Interview by Svita Sobol Hadar
For Gilda Ambrosio and Giorgia Tordini, The Attico has never been defined by a fixed idea of femininity. Its universe emerges from the collision of Italian cinema, 1970s erotic photography, radical architecture, Milanese sensibility, nightlife and Hollywood glamour.
A decade after launching with robes, kimonos and party dresses, the duo has built a complete wardrobe around contradiction: sensuality and strength, excess and ease, femininity and masculinity. In this In Focus conversation, Gilda and Giorgia reflect on their evolution, the references that shape their world and the creative differences behind their partnership—including what they call the “third G”: The Attico itself.
Svita: Can you share five references—whether artists, films, books or musicians—that have shaped your creative universe?
Giorgia & Gilda: We’ve never really thought about references as five specific names. For us, inspiration has always come more from worlds, atmospheres and different cultural territories that we keep returning to.
Italian cinema has always been one of them, especially its way of portraying women, interiors, beauty and sensuality. We’ve also been deeply drawn to the erotic photography of the 70s and 80s, and to Italian radical architecture and design, where proportion, form and the relationship between the body and space can become almost provocative.
Then there is nightlife and club culture, and the electronic music that comes with it. That world has shaped not only the energy of The Attico, but also our idea of transformation and self expression. And we’ve always been fascinated by women with an unapologetic sense of self. Cher is an obvious reference for us because of the way she has continuously reinvented herself without ever losing her identity.
Milan is somehow the backdrop to all of this. It shaped our eye and the way we bring every different reference together. More than individual icons, it’s the collision of these worlds that continues to inspire us.
Svita: The Attico has always felt like a reflection of the women you are. As the brand celebrates ten years, how has the Attico woman evolved alongside you?
Giorgia & Gilda: When we started The Attico, our world was much more focused on evening dressing. The first collections were almost entirely made of robes, kimonos and party dresses, pieces that reflectedwhere we were in our lives at that moment.
Over time, our lives changed, and the wardrobe naturally expanded with us. We wanted The Attico to exist throughout the entire day, not only at night. Denim, tailoring, oversized outerwear, cargos and flats all became part of the vocabulary.
The woman hasn’t necessarily changed; her life has become broader. She can still be glamorous and sensual, but she also wants comfort, ease and clothes that move with her. Today, we understand herin all her different dimensions. She doesn’t have to choose between sensuality and strength, glamour and ease, femininity and masculinity. Those contrasts have always been part of The Attico, but over the years we’ve learned to explore them more deeply.
In many ways, the wardrobe grew because we grew. Ten years later, The Attico feels less like dressing a specific moment and more like dressing a whole life.
"We’ve always been fascinated by women with an unapologetic sense of self."
Imagery courtesy The Attico
Interview by Svita Sobol Hadar
For Gilda Ambrosio and Giorgia Tordini, The Attico has never been defined by a fixed idea of femininity. Its universe emerges from the collision of Italian cinema, 1970s erotic photography, radical architecture, Milanese sensibility, nightlife and Hollywood glamour.
A decade after launching with robes, kimonos and party dresses, the duo has built a complete wardrobe around contradiction: sensuality and strength, excess and ease, femininity and masculinity. In this In Focus conversation, Gilda and Giorgia reflect on their evolution, the references that shape their world and the creative differences behind their partnership—including what they call the “third G”: The Attico itself.
Svita: Can you share five references—whether artists, films, books or musicians—that have shaped your creative universe?
Giorgia & Gilda: We’ve never really thought about references as five specific names. For us, inspiration has alwayscome more from worlds, atmospheres and different cultural territories that we keep returning to.
Italian cinema has always been one of them, especially its way of portraying women, interiors, beauty and sensuality. We’ve also been deeply drawn to the erotic photography of the 70s and 80s, and to Italian radical architecture and design, where proportion, form and the relationship between the body and space can become almost provocative.
Then there is nightlife and club culture, and the electronic music that comes with it. That world has shaped not only the energy of The Attico, but also our idea of transformation and self expression. And we’ve always been fascinated by women with an unapologetic sense of self. Cher is an obvious reference for us because of the way she has continuously reinvented herself without ever losing her identity.
Milan is somehow the backdrop to all of this. It shaped our eye and the way we bring every different reference together. More than individual icons, it’s the collision of these worlds that continues to inspire us.
Svita: The Attico has always felt like a reflection of the women you are. As the brand celebrates ten years, how has the Attico woman evolved alongside you?
Giorgia & Gilda: When we started The Attico, our world was much more focused on evening dressing. The first collections were almost entirely made of robes, kimonos and party dresses, pieces that reflectedwhere we were in our lives at that moment.
Over time, our lives changed, and the wardrobe naturally expanded with us. We wanted The Attico to exist throughout the entire day, not only at night. Denim, tailoring, oversized outerwear, cargos and flats all became part of the vocabulary.
The woman hasn’t necessarily changed; her life has become broader. She can still be glamorous and sensual, but she also wants comfort, ease and clothes that move with her. Today, we understand herin all her different dimensions. She doesn’t have to choose between sensuality and strength, glamour and ease, femininity and masculinity. Those contrasts have always been part of The Attico, but over the years we’ve learned to explore them more deeply.
In many ways, the wardrobe grew because we grew. Ten years later, The Attico feels less like dressing a specific moment and more like dressing a whole life.
"We’ve always been fascinated by women with an unapologetic sense of self."
Imagery courtesy The Attico
Svita: How would you describe the modern Italian woman today?
Giorgia & Gilda: There isn’t one modern Italian woman anymore, and that’s probably what makes her interesting. She can be incredibly sophisticated without being polished, sensual without being obvious, and she isn’tafraid of contradiction.
There is still something deeply Italian in her relationship with beauty: an instinct for proportion, quality, sensuality and the way clothes inhabit the body. But today it feels much more individual. She has inherited very strong ideas of femininity and elegance, but she doesn’t necessarily feel the need to conform to them. She can embrace them, reject them, or make them entirely her own.
For us, that individuality is what feels most modern. It’s less about following an Italian code and more about having the confidence to create your own.
"She has inherited very strong ideas of femininity and elegance, but she doesn’t necessarily feel the need to conform to them."
Imagery courtesy The Attico
Svita: You’ve always played with the line between everyday life and nightlife. What does nightlife mean to you today?
Giorgia & Gilda: Nightlife has always been at the heart of The Attico, and it still feels just as important to us today. There is a freedom to the night that we love: the spontaneity, the sense of possibility, the feeling thatanything can happen and that you can become a slightly different version of yourself.
What has changed is perhaps our definition of nightlife. When we were younger, it was much more literally about going out, dancing and being surrounded by people. Today, we see the night more as a state of mind. It’s the moment when the rules of the day loosen, when you allow yourself to be more intimate, more unpredictable, maybe even more yourself. It doesn’t necessarily have to happen in aclub.
Our lives have evolved, but our attraction to that feeling hasn’t changed. Ibiza remains very special to us because it captures that spirit so naturally, which is also why opening our first store there in 2025 felt right.
Svita: What’s something considered “bad taste” that you both find incredibly chic?
Giorgia & Gilda: Probably “too much.” A skirt that’s too short, a heel that’s too high, something too shiny or too sexy, but also exaggerated volumes and unexpected proportions. We’ve always been attracted to pushing things slightly beyond what feels conventionally “right.” Sometimes exaggeration is exactly whatcreates the silhouette, and over time that silhouette has become unmistakably The Attico.
"We’ve always been attracted to pushing things slightly beyond what feels conventionally 'right.'"
Cher in Bob Mackie, 1974 Met Gala
Svita: You’ve always played with the line between everyday life and nightlife. What does nightlife mean to you today?
Giorgia & Gilda: Nightlife has always been at the heart of The Attico, and it still feels just as important to us today. There is a freedom to the night that we love: the spontaneity, the sense of possibility, the feeling thatanything can happen and that you can become a slightly different version of yourself.
What has changed is perhaps our definition of nightlife. When we were younger, it was much more literally about going out, dancing and being surrounded by people. Today, we see the night more as a state of mind. It’s the moment when the rules of the day loosen, when you allow yourself to be more intimate, more unpredictable, maybe even more yourself. It doesn’t necessarily have to happen in aclub.
Our lives have evolved, but our attraction to that feeling hasn’t changed. Ibiza remains very special to us because it captures that spirit so naturally, which is also why opening our first store there in 2025 felt right.
Svita: What’s something considered “bad taste” that you both find incredibly chic?
Giorgia & Gilda: Probably “too much.” A skirt that’s too short, a heel that’s too high, something too shiny or too sexy, but also exaggerated volumes and unexpected proportions. We’ve always been attracted to pushing things slightly beyond what feels conventionally “right.” Sometimes exaggeration is exactly whatcreates the silhouette, and over time that silhouette has become unmistakably The Attico.
Svita: How would you describe the modern Italian woman today?
Giorgia & Gilda: There isn’t one modern Italian woman anymore, and that’s probably what makes her interesting. She can be incredibly sophisticated without being polished, sensual without being obvious, and she isn’tafraid of contradiction.
There is still something deeply Italian in her relationship with beauty: an instinct for proportion, quality, sensuality and the way clothes inhabit the body. But today it feels much more individual. She has inherited very strong ideas of femininity and elegance, but she doesn’t necessarily feel the need to conform to them. She can embrace them, reject them, or make them entirely her own.
For us, that individuality is what feels most modern. It’s less about following an Italian code and more about having the confidence to create your own.
"She has inherited very strong ideas of femininity and elegance, but she doesn’t necessarily feel the need to conform to them."
Imagery courtesy The Attico
Svita: You’ve always played with the line between everyday life and nightlife. What does nightlife mean to you today?
Giorgia & Gilda: Nightlife has always been at the heart of The Attico, and it still feels just as important to us today. There is a freedom to the night that we love: the spontaneity, the sense of possibility, the feeling thatanything can happen and that you can become a slightly different version of yourself.
What has changed is perhaps our definition of nightlife. When we were younger, it was much more literally about going out, dancing and being surrounded by people. Today, we see the night more as a state of mind. It’s the moment when the rules of the day loosen, when you allow yourself to be more intimate, more unpredictable, maybe even more yourself. It doesn’t necessarily have to happen in aclub.
Our lives have evolved, but our attraction to that feeling hasn’t changed. Ibiza remains very special to us because it captures that spirit so naturally, which is also why opening our first store there in 2025 felt right.
Svita: What’s something considered “bad taste” that you both find incredibly chic?
Giorgia & Gilda: Probably “too much.” A skirt that’s too short, a heel that’s too high, something too shiny or too sexy, but also exaggerated volumes and unexpected proportions. We’ve always been attracted to pushing things slightly beyond what feels conventionally “right.” Sometimes exaggeration is exactly whatcreates the silhouette, and over time that silhouette has become unmistakably The Attico.
"We’ve always been attracted to pushing things slightly beyond what feels conventionally 'right.'"
"We challenge each other constantly, but we always say there is a third G in the room: The Attico."
Svita: Los Angeles has always had its own particular relationship with glamour. What does LA glamour mean to you today?
Giorgia & Gilda: What we love about LA glamour is the contrast. There is this incredible legacy of old Hollywood, a certain fantasy and sense of dressing up, but at the same time the city has such a casual attitudetowards clothes. Those two worlds coexist very naturally, and that tension has always felt close to The Attico.
Los Angeles has also been an important starting point for us creatively. For many years, wecame here to research and search for vintage, finding pieces that carried traces of another time, silhouettes, details and proportions that we could look at with new eyes. We were never interested in reproducing the past literally, but in taking those references and bringing them into the present with a completely different attitude.
In that sense, LA has often been a starting point for The Attico, a place where the glamour of the pastcan take on a completely new life in the present.
.
Svita: What is one object each of you owns that says more about you than anything in your closet?
GIORGIA: A gold bangle that belonged to my grandmother, with a Scorpio charm. Scorpio was herzodiac sign and it’s mine too, so it has always felt like something that connects us in a very personal way. I keep it very carefully and it’s one of the objects I treasure the most. It carries her memory, but italso feels somehow connected to my own identity.
GILDA: My collection of vases. I buy them during my travels, so each one carries the memory of a place, a person or a moment in time. They make me incredibly happy because they turn a house intosomething lived in. More than decorative objects, they’re little souvenirs of the life I’ve built and the places that continue to inspire me.
Svita: After so many years of working side by side, what do you love most about working together—and what still drives you crazy about each other?
Giorgia & Gilda: Probably the same thing answers both questions: how different we are.
We have very different instincts, personalities and ways of approaching things, and after ten years we know how valuable that is. One of us can see something the other doesn’t, and that constant exchange has shaped The Attico from the beginning.
Of course, those differences can also drive us crazy. We challenge each other constantly, but we always say there is a third G in the room: The Attico. Over the years, the brand has developed its ownpersonality and its own point of view, almost independent from either of us. Sometimes we may start from completely different places, but we both know what feels right for The Attico. When our twoperspectives meet through that third voice, that’s usually where the most interesting things happen.
Svita: Ten years in, what still feels unexplored for The Attico?
Giorgia & Gilda: A lot. The name itself describes a lifestyle before it describes clothing, and we’ve always imagined The Attico as a world rather than simply a wardrobe.
Over the past ten years, we’ve gradually expanded that world, but there is still so much we haven’ttouched. We’re curious about spaces, objects, experiences and all the different ways The Attico can exist beyond clothing. We don’t necessarily know yet what form all of that will take, and that’s whatmakes it exciting.
After ten years, we know The Attico much better, but we also understand how much room it still has to evolve. In that sense, ten years feels much more like a beginning than a conclusion.
Svita: Los Angeles has always had its own particular relationship with glamour. What does LA glamour mean to you today?
Giorgia & Gilda: What we love about LA glamour is the contrast. There is this incredible legacy of old Hollywood, a certain fantasy and sense of dressing up, but at the same time the city has such a casual attitudetowards clothes. Those two worlds coexist very naturally, and that tension has always felt close to The Attico.
Los Angeles has also been an important starting point for us creatively. For many years, wecame here to research and search for vintage, finding pieces that carried traces of another time, silhouettes, details and proportions that we could look at with new eyes. We were never interested in reproducing the past literally, but in taking those references and bringing them into the present with a completely different attitude.
In that sense, LA has often been a starting point for The Attico, a place where the glamour of the pastcan take on a completely new life in the present.
.
Svita: What is one object each of you owns that says more about you than anything in your closet?
GIORGIA: A gold bangle that belonged to my grandmother, with a Scorpio charm. Scorpio was herzodiac sign and it’s mine too, so it has always felt like something that connects us in a very personal way. I keep it very carefully and it’s one of the objects I treasure the most. It carries her memory, but italso feels somehow connected to my own identity.
GILDA: My collection of vases. I buy them during my travels, so each one carries the memory of a place, a person or a moment in time. They make me incredibly happy because they turn a house intosomething lived in. More than decorative objects, they’re little souvenirs of the life I’ve built and the places that continue to inspire me.
Svita: After so many years of working side by side, what do you love most aboutworking together—and what still drives you crazy about each other?
Giorgia & Gilda: Probably the same thing answers both questions: how different we are.
We have very different instincts, personalities and ways of approaching things, and after ten years we know how valuable that is. One of us can see something the other doesn’t, and that constant exchange has shaped The Attico from the beginning.
Of course, those differences can also drive us crazy. We challenge each other constantly, but we always say there is a third G in the room: The Attico. Over the years, the brand has developed its ownpersonality and its own point of view, almost independent from either of us. Sometimes we may start from completely different places, but we both know what feels right for The Attico. When our twoperspectives meet through that third voice, that’s usually where the most interesting things happen.
"We challenge each other constantly, but we always say there is a third G in the room: The Attico."
Svita: Ten years in, what still feels unexplored for The Attico?
Giorgia & Gilda: A lot. The name itself describes a lifestyle before it describes clothing, and we’ve always imagined The Attico as a world rather than simply a wardrobe.
Over the past ten years, we’ve gradually expanded that world, but there is still so much we haven’ttouched. We’re curious about spaces, objects, experiences and all the different ways The Attico can exist beyond clothing. We don’t necessarily know yet what form all of that will take, and that’s whatmakes it exciting.
After ten years, we know The Attico much better, but we also understand how much room it still has to evolve. In that sense, ten years feels much more like a beginning than a conclusion.