WHAT IS THE BEST THING THAT I LOVE ABOUT MY WORK?

The best thing I love about my work is to promote new talents in fashion, art and design and give them the possibility to be visible. I’m able to create the synergy among different people finding something that I call “ mad factor”, the X Factor of creativity. In addition to that, I love to create the scenography around products that I promote, organize unconventional events and invent the styling for shootings.

WHAT IS MY IDEA OF PERFECT HAPPINESS?

The perfect happiness is to feel my heart light without heavy and bad thoughts. I need to slow down sometimes during the year finding the little good things – “le piccole buone cose” as said a great Italian writer, Guido Gozzano – that make me free.

WHAT IS MY GREATEST FEAR?

Around 3 years ago I lost my daddy and I lost the childish part of me, too. Suddenly, I had to become adult with all my fragilities. My greatest fear is the idea that I can’t see people I love any more, talk and embrace them. At the same time, equally, I’m terrified to lose my memory with all my past.

WHAT IS THE TRAIT THAT I MOST DEPLORE IN MYSELF?

I deplore my sense of responsibility that invades every circumstances in my life: when I work, I love, I have fun, I go to the supermarket…I need to have all under control.

WHICH LIVING PERSONS IN MY PROFESSION DO I MOST ADMIRE?

I admire the pioneer of the concept store for excellence, Colette Rousseaux with the trendiest store in the world, Colette in Paris, that created a new wave of concept stores. I was astonished when I read that the store is going to close but I think the Colette effect will stay alive for a long time.

WHAT IS MY GREATEST EXTRAVAGANCE?

I’m the personification of the extravagance as I love everything is different. It is not a sort of exhibitionism but an instinctual attitude that I have always had since I was a child and I liked to shop and choose my outfits! I have worked for ten years in some important Italian television programs as dancer and it was very extravagant that I danced and I loved to study Dante and Italian literature at University, at the same time!

ON WHAT OCCASION WOULD I LIE?

I can’t lie, it is impossible for me because I’m not able. When I lie, my mouth says something that my eyes don’t follow creating a clear discordance that is not plausible. If I was credible, I would lie just to have fun and joking!

WHAT IS THE THING THAT I DISLIKE THE MOST IN MY WORK?

I think that the creativity never fails, it doesn’t make mistakes. You could like a creative product or not but it doesn’t mean that it is wrong. Well, I dislike when I have to say to an emerging designer that his/her product is not in my mood and not suitable to be promoted by me and my channels of communication.

WHEN AND WHERE WAS I THE HAPPIEST, IN MY WORK?

Actually, in Milan, without doubts! I opened Mad Zone store around 2 years ago and I were so apprehensive: a new Format, new city – I moved from Rome – new public. Milan has welcomed me with open arms giving me the possibility to have a chance and create an unconventional store. Now the experience in Milan is finished and the store has been closed to develop the Format in other avant-garde ways as an unconventional virtual shopping experience by the e-commerce.

IF I COULD, WHAT WOULD I CHANGE ABOUT MYSELF?

I would like to be more distant in some circumstances and not be involved in others. As I work to nurture talents it is very difficult for me maintaining a distance from the persons – the creatives – because I don’t consider them only a business! But sometimes it is necessary do not confuse the roles and the relationships.

WHAT IS MY GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT IN WORK?

The incessant experience that I live every day has permitted me to acquire an inestimable know-how generating a precious network of International contacts. This gives me the possibility to achieve my problem solving ability.

WHERE WOULD I MOST LIKE TO LIVE?

My home is where my family lives but I like to travel around the world, work in different cities and improve International business relationships. If I had to choose where to move, I would like to live between New York and Miami!

WHAT IS MY MOST TREASURED POSSESSION?

I have always loved to save a lot of things in my life since a was a child. It is because I give them a romantic worth. One of these is my collection of silver bijoux – earrings, bracelets, charms – that I have collected since I was 15 years old. In the other hand, for my heart, the most treasured possessions are the letters that my father has written to me during his life.

WHAT IS MY MOST MARKED CHARACTERISTIC?

My most marked characteristic is the imagination. When I present or promote brands with their products I see all in my mind then I create the mood mixing and matching what I have at disposal using fantasy. The result is unexpected and unconventional. At the same time, I’m a perseverant and constant person.

WHAT IS MY MOST INSPIRATION LOCATION IN MY CITY?

I love to walk along some picturesque alleys of the Rione Monti district, the most trendy and bizarre of Rome. For working being alone, I like to stay inside the Auditorium, Parco della Musica, or, when the weather is good, I love to sit on a wood bench at Villa Borghese.

WHAT IS MY FAVOURITE PLACE TO EAT AND DRINK, IN MY CITY?

In Rome, my place to eat is Ginger, Via Borgognona, where you can taste some genuine courses prepared with fresh vegetable and fruits, Italian and International cheeses and special cured meals and the Avocado

Bar, too. If I want to drink good wine and chat over a drink, I love to go to Passaguai Enoteca, nearby Piazza Risorgimento.

WHAT BOOKS INFLUENCED MY LIFE AND HOW?

I have developed a passion for reading since I was three years old and I began to read without any teaching. It has been natural. I remember my first important book, Vacanze a Kinshasa (Carla Cai), at the age of 8. Then I was impressed from Il Barone Rampante (Italo Calvino), L’Inferno (Dante Alighieri), Cent’anni di Solitudine (G.Garcia Marquez) and L’eleganza del Riccio (Muriel Barbery).

WHO ARE MY FAVORITE WRITERS?

I love to read and write, too. It happens that I read two or three books in the same period following my different moods. I have not favorite writers because I read chick-lit authors as well as contemporary or old Italian and International writers: from Banana Yoshimoto, Kinsella, Paulo Coelho until Alessandro Baricco and Dostoevskij.

YOU ONLY DIE ONCE. WHAT MUSIC WOULD I LISTEN ON MY LAST DAY?

Surely all the best of the ‘80s great music compilation.

WHO IS MY HERO OR HEROINE IN FICTION?

Wonderwoman forever. She is my heroine and the contemporary idea of a woman that is multitasking showing different shadows of her character. But there was a period of my life in which I loved Jamie Sommers, the Bionic Woman…When I was a teenager, I wore often a jumpsuit very similar to one of hers.

WHO ARE MY HEROES AND HEROINES IN REAL LIFE?

I think that the true heroes and heroines in real life are not famous. They are unknown people who struggle desperately every day for their life or to save the other once.

WHICH MOVIE WOULD I RECOMMEND TO SEE ONCE IN A LIFETIME?

Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

WHAT ROLE PLAYS ART IN MY LIFE AND WORK?

Art is all and all is art! I was born in a family where the art and illustration were a daily presence. My father was an illustrator and he worked with the most important Italian Magazines. In addition to that, I have given visibility to a lot of emerging artist in these last 3 years. My idea is that art is not just for few persons that know and can afford to buy it. In my store, art works could be touched and the name of the artist, titles and prices were written on the wall. I wanted demolish the virtual wall that separated the artist from the public.

WHOM WOULD I LIKE TO WORK WITH IN 2017?

I would like to collaborate together with several International Fashion Week in order to organize something special for the new talents and have the possibility to create partnerships with International Fashion Magazines.

WHICH PEOPLE IN MY PROFESSION WOULD I LOVE TO MEET IN 2017?

I would love to meet creative people which would like to be part of my projects and interesting people that could improve my know-how and my professional skills.

WHAT DO THE WORDS “PASSION NEVER RETIRES” MEAN TO ME?

“The passion is not blind but visionary” (Stendhal). I can fall, make a mistake, be confused, but never without passion because it is the only emotion that make me strong.

WHICH CREATIVE HEROINES SHOULD PETER INVITE TO TELL THEIR STORY?

In the last years, I have met a lot of heroines that work hard every days with their smiling faces: Valeria Orlando, Italian make up artist and founder of V)or make up; Myra Postolache, Fashion editor, talent scout and founder of The secret code of fashion; Rita Becalli, founder of the showroom Medusa Rossa Studio; Daniela Cicchetta, event manager and writer.

HOW CAN YOU CONTACT ME?

You can contact me by email: Tania.mazzoleni@aliceinthebox.it