Today DiTutto brings you an exclusive interview with Steven Torrisi, a former top dancer with a 30-year career in the world of fashion, entertainment and dance, as well as artistic director of numerous haute couture events also linked to solidarity.

Steven when did your passion and admiration for the world of fashion start?

It was practically born the day I was born, back in 1973. Fashion is my life. It is part of me, my past, present and future. I remember the passion my mother MiMI had for fashion. Although she had her first profession as a maths and physics teacher, fashion was her dream. My childhood was divided between studying and tailoring. This made the desire to one day become a fashion designer grow in me more and more.

So you inherited your ambition from your mother?

Yes Patrizia I have only her to thank for the fact that I am still in the fashion business after 30 years. She managed with stubbornness and ambition to set up fashion cooperatives, hiring many unemployed seamstresses to provide jobs. Thanks to Maison Roberta de Camerino and Luisa Spagnoli, she has managed to carry the name of Sicilian manufacturing high by producing collections for the two maisons. Just as she, thanks to her courage and respect for others, managed to realise her dream, I too have managed to realise mine through her teachings of life that will remain indelible in my mind and heart.

In addition to being a fashion designer, you have also had experiences as a model and dancer in your artistic career. What do you still remember fondly?

Yes, I also had the chance to experience these things with Claudio Marastoni's 'Il più bello D'Italia' (The most beautiful in Italy) competition, winning the provincial and regional stages and reaching the national finalists. Afterwards I moved to Milan and after passing several castings, I started working with Raffaella Carrà's production, flanked by Lapino, Magazu' and Stefano Forti, experiencing being a dancer for the first time. Once this fortunate experience was over, I started as a choreographer for Miss Italy for the region of Sicily, working alongside the organisers Salvatore Gentile and Peppino Bonanno. Thanks to their trust I managed all the regional selections and then accompanied the finalists to the national pre-finals of Miss Italia "San Benedetto del Tronto" and later to the national final "Salso Maggiore" live on Rai 1. At that time I decided to realise my dream of becoming a stylist. I started my own Maison "Girarsi Alta Moda", dedicating it to my beloved mother MiMi, the only person who believed in me. With affection and esteem I remember all the names that will come out of this interview of mine. People I still meet today for friendship and work.

You are an established art director and clients, designers rely completely on you and your expertise. How important is it to establish a relationship with the client?

Thank you for your statement Patrizia, but I do not call myself an established Art Director but rather a professional in love with his work. With all Maisons, Brands, Staff my aim is to establish a relationship of trust. For example, for the next event, the key points will be the presentation of the companies and the valid Buyers, visibility, the type of audience, the quality of the garments to be presented on the catwalk, the location, creating synergies between the Buyer audience and the companies that will be on the catwalk. Also very important is all the work of my staff, who are always at the disposal of the companies for the optimal success of the events. My priority is to give a good service to all the companies by creating a synergy with the common goal of 'Made in Italy'.

For several years now, you have been overseeing, as artistic director, various events to reward excellence in fashion, beauty and journalism. What are the greatest difficulties in organising events of this calibre?

After 30 years of intense activity, I find no difficulty in creating and organising new challenges for new events. With this statement I don't want to sound like a proud person in the eyes of the public. Compared to the past, we are actually facing an economic slump, so it is crucial and important to know how to organise and manage the market. With experience and one's own creativity, one can turn an event into one of excellence. I do not hide my nostalgia for the golden age of fashion, where fashion expressed the highest designer of creativity.

Which kermesses related to the past come to mind?

I remember 'Donna sotto le stelle', a television broadcast of the fashion show that closed the Rome Fashion Week. The event, organised by the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, was broadcast from the Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spagna in Rome. For me, it is a beautiful memory to have worked backstage for three editions, with Maestro Pippo Baudo and the beautiful Milly Carlucci conducting, and from that project to keep my friendship with so many stylists that I still frequent today. To name a few, the Maison Lella Curiel, the Maison Teodolinda Quintieri, designer of the jewel dress, the Maison Anton Giulio Grande, the Maison Gai Mattiolo, the Maison Rocco Bracco, the Maison Gattinoni, the Maison Agon Fustenberg.

Many internationally renowned artists have conducted your events and many award-winning fashion designers have been...

Yes Patrizia many were the presenters of the ST Oscar Award just to name a few Fabrizio Gatta, Valeria Marini, Alessandro Cecchi Paone, Nina Moric, Emanuela Tittocchia, Savino Zaba , Beppe Convvertini, Manuela Arcuri , Antonio Zequila , Veronica Maya, Stefano Baragli , Many were the award-winning stylists I remember Lella Curiel, Teodolinda Quintieri, Roberta di Camerini, Alviero Martini, Nino Lettieri, Anton Giulio Grade, Marella Ferrerà, Carlo Alberto Terranova, Sarli , Giovanni Cannistrà, Michele Miglionico, Gianni Calignano, Genny and Byblos By Girombelli, Roberto Guarducci, Regina Schrecker , Lorenzo Riva , Mario Dice.

Future projects?

They are many. My priority is to reconfirm annually THE European ST.Oscar della Moda award now in its twelfth edition, one day to take back what I had set aside by reopening my Maison to reconfirm my style ideas at national level. Abruptly interrupted in 2002 due to the loss of my mother MiMi who died at the age of 51.