Meet the designer: Pierluigi Rolando
‘Manuscripts don’t burn’ is one of the most famous quotes from The Master and Margarita, Michail Bulgakov’s masterpiece published posthumously in 1966 (ironically, its first writing was burnt for real, because of Soviet censorship).
But Pierluigi Rolando’s memoirs are flaring, an atlas of words full of self-confidence, energy and passion. This ardour is the same that led him to create the most iconic FILA garments.
Rolando was born in Ronco, a small town near Biella, and grew up in Torino, a city he had a controversial relationship with: for this reason he decided to move to Leeds, where he attended a course of textile engineering at the University. In UK he learnt the technical and theoretical notions at the basis of the moodboards he realized then, capturing the attention of FILA manager Enrico Frachey. The ‘Doctor’, along with entrepreneur Giansevero Fila, invited down for an interview in the early Seventies: right there, Rolando was asked if he knew how to convert a set of underwear samples into knitwear manufacture. Somehow, the designer already knew that myth was in the air. ‘All the possible creative storms instantly came to my head: to win a challenge related to technology and creation was definitely my cup of tea’.
From that moment on, Rolando started a consultation that would later become a successful teamworking (his FILA debut, the Jacquard Collection, was a commercial achievement which was also able to engage innovation, aesthetics and marketing intuititons). As we’re going to discover, Pierluigi Rolando’s career was brilliant since the very start. We will also get to know that nothing could take him away from the love of his life: his wife Lydia, constant presence in every moment – from the happy to the dramatic ones.
