When he was about 18, Silvio Campara watched an episode of MTV’s Stylissimo dedicated to David LaChapelle, in which the surrealist photographer shoots Alexander McQueen and his long-time collaborator Isabella Blow. In one of the most famous images from the shoot, an original print of which currently resides in the Golden Goose CEO’s office, the pair stand in front of a burning castle. As McQueen explains in the interview, “the castle is the establishment and I burned down the establishment.”
It’s what Campara also set out to do — in his way. “I think before starting on a path, you have to see or experience something in order to envisage it,” he says, sitting in the executive meeting room of the Golden Goose headquarters in Milan. “The Golden Manifesto” is emblazoned in massive gold letters on one wall, while all the chairs carry the words “Dream Maker” on the back.