Madina Visconti: Art In Her Veins

On a cold February morning, during New York Fashion Week, Madina Visconti di Modrone was preparing for her shoot with L’Officiel in a room of the sublime Beekman in Lower Manhattan. The shoot was going to start a little later, at the new Bottega Veneta boutique on 740 Madison Avenue.

Dressed in a t-shirt, a pair of jeans from Levi’s and an elegant silk scarf on her shoulders, Madina tells us, rather excitedly, about how she is looking forward to buying new jeans while in New York since they are a lot cheaper here as opposed to Milan, where she lives.

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With her happy-go-lucky attitude and enthusiasm for the basics of American fashion, one would never have guessed that she belongs to the distinguished dynasty of Visconti. Members of her family include director Luchino Visconti, and her parents are jewellery designer Osanna Visconti and gallerist Giangaleazzo Visconti di Modrone. “She used to work in the living room,” says Madina about her mother, an extremely creative woman capable of designing jewellery just as well as she does salad bowls, tables and furniture. “My father always had works of art and paintings everywhere, in constant rotation. It was wonderful. I believe that I am who I am today, thanks to the atmosphere that I bathed in as a child,” she adds.

For the moment, Madina is working on her latest collection of jewellery that she renews once a year. It has been four years since she launched her brand. In the beginning, she worked in collaboration with her mother, but in the autumn of 2017, they split into two different lines to create their own, independent brands (jewellery for Madina and furniture for Osanna).

Madina’s favourite technique is the bronze moulding, an ancient process that she executes in Milan. Before the moulding, she creates a prototype in wax, emphasising on natural and organic forms. So much so that all her pieces are made by hand, Madina likes to, at times, make a mark on the finished product, leaving perhaps a digital mark if she is going to keep the piece or gift it to someone. “It does happen that there are scratches that remain, but each piece is unique, which is its beauty. They are timeless pieces of jewellery,” Madina says adding, “one can wear them from one year to the next and they will never go out of fashion.”

Her pieces seem effortlessly overlapping generations and aesthetics. One finds, for example, a delicate ring in the shape of a pansy, made of copper, plated with 24-carat gold with cherry-coloured enamel or a headband with a repetition of the same motif giving it a bohemian air. Serpent motifs in bronze suit rock ’n’ roll sensibility. Headbands are among Madina’s favourite pieces of jewellery. “I would say that they are my speciality. It can be paired both with dresses for weddings and a pair of jeans and tennis shoes.”

Madina works with her mother, who is an inspiration to her while their styles are vastly different. “My mother is all for sober palette. My thing is colour. We disagree a lot, but always work at the same table,” she elaborates. Madina has come to New York for the inauguration of Bottega Veneta’s new store, because her mother created a spectacular chandelier for the occasion. Madina is also going to help with the first show of the Italian brand at the New York Fashion Week, a few days before the official opening of the store.

This is not the first time her family is collaborating with Bottega Veneta. In 2016, Osanna designed and created a series of tables in bronze, the tops of which reproduced the famous motif of the House in leather.

This young designer explains her idea of familial transmission, “I like to say that my creations are pieces of jewellery for the family, because they can be handed down the generations indefinitely. But, they are also modern and contemporary.”

Photography: Nathan Perkel. Styling: Vanessa Bellugeon. Clothes and bags: Bottega Veneta. Jewellery: Madina Visconti.

From the April 2018 issue of L’Officiel India.