance. And Manuel Ungaro's father was my father's tailor.
From a very early age I would go to the local clothing factories and get them to make adjustments to my clothes. I just wanted to wear something different. Instead of using light blue and dark grey, I would use red and yellow, or something a bit unusual such as some blue piping. I started when I was nine years old but I stopped at 15 because people were criticising me, saying, "Why are you making a jacket out of blanket material?" It was fun for me, but people started to call me crazy. Italians sometimes like to criticise each other.
I was 17 when I got married. I was still at school but I didn't want to wait. I wanted to be independent and to leave home. There was no other way. I'd fallen in love. My parents were supportive. They trusted me.
I needed to make money, so I got a job as a car dealer. I was successful at it. I like to speak to people and I think that made me an effective salesman — communication is very important. But I didn't enjoy selling cars. In the south of Italy life is tough and there are no rules.
I sold cars for eight years, then I moved to Rome and got a job at an investment bank selling funds. To begin with it was very hard. I'd come from the south and they speak a different language in Rome. The people are different. After three months they were about to sack me but I did a big deal and they kept me. It showed me once again that we can achieve whatever we want. I started from zero — I had no customers and was just ringing people from the phone directory. But I became a very valued member of their sales team.
I started making clothes in my spare time. I was just making them for myself, but people in the bank would ask me where I'd bought them. I'd say I'd made them myself and they'd ask me to make something for them. It was only shirts and shoes I made at that time. Then I started to make a lot of stuff but I was too shy to take it to the office, so I'd get people to come and collect it from my home. At the time my entryphone number was Interno 8, which was the name that I later gave my shops.
I left the bank and started a company making made-to-measure clothes. The idea was that we would measure you up at your office. I had 14 women on motorcycles going round taking measurements. When a woman visits you during the day at the office, you are alone without your wife and in Italy some men like to think they are playboys. So instead of ordering four shirts, they would order ten. I opened a shop, then another, then another. In the end there were 80 shops in Italy.
I sold all my shops because I wanted to move to the UK and open a shop there. To build up a brand for men in Italy is not easy. You have to start abroad and then go back. London is the centre of fashion. It's a city of real freedom — except for the traffic wardens!
The Italians are the best designers in the world, but Italian men can be very boring because they don't want to change. In our mentality, to be a little bit different is to be flashy, which is frowned upon. My customers want to look different. My clothes are very recognisable. I like to create a very strong brand.
I think that men, especially businessmen, should be true to themselves and not be influenced by others when it comes to their choice of clothes. I'd like to see them make small changes to what they wear and step by step show their personality.
Some designers don't care a lot about details because they're concerned about the brand. It shouldn't matter how big your brand is, the detail and the respect for the customer should always come first. You need to talk to your customers and find out what they want. It's very important. It's something politicians sometimes forget — they need to keep in touch with people and know how they feel and what they want.
I want to open ten flagship stores in major cities around the world with the same vision and philosophy and at three different price points. I want to keep on doing something completely different. Like I say, if you believe in yourself, you can do anything.
Passion is not something they can teach you in school, it's something you have inside you that grows like a seed.
Angelo Galasso's London store is at 8-10 Hans Road, London SW3. angelogalasso.com
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