Federica Zambon Q&A
-So Federica, how are you? Like actually, how are you and how is WOK holding up right now?
- I'm good. Work-wise it's a bit of a strange moment though, not easy. It might sound like a cliché, but in this business, especially after the pandemic, we're kind of taking it one day at a time. Before the pandemic there was a really good moment, especially due to the online sales, which we started very early with WOK, back in 2009, thanks to Farfetch. That platform helped a lot of independent boutiques find their place in the market, and even today around 60% of our revenue comes from online. Without a partner like that it would have been very difficult to survive as a niche clothing store, with higher prices because of quality and research, and also based in Milan, a city I love and that is home to me, but that I sometimes see a bit like the province of Europe, because trends tend to arrive here maybe five years later than elsewhere. After Covid there was a rebound: people started spending again, buying and travelling. Then the wars came and with them a general sense of uncertainty. At that moment the situation wasn’t easy for me and I was thinking about closing, but then we were acquired by a fund that believed in and loved the project, and together we were able to start breathing again.So if I have to say how I feel today, I feel like I want to do things but I'm not always able to do them. I still have the poetry I used to have, but at the same time I don't. Budgets are always tight, long-term planning is difficult. Now the priority is protecting the present, while in the past there was more space to, let's say, dream a bit.
-Let’s go back to the beginning. Was there a moment, an image, a feeling when you understood that fashion wasn’t just about clothes, but a language?
- Actually I come from design, I studied Industrial Design at IED (Istituto Europeo di Design). My father had a construction company, so I always thought I would become an architect, or maybe a photographer. WOK was born because I felt that in Milan there was no real concept store, a multi-brand place where you could find not only clothes but also books, toys, photography, objects. I don't really see fashion as just fashion, I see it more as an artistic discipline. So the idea came from travelling abroad, for instance in Japan, and seeing certain stores that I wished existed here in Italy, in my city. In Milan there was Fiorucci, which was a big inspiration, but smaller independent places didn't really exist, which was strange for a city that is one of the fashion capitals of the world, where everywhere you turn there is a big luxury mono-brand store. After getting a photography scholarship that never really went anywhere, and some work in architecture studios, I started working in a showroom. And I remember thinking right away that the business was easy. You buy nice clothes, you sell them, then you buy again, sell again. So with my partner Simona we said: why don't we try to do something similar but in our own place, and give it a very specific identity. A place where every brand brings its own personality and that personality also shapes the space itself. That's how WOK started."
-So the name WOK comes from…?
- Yes, from the wok pan where you mix all kinds of ingredients and somehow everything works together. That was the idea for the store. You could find a Lemaire piece next to Patagonia and not ask why they are so different, but just appreciate the difference. At the beginning not everyone understood this mix, but over time our clients became very loyal and very specific. You could see lawyers and professionals dressed formally during the day looking for the perfect piece to go clubbing at Plastic at night. From 2007, when we opened, until around 2015, all the subcultures connected to electronic music, rave culture, underground scenes influenced us a lot. Our idea was to be a small cultural nucleus in Porta Ticinese, a neighbourhood where many different scenes and people were crossing all the time. You had punks, metalheads, fashion people, ravers, it was always a very culturally alive area, and opening there was definitely not random.
-So you’re telling us that WOK started with a very clear vision. How much of that original vision is still there, and how much changed through time, customers, designers and trends?
- Both me and Simona have always been very direct, but also open to transformation. So I would say WOK didn't really change because of customers or designers, it changed because we evolved as people. When we opened we were around 30, and very influenced by club culture. At 35/40 we moved towards a more minimal, Northern European aesthetic, because brands from those areas started emerging and brought something new. Today we are different again. So WOK grew with us and with the world around us. One thing I notice is that, in the past, people bought clothes more instinctively. If one season everyone wore colour, people bought colourful clothes and that was it. Now everything is more rational, more planned. With reselling and second hand platforms people buy fewer pieces, very specific ones, and then maybe resell them. It feels like there is less passion, less excitement, everything is more reasoned, more strategic. When I select clothes for WOK I still try to focus on sensations, the pleasure of touching a fabric, the feeling of trust a garment gives you. I always try to imagine the person who will see that piece in the store.
-Tell us about your research for brands and how much travelling and meeting people from different cultures influenced you.
- Some brands came from travelling, of course. I've been to England, Japan, Brazil. But honestly, even before travelling, I was always surrounded by people from different countries. I studied at IED and there were students from everywhere, so I grew up in a very international environment. People often tell me I feel very Milanese, and I do, Milan is home, but at the same time I grew up around different cultures. My best friend when I was young was Ethiopian, for example, so when you grow up with people who are not from the same place as you, their culture becomes part of you too. I've always been fascinated by diversity. Sometimes not even through travelling, but just by talking to people from other countries, listening to their stories, their habits, the way they see things. That always made me happy. You meet someone from Argentina, someone from Switzerland, someone from Brazil, someone from another part of Italy, and everyone brings something different into your life. I didn't do crazy travelling all the time, but for example when I went to Japan I met a Japanese girl, we became friends, and at some point she wanted to come to Italy, so I invited her and she ended up living at my place for three years. So I got to know a bit of Japanese culture through a person, through daily life, not as a tourist. I also lived with a Belgian guy at some point. So in the end what really matters, for me, is curiosity. Curiosity is the most important thing, full stop. This morning I went to NABA, the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti here in Milan, and out of fifteen students none of them knew WOK. They all knew other names, other brands. And that throws you off a little, makes you feel a bit sad maybe. Maybe it's because we always worked with smaller, more niche brands, I don't know. But what I told them was very simple, try to stay curious, as much as possible, because curiosity is the only thing that keeps you alive, otherwise everything becomes boring. I see that many young people today get bored very easily. They are bombarded with images, content, information all the time, and they jump very quickly from one thing to another. They struggle to stay focused on one thing for a long time. I see it even with my son. Even cartoons today are different from when we were kids. Before there were stories, real stories, and you couldn't wait for the next day to see what happened next. Now everything is fast, immediate, short, and then you move to something else.
-We live in a moment where the market seems to move in every possible direction at the same time. Some people only buy online, some don’t trust high prices anymore, some want sustainability but then look at the price first, everyone is bombarded with content and it’s harder and harder to understand what actually has value. You’re on the other side, you select brands, you talk to customers every day. What do you think about the current moment in this market?
- People don't want to feel fooled anymore. Even wealthy customers now ask themselves, why should I spend thousands of euros on something that turns out to be made exploiting people, wherever it's from. On the other side there is less purchasing power in general, so even people who used to say yes without thinking, now think twice before buying. In general there is very little awareness of the processes behind clothing. People should understand that, when they buy a garment, they're not just buying the piece itself. They are buying the work of someone who travelled, who took a plane, went to…Paris (for example), maybe visited ten showrooms in one day, searched, selected, had models try on the clothes, placed orders. Behind that there is a showroom that pays models, there are models trying on the same clothes all day, there are designers, pattern makers, factories. There is a huge amount of work behind one single garment, not just mine but an entire chain of people. Someone thought about that garment, designed it, developed it, and then maybe two weeks later a fast fashion brand copies it and sells it everywhere. It's a very complex job and a very complex system. Right now we work with many brands that are very consistent, very reliable. I like brands with very clean lines, very wearable, that can dress a twenty year old and a fifty year old in the same way. I carry them because we also want to offer our customers a solid, reliable wardrobe, especially for men.
