Andrea Incontri (Bilingual edition)

The original works by Andrea Incontri, designer who intertwines codes and aesthetics of fashion and visual arts, digital communication and applied arts.

Andrea Incontri delved into his passion for art and illustration when, in 2016, he started creating his now iconic Tipe Umane. Drawn freehand by the designer on his Instagram account on videos and photos of his daily life, they are female figures, which come alive as rapid yet detailed sketches following no preparatory study. Executed by using the entire Instagram colour palette, Le Tipe Umane embody Incontri's personal representation of a feminine universe. Ladies walking with their dogs or young girls going out for shopping—women of different ages and attitudes. These characters wear an infinite variety of outfits, curated in every detail, that reveal their diverse personalities and show their creator's attentive observation of aesthetic and social norms.

Referring to Honoré de Balzac's Comédie Humaine, Caroline Corbetta coined the term Le Tipe Umane in 2016, when she curated the first show dedicated to Incontri's creations at Il Crepaccio in Milan. On that occasion, the designer's works were exhibited as digitally printed images.

Women constitute the main focus of Incontri's exploration of humankind, which—in his vision—is an interlacing of forms, colours and eccentric ornamentation. 2016 saw the arrival of the Tipe Umane (Human Types), an ongoing experiment into the female universe that is composed of unconventional, often playful and eclectic images. They are created as digital drawings and then subsequently come to life as prints on painstakingly hand-embroidered fabric.

The book gathers over two hundred Tipe Umane, embroidered and framed with precious fabrics and materials, displayed as an array of the most varied female types—those that can be encountered along the streets or that embody an ideal, originating from both the real world and that of imagination.