Inside Francesco Risso's Bureau of Imagination, Two Days Before Opening
Vogue
Francesco Risso describes the Bureau of Imagination as a search for "a new synergy" between making clothes, his lifelong profession, and making objects. In this Vogue day-in-the-life film, shot in Milan, he and Alex Sossah are days away from opening the Bureau to the public. At the same time, they are racing to finish a dress for Alicia Keys's closing performance at Vogue World. The film moves from a morning coffee to the studio floor and gives a short look at how the Bureau works and what it hopes to be.
A Studio That Isn't Home Yet
The day begins with Risso and Sossah stepping out for coffee. They joke that they wish the place were their home. Sossah leaves for the studio, and Risso explains his unusual living situation. He is staying in a hotel, and in the past week alone he has moved through four hotels while waiting for the Bureau of Imagination to be ready, a wait he says has lasted almost a year. The plan is for him to live at the top of the Bureau, where there are two small bedrooms.
He frames the project around a single curiosity: how objects and clothes can interact and become what he calls "a new recipe." The Bureau is the place where that idea will finally be shown publicly. Its opening is two days away, and the performance for which the team is making a dress is also two days away. "Everything is happening in 2 days," he says, and adds that a little pressure is always welcome.
Building a Couture Dress for Alicia Keys
In the studio, Risso shows the couture piece being made for Alicia Keys, who will close the Vogue World show with a performance. The commission is a slip and a jacket. He says the Bureau "can't just be happy with a normal slip and a jacket," and walks through a process with several layers.
The garment passes through multiple hands. Team members patch it, embroider it, and produce different kinds of scraps. These scraps are then intertwined and woven into the base of the dress. The final phase is painting, which is meant to make everything blend together. Risso says that so far it is looking great. In a brief exchange with a collaborator, the two agree that they like how the white shows through.
Risso does not hide the risk involved. The challenge, he says, is time, and the piece "can work or it can be a disaster."
Flowers, Fragility, and the Human
The team presents the painter with the dress as a prepared canvas. Risso then lays out the creative idea behind it. He and Alicia Keys had talked a lot about flowers, but they did not want to go too far into literal flower imagery. As a reference, he points to a dress the team made earlier for Paloma. He praises the way the painter's work on that piece responded to the body, and he says its strength lay in its fragility.
He links the concept to a conversation about artificial intelligence. His view is that what will matter is to save the human and push it forward. In that framing, flowers become a metaphor for humanity, which is alive and beautiful precisely because it is ephemeral. The painter's response is that they will try to capture the ephemeral, and the team agrees they have found the direction.
Stop Motion Meets a New AI Tool
The film then turns to a moving-image project built around a figure the team calls Gino. A collaborator recalls that when Alex first proposed the project, the idea was to make stop-motion pieces that combined new technology with classical mediums and methods. On that same day, they say, a tool referred to in the transcript as "GPT Astra" was released. Their account is that it can work on its own to generate each next frame coherently from the frame before.
They describe the workflow. They uploaded reference material of the dance, then a photo of a person. Once they chose the right framing and frame rate, the animation began to take shape. They judge the result "pretty solid visually." Another team member adds that the combination of all these hands produces a mysterious quality that suits the Bureau, something that plays between reality and fantasy.
Objects and Clothes in One Composition
Risso then shows an arrangement of the objects the Bureau is producing. A sweater, a shirt, and a shoe form the structure, and they are set against a ceramic plate and silverware. He describes the aim as bringing the pieces the team has made into a space that feels like a cross between a studio and a museum. In his own phrasing, it is like "laying the eggs" there.
He also explains the thinking behind the clothes themselves. Because the Bureau is in a factory, the clothing's DNA starts from the idea that a garment could carry you from working in a laboratory to going back to bed. A piece can feel like pajamas and also like workwear, and he calls that "the fun side of it."
Back to Work
The film ends with no grand conclusion. The dress is unfinished, its success still uncertain, and the opening is still two days away. Risso says goodbye to the camera crew and heads back to work.
The Bureau of Imagination is about finding a new synergy between my lifetime profession, which is making clothes, and making objects.
Shall we get a coffee?
Yeah, that's good. Is this Vogue? Hello, Vogue. It's Francesco.
Welcome to our home.
Well, I wish it was our home, but we're going to get a coffee and tell you everything about it later.
How are you? Thank you so much.
All right, babe. I'm going to bring the ducks to school. I'll see you later at the studio.
Bye.
Bye.
Yes, I'm living in a hotel at the moment. Actually, this last week have been four hotels as I'm waiting for the Bureau of Imagination to be ready, and it's been almost a year. I am supposed to be back at the Bureau, living at the top of the Bureau, where there are two small bedrooms.
I am intrigued by the idea of how objects and clothes can interact together, and that can become a new recipe. So that's why the Bureau of Imagination next week will finally open to the public. Basically, we're opening in two days. We're making an incredible dress that you will see soon for a performance that's going to happen in two days. So everything is happening in two days. A little bit of pressure is always loved. Oh, I think yes, we can have a look. Let's go.
This is Alicia Keys's three-days-old couture dress that we're making for her last exit at Vogue World. She's going to be ending the show with a performance. So we're making a slip and a jacket. But, of course, because at the Bureau of Imagination we can't just be happy with a normal slip and a jacket, basically it's going through multiple hands, patching it, embroidering it, making different type of scraps that are going to then be all intertwined so that they will be weaved basically with the base of the dress. And then the last phase is going to be about painting it so that everything kind of will blend. So far it's looking great.
Do you like the—
Yeah, that's nice.
Very nice that you see the white.
Yeah, I like the white actually.
Yeah, I agree.
Yeah, nice. Yeah.
The challenge is time.
It can work or it can be a disaster.
Flaminia, we have created the canvas for you. My conversation with Alicia was because we've been talking a lot about flowers and flowers, and we don't want to necessarily enter too much into the flower world.
I'm thinking about the dress that we did for Paloma. I think there was something beautiful, the way you manage to announce the body. So I think in a similar way we could create something around that. What was strong about Paloma's dress was all the fragility.
What we discussed about artificial intelligence, what will be important is to save the human and actually push it forward. And flowers are a metaphor of humanity because we are alive and beautiful because we are ephemeral. So I will try to capture the ephemeral.
I love that.
I think we've got it.
So, have we met our entities?
Yeah. What's his name?
Griino.
Gino.
When Alex called me for this adventure, he was talking about making stop motions to blend new technology but also with the classical mediums and modalities. And that day exactly GPT Astra dropped. Now you can actually ask it to work alone to generate coherently the next frame compared to what it starts from. Basically, we upload the references of the dance and then we upload Nikico's photo, which is this one. And when we did it and we selected the right framing and the right FPS, this started to happen. It's pretty solid visually.
Yeah. The whole mixture of all these hands together creates a mysterious essence that feels very beautiful for the Bureau, and it feels like a play in between reality and fantasy.
Here we have a composition of the variety of objects that we're making. So as a structure here we have a sweater, a shirt and a shoe, but they are clashed with a ceramic plate and silverware. It really is about bringing the pieces that we've made and lay the eggs into this place, or laying the eggs almost in a place that feels a cross between a studio and a museum.
We are in a factory. So in a way the DNA of the clothes starts from thinking that it can span from working in a laboratory or maybe going back to bed. So it can feel sometimes like a pajama but also like a workwear piece.
And that's the fun side of it.
Are they still here? Okay guys, it's been really, really lovely, and now it's time to go home for you as we continue to work. Ciao, Vogue. Thank you. Bye.
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