Daniela Luciani is the brilliant brain behind the success of Studio Travel project: A vintage shop in Copenhagen where music, art and personal style meet up through a wise selection of rare items, personally collected by Daniela herself traveling around Italy and Europe. During our conversation with her, this Italian-born young woman explained to us how her amazing job works, talking about her anti-banal inspirations and some interesting side projects revolving around the whole project.
You are Italian, from a small town and you lived in Rome for a long time. How have your Italian origins and roots influenced your work?
I think that my Italian origins have influenced my work completely. Being so close to all that art and history is something that in one way or another affects your personality. When I lived in Rome I was always taking tours to churches and museums, it was very stimulating. This research of beauty, in part representing the essence of my life, comes from that.
Can you talk about your background? What did you bring to Copenhagen?
I lived for a short while in London, Paris, Berlin and I always ended up going back to Rome, I don´t know why. But none of those cities really makes me feel like staying. After all this, I spent almost one year traveling for American Apparel in Canada, the US and Europe, and Copenhagen was the first city where I felt a connection with after long time. Life here is lived in a simple hedonistic way and I love that.
How did your passion for fashion begin and when?
My passion for fashion began since I was a child. I think it was always there.
Is there any fashion brand or designer that inspires you particularly?
I´m very into post atomic fashion, I guess I´m very inspired by Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake in their early days but also by the classics 80’s Armani style.
Any up and coming names in Copenhagen, in every field (fashion, music, arts)?
Alexander Tovborg, Mischa Pavlovski, the band Communions, Puce Mary, Gold Lip, Wali Mohammed, MS Five, Emilie Helmstedt.
Studio Travel is not just a vintage shop, it looks like a wider project dealing with visual arts, music and a whole specific way of life. Could you explain what’s behind it?
Studio Travel was born to be something different than just a vintage shop. It was born as a content of ideas and activities. A temporary place where all the nice people would go and meet more nice people, listen to good music and have a drink, for one day or max for one week. Now there is a permanent space, it’s a real shop, open every day 11 to 7, it is a place where you can buy clothes. But the concept behind it has not changed. To complement a Versace Shirt, you will have a whole atmosphere, something exclusive which you are part of. All the surroundings constitute an international platform of artists and all kinds of interesting and interested people are able to share thoughts and values.
How would you describe a Studio Travel person?
Anti-banal
You are the founder of the project. How many other people are working on this project at the moment?
All people close to me are involved in Studio Travel in some way or another so there are a lot of us!
How do you go about researching clothes and accessories?
I travel to Italy and Europe and it is a very long process because I pick each item one by one. It’s a very tough job but very exciting.
What is your approach in terms of your personal visual research? Where does your inspiration come from?
My inspirations come from my everyday life and my imagination. I like to watch people on the street and I like the street a lot, and I like buildings too. I think that all my visual research starts from there.
Your website and Tumblr are very inspirational and creative. What’s the role of the internet, social networks and web communication in this project?
It is very important but we are focusing more on the real space at the moment.
I know you featured a track in the recently released Lust for Youth album, International (Sacred Bones). The track is called Lungomare and your voice is the protagonist of a dreamy five minute spoken word piece in Italian. Could you tell me some more about this collaboration?
Hannes, Locke and Malthe are my friends. Locke has a record label called Posh Isolation just next to my store and I met Malthe there. Hannes was a costumer of the store. Lungomare is a translation of a text that Christian from the band Lower and Locke made. I just tried to make it more poetic. The title came up in the studio when we recorded the track and I very much love it.
Do you have some other music projects going on right now?
I´m part of a noise project in which I play a tone generator from the 50´s together with other three girls. Our first performance was for the opening of Nurse with Wound’s concert at Mayhem in Copenaghen.
What’s coming up next?
Next I hope to open a new space with the integration of other products and active ties.
