Is the world ready for Oliviero Toscani's return to Benetton?

Between 1982 and 2002, Benetton's all-inclusive, politically-charged campaigns were way ahead of their time. Now, GQ Style meets its creative director Oliviero Toscani to see what his iconic campaigns can teach us Benetton’s message has always been simple: acceptance and inclusion of everyone from every walk of life, regardless of gender, race and sexuality. As well as being renowned for their ethics, they are also just as influential and acclaimed for their campaign imagery. Famous campaigns such as the three human hearts, birth of a new baby and the HIV/Aids epidemic not only shaped the Nineties, but raised questions about unspoken matters at that time. All these campaigns were powered by creative Director and photographer Oliviero Toscani who was with Benetton from 1982-2000. With his return back to Benetton, GQ Style sat down and spoke to Oliviero to discuss his past work and his hopes for the brand in 2018. GQ: So you've recently returned to Benetton 17 years after your departure in 2000, what made you want to return? Oliviero Toscani: Well, it's not returning. I just moved on, we moved on, Luciano Benetton moved on, the company moved on and suddenly we're close again. We didn't go back. It just happened that our life are close again. We're close again because our interests are similar again. You were art director at Benetton from 1982 to 2000, and have been appointed the same role, how do you hope to communicate Benetton's voice this time round? The direction of the company not just [showed] what the company was producing but also what the company was thinking. Luciano Benetton who really interested to do this kind of communication as a company not just communication for consumption but communication how a simple way to understand life and belong to the society to the moment you are living in so we are talking about the problems surrounding society at this time so we have been the witness of our time and that is what we are going to do again. The time is now different to 20 years ago. Similarly to you past campaigns, your most recent campaign focuses on integration and features 28 children from 13 different countries and four different continents. What made you want to touch upon this topic? Was this inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis and the problems faced around the world? To realise a lot of this fashion is going on with integration and the politicians. The reality is look in England we are still making wars, the immigrants are there and humanity is advancing. You can't stop it. On the other hand, there is a part of society who is really still afraid of "aliens", as you call them, like they come from another planet. The richness of Great Britain, England, and any country has been immigration. That brings a lot of problems too but we have to solve them and big important countries are the one who really are facing this kind of problems. Think of Switzerland, is the country in Europe that has the highest percentage of immigrants around 60 per cent embracing the change is best for humanity. One of your most controversial campaign images was the image David Kirby on his death bed battling Aids, which highlighted the problem the problem at the time. His parents said, "David is speaking much louder now that he's dead, than when he was alive." Is creating an image with such a talking point something you want to continue during your time at Benetton? We were speaking about Aids, we don't talk about it any more, people are still dying of that. We should be aware there are situations and reality we have to face, we get shocked by looking at the picture of certain reality but we don't get shocked about the reality because today it is enough to look at the picture and people get shocked at the picture not the reality. I think we better show face and there is a lot that we have to …We want to talk about it and be witness of our time. **Nearly all of Your past campaigns focused on political and cultural issues of the time. One major cultural issue that has been highlighted over the past year is gender and equality. We've seen numerous revelations that have lead to campaigns, hashtags and global discussion. This is something that the new Benetton collection touches on with slogans such as, "Colours don't have gender" and "Gender free zone". Can you tell us more about the collection and will this influence future campaigns? ** Be aware, I think sometimes it's a little ridiculous. It is a gossipy thing that I don't like. I hate this violence. I've seen this in companies, this kind of behaviour I hate that. The world of fashion is terrible, for example, I've seen even the press and the fashion world there is a lot of this kind of behaviour. I think that little by little we are on the road of civilisation. We belong to the direction of civilisation, but we are not civilised yet. We have to deal with and make it better, and handle and be aware of humanity. We have to deal with constantly. There is a revolution/evolution in dealing with it. 'Little by little we are on the road to civilisation' You've previously said, "I tell a story with images relating to the moment of history I am in." In addition to gender equality issues are the any other topics you wish to focus your attention on in 2018? Such as Brexit or racism? Well Brexit, if I was in England I would be dealing with it constantly…the political behaviour that we delegate some people that are not as advanced as the people are. That is my feeling constantly. That are people that are much more in advance than people in politics but …that's not good and there is another issue that is, is technology making us stupid, that is another thing that we have to, especially young people, they are so dependent on technology. Without the monitor they are not imaginative, as soon as they close their monitor, the computer they …. To imagine is an activity that is not so fashionable, it is crazy every body is dependent on what they see on what they see through technology, tv, monitor smart phone, so we're dependent on that, we don't imagine any more our own way, we are to get independent from that. I am not against technology, technology is great but I am for an independence from that. The value of creativity… **You recently showcased your new Children's wear campaign during Pitti. How do you feel you will approach menswear since the launch of Men's Fashion Weeks around the world? ** There isn't much difference; I think fashion is as much as important; its just fashion there is an incredible business. Fashion is something we need to reflect a level of civilisation and education and culture. You can understand the quality and level of a place of a country of a community through its fashion, much more than through some intellectual writing. It's not a question of gender anymore, finito, all that is old-fashioned, that fashion is there to show how masculine or how not masculine you are…it just an education to aesthetics. It's like the way you talk, how interesting is what you are talking about? How do you speak? What kind of quality have you got in you language? And fashion is exactly that, it's a language; it's an aesthetic of music. 'It's not a question of archives. Blue jeans are blue jeans. They belong to culture' With the 90s revival within Men's fashion and Brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein recently relaunching their 90s archive is this something you would be interested in doing with Benetton? No, there are things that belong to the culture. It is not archive, blue jeans are blue jeans. It's not a question of archives. It belongs to the culture. A shirt is a shirt, it's been the same for 200 years, there is no difference. More or less the same thing. It's the same as food somehow, bread is bread…the ingredient in food is the same, olive oil is the same as it used to be. Is there anything you hope to achieve with Benetton in the next couple of years? I hope I will be able to interest, still interest, myself as to what I'm doing. I hope that will happen. So if you deal with something interesting and if you deal with an intelligent commitment you can't be wrong. Lastly, yourself and Luciano Benetton launched Fabrica in Tarviso Italy in 1994. Last month it was announced that it would be home to numerous workshops, exhibitions and talks over the next year as part of Fabrica Circus 24/7x52. How do you feel the use of the building has changed since it first launched and do you see it becoming more of a part of the conversation with Benetton? Well it's going to be the centre. It's going to be a place, the place, where things are happening and people will come here to talk about themselves and to make them understand. I want to turn this place into a place where people want to come to talk or to listen. I hope that imagination and creativity are the result. The consequence is creativity, but when you come here you can just experiment, to make yourself be understood. See below for Benetton's SS18 campaign...