Nicola Formichetti

Nicola Formichetti

Uber stylist, fashion editor and fashion director Nicola Formichetti was born in Japan on May 31 1977 to an Italian pilot and Japanese air hostess. He spent most of his childhood in Tokyo and Rome. He is known in the fashion industry for working as the new artistic director for the Italian fashion label, DIESEL along with his off and on collaborations with singer Lady Gaga.

Formichetti was trained as a classical pianist as a child. Going to London was Formichetti’s dream and to get there he signed up to study architecture as an excuse. He closely studied street fashions and night life when he started working as an art director for a boutique called ‘The Pineal Eye’ for two years. Formichetti was working at the boutique when he caught the attention of fashion editor Katy England who offered him a monthly page called ‘Eye Spy’ at fashion magazine, Dazed & Confused. He became the magazine’s fashion director in 2005 and eventually got promoted to the post of creative director in 2008. His work for Dazed & Confused led to him working for big names in the world of fashion publications like Harper’s Bazaar, V and Arena Homme. Formichetti is known for his work in partnership with Kim Jones on his shows and collections. Nicola has also designed for many fashion houses like Dolce & Gabanna, Iceberg, Gareth Pugh, Prada and Alexander McQueen and brands like Nike, H&M, Puma, Umbro, Edwin and Topman.

Known for his affiliation with the Haus of Gaga, Formichetti started collaborating with Lady Gaga in May 2009 with their first cover shoot for Magazine V61. Their first immensely successful music video, Bad Romance was voted ‘Video of the Year’. They also won a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video. Formichetti’s work for Lady Gaga’s album Fame Monster shot by Hedi Slimane also gained worldwide recognition. In late 2010, Nicola worked as the stylist and fashion director for Gaga’s music video, Telephone Love. Gaga’s performance of her song ‘Alejandro’ at American Idol was also styled by Formichetti. The year 2010 came to an end with Lady Gaga was named Best Dressed of the Year, all thanks to Formichetti’s impeccable styling.

Nicola Formichetti started working for the Parisian fashion house, MUGLER in September 2010 after Lady Gaga encouraged him to take the job. He held the post of Creative Director. Women’s wear designer Sebastian Peigne and Menswear designer Romain Kremer work under Formichetti at MUGLER. He collaborated with Romain Kremer to design his menswear collection named Anatomy of Change for fall-winter. His collection was also featured spring/summer issue of GQ Style. His architectonic women’s wear collection was launched in collaboration with Sebastian Peigne which was featured in the ‘Born This Way’ music video of Lady Gaga.

With his brother Andrea Formichetti as partner, Nicola came up with a new line called Nicopanda in September 2011. The line was introduced to the public at a pop up shop in the Tribeca District of New York. In May 2012, Nicola’s pop up store sprang up on Lane Crawford at Hong Kong and Beijing. The immense success of their previously opened stores led them to open another Nicopanda shop in Tokyo in June 2012 located in the Harajuku District. In August, Nicola and his brother ventured into opening a super complex called Villa Effe in Shizuoka, Japan. The super complex is complete with a restaurant, salon, wedding hall and a shopping mall that displays designs from Nicopanda and Haus of Gaga. Currently, Formichetti holds the post of Fashion Director as Uniqlo since January 2013.