Summer Fashion Arts Festival Talk Series: Mattia Riami
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Joy in Every Line – Mattia Riami on Emotion, Spontaneity and the Art of Illustration
As part of the Summer Fashion Art Festival, illustrator and visual storyteller Mattia Riami offered a window into his richly expressive world – a place where summer memories, human fragility, and visual poetry converge. In conversation with FIDA founder Patrick Morgan, Riami spoke with thoughtful energy about his creative journey, from the winding canals of Venice to the classrooms of Padua, where he now teaches illustration and graphic design.
Trained at the Art School of Venice and later at IED Milan, Riami’s path began with a foundational understanding of art, but it was his time with United Colours of Benetton that first placed him in the orbit of the fashion world. It wasn’t long before he broke away to pursue freelance work full time, developing a distinct visual language rooted in human emotion, cinematic references, and spontaneous expression.
Riami’s work is playful yet introspective – often focused on the human figure and the spaces we inhabit, both literal and emotional. His 2023 solo exhibition Summer is a vivid ode to his hometown of Venice, where pastel boats drift through sunlit water and gelato-dripping hands capture the fleeting nature of youth. “It’s not just about a season,” Riami explained, “but the feeling of summer – the memories, the lightness, the freedom.”
That sense of freedom runs through much of his work. In Spazio Corpo, shown at Spazio Solido gallery in Treviso, Riami explored how the body relates to its environment, using visual metaphor to depict movement, isolation, and connection. Another project, Not Just Words, tackled the weight of stereotypes through layered, image-led narratives that invite reflection without prescribing answers. His poster series interpreting jazz music – without a single note or instrument in sight – reveals his capacity to translate intangible subjects into visual rhythm and form.
Riami’s creative process is raw and instinctive, favouring immediacy over polish. He often skips preliminary sketches when working on personal projects, jumping straight into acrylics and graphic pens to preserve spontaneity. “That first mark always has a kind of magic,” he said. For commercial clients, he adapts – submitting sketches and working to brief – but he always returns to that initial impulse: to draw what feels alive.
A lover of fashion, Riami sees it not as a separate discipline but as a companion to illustration. He draws inspiration from vintage film stills, contemporary fashion photography, and the playful editorial aesthetics of past decades. Morgan praised the way Riami blurs the lines between fine art, illustration, and fashion storytelling, noting that his style – a blend of nostalgia, abstraction, and expressive charm –has international potential.
Throughout the talk, what shone most brightly was Riami’s embrace of joy. In a creative landscape often preoccupied with critique or perfection, his work feels refreshingly unguarded. “There has to be magic,” he said. “If there’s no magic, why are we doing this?”
As the Summer Fashion Art Festival continues to celebrate illustrators pushing the boundaries of what fashion art can be, Mattia Riami reminds us of the simplest truth: that the most powerful stories are often the most personal, and that sometimes, a drawing can carry the whole weight – and wonder – of a moment.
