CLUB COUTURE — ISSUE 05:
(Soia)
[Italy]
CLUB COUTURE is a new Apparel Music feature dedicated to emerging talents working across fashion, art, beauty, image making. Designers, stylists, artists and creatives whose practice sits somewhere between craft, culture and personal expression. The project starts from Milan, telling the stories of our local community and the people shaping it, but always with an open gaze outward. Each issue introduces new artists through short portraits. No hype, just process, taste and perspective.
CLUB COUTURE — ISSUE 05:
(Soia)
[Italy]
CLUB COUTURE is a new Apparel Music feature dedicated to emerging talents working across fashion, art, beauty, image making. Designers, stylists, artists and creatives whose practice sits somewhere between craft, culture and personal expression. The project starts from Milan, telling the stories of our local community and the people shaping it, but always with an open gaze outward. Each issue introduces new artists through short portraits. No hype, just process, taste and perspective.
Soia Q&A
Soia is a Milan-based artist whose practice moves instinctively between drawing, painting, tattooing and visual storytelling. Raised between the quiet countryside and the restless energy of the city, his work reflects a constant tension between purity and darkness, where personal vision, art history and raw emotion converge into something deeply intimate and unfiltered.
-Where are you from?
- I come from a small town in the province of Brescia, called Trenzano — few people and a lot of countryside. Then I moved to the city, first Brescia and then Milan.
-What kind of background did you grow up with?
- I grew up in a normal Italian provincial family. My mum paints and my dad works as a street vendor. I started drawing at 3 or 4 years old, later moving into street art, painting and tattooing. I've always loved art history and studied at the Liceo Artistico Olivieri in Brescia.
-How did you end up choosing your current practice?
- I feel like I didn't choose my craft, it ended up in my hands without me even noticing. I feel very lucky, even though I'm never satisfied. I hope I never will be.
-How would you describe your style or your work?
- My style is the soul. I try to shape everything I see and filter it through my eyes, my vision, trying to remain pure.
-What are your main artistic influences?
- I draw inspiration from the stories of certain artists rather than their technique. I love Ligabue and the way he inhabited the skin of animals, the purity of Leonora Carrington, but also great painters like Goya, Alberto Martini, Gustave Doré, Zdzisław Beksiński and their relationship with darkness. I deeply appreciate all movements from the modern era onwards, trying to collect the details that interest me in terms of technique and soul. For music, I get inspired by a thousand genres depending on my mood — I love when music accompanies my feelings and almost forces them to intensify. I always listen to music when I work. Finally, I'd also like to mention Pasolini, D'Annunzio, Hakim Bey, Kanye West and Achille Mbembe, who have shaped my thinking.
-What were your expectations of Milan before moving here? And the pros and cons of the city...
- I saw Milan as a great opportunity, but already aware of its flaws since I knew already some clubs and neighbourhoods. Very open and curious, full of history, culture and art, fascinating but snobby, avant-garde but dirty, trying to cover the smell with a good perfume.
Soia Q&A
Soia is a Milan-based artist whose practice moves instinctively between drawing, painting, tattooing and visual storytelling. Raised between the quiet countryside and the restless energy of the city, his work reflects a constant tension between purity and darkness, where personal vision, art history and raw emotion converge into something deeply intimate and unfiltered.
-Where are you from?
- I come from a small town in the province of Brescia, called Trenzano — few people and a lot of countryside. Then I moved to the city, first Brescia and then Milan.
-What kind of background did you grow up with?
- I grew up in a normal Italian provincial family. My mum paints and my dad works as a street vendor. I started drawing at 3 or 4 years old, later moving into street art, painting and tattooing. I've always loved art history and studied at the Liceo Artistico Olivieri in Brescia.
-How did you end up choosing your current practice?
- I feel like I didn't choose my craft, it ended up in my hands without me even noticing. I feel very lucky, even though I'm never satisfied. I hope I never will be.
-How would you describe your style or your work?
- My style is the soul. I try to shape everything I see and filter it through my eyes, my vision, trying to remain pure.
-What are your main artistic influences?
- I draw inspiration from the stories of certain artists rather than their technique. I love Ligabue and the way he inhabited the skin of animals, the purity of Leonora Carrington, but also great painters like Goya, Alberto Martini, Gustave Doré, Zdzisław Beksiński and their relationship with darkness. I deeply appreciate all movements from the modern era onwards, trying to collect the details that interest me in terms of technique and soul. For music, I get inspired by a thousand genres depending on my mood — I love when music accompanies my feelings and almost forces them to intensify. I always listen to music when I work. Finally, I'd also like to mention Pasolini, D'Annunzio, Hakim Bey, Kanye West and Achille Mbembe, who have shaped my thinking.
-What were your expectations of Milan before moving here? And the pros and cons of the city...
- I saw Milan as a great opportunity, but already aware of its flaws since I knew already some clubs and neighbourhoods. Very open and curious, full of history, culture and art, fascinating but snobby, avant-garde but dirty, trying to cover the smell with a good perfume.
-If you were a object?
- If I were an object I'd want to be a vibrator, but I'd probably be a sanitary pad.
-If you were a city?
- If I were a city I'd want to be Libertalia, but I'd probably be D'Annunzio's Fiume.
-If you were a geometric shape?
- If I were a shape I'd want to be an infinity symbol, but I'd probably be a circle.
-If you were a food?
- If I were a food I'd want to be a steak, but I'd probably be hummus or a cauliflower.
-What would be your music for the Club Couture?
- I'm not sure exactly what the vibe of Club Couture is, but if I could pick the music I'd go with The Doors, Crystal Castles and Burzum.
-If you were a object?
- If I were an object I'd want to be a vibrator, but I'd probably be a sanitary pad.
-If you were a city?
- If I were a city I'd want to be Libertalia, but I'd probably be D'Annunzio's Fiume.
-If you were a geometric shape?
- If I were a shape I'd want to be an infinity symbol, but I'd probably be a circle.
-If you were a food?
- If I were a food I'd want to be a steak, but I'd probably be hummus or a cauliflower.
-What would be your music for the Club Couture?
- I'm not sure exactly what the vibe of Club Couture is, but if I could pick the music I'd go with The Doors, Crystal Castles and Burzum.
