Everybody wants to rule the world (I)

As mentioned previously, the longer time has passed between the character and our present day, the easier it feels to place them, to dress them, to understand them.

Our vantage point is that we have more knowledge, more information, more data to work with… Not only the stereotypes we have been raised with, but we count on several resources in the shape of books, novels, essays, plays - and also with music, movies, paintings, sculptures. Recreating them again and again. Usually in their own time. 

But this particular set, this “game of thrones” in fashion and time travel, is moved to the future. 

In particular, we are coming back to the XXth century. One of the periods in History when more changes have happened - in fashion, economy, society - in less time between them. 

With one of them I have played with stereotypes, I have exaggerated them. But I did not forget that not everything was true. The eagerness to be the centre of attention, the dramatic flair and the actual cruelty are reflected in my choice of costume.

With the other one, I have looked at him and his achievements with the lens of his actual time: thirst for knowledge, curiosity, ambition, and yes, ruthlessness too. He has a mythical quality, not yet found in another character (maybe the astronauts, but again, they play with the card of advanced technology). And I think… there will not be another one like him.

They are:

• Emperor Nero

Studio 54 Nero

He is one of the most maligned Roman emperors, cruel and with artistic temperament -we will never know whether he was actually good or the tip of a sword was the thing that pushed the balance to his side regarding artistic quality. 

Here, as I said, I leaned into the stereotypes: his hunger for drama, for spectacle, for excess… Another artist who rose to power when perhaps, he’ld have been happier in a velvet robe, alone with his muses.

So, let’s place him in 1970s Studio 54: New York. Music. Lights. Dance. Drugs. Glitter. 

Shiny polyester and sequins in red velvet. Golden platform boot.

Performance. Theatricality. Deception hidden in fabrics and colours.

Green glasses to mask his gaze - so you never know who will be his next victim. 

• Alexander the Great

Daring explorer

I saw him as a young explorer, strong, driven, thirsty for knowledge and filled with curiosity. Ambitious. Ready to break boundaries. To go “beyond”, to try and test the limits.

I think the young Macedonian king was driven not by only ruthlessness or thirst for power. Not just an excessive ego or national pride. 

But by the questions... What else is there? Who else is there? What can I give? What can I take and learn that would be beneficial to all? Can we all be one people?

Therefore my choice for an explorer in the early XXth century, where the world still holds unknown, wild, appealing places to be discovered.

That doesn’t mean violence is absent from his journey - he has a knife and a rifle, to defend himself while opening his way forward. But where others conquer for glory, Alexander adds purpose.

He understands something many never do: pragmatism. 

His choices - even in dress - are grounded in what works.

Simple fabrics. Practical tools. Because vision without means is just a dream.

And Alexander intended to build an empire, not just imagine one.