The fabulously fashionable Mazzilli family – mother Louise, daughter Tatum and son Rocky – collectively known as Trilogy, have been injecting their own unique pop art style into the fashion and art industry since the creation of Year Zero London in 2006. Blending influences of fine art, art history, pop culture and nostalgia for iconic cartoon characters and TV shows of the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s, they have created an eclectic and highly collectible brand for lovers of art and fashion.
Expect to find references as off-the-wall and unexpected as Goya’s macabre 19th Century masterpiece ‘Saturn Devouring his Son’, Garfield, The Simpsons and The A-Team. The Trilogy have opened a new boutique in next to the Chelsea Farmer’s market in a historic vintage emporium – Hanby and Bourbon Vintage Arcade on Sidney Street.
Chelsea has been a hotspot for Bright young Things since the ‘swinging 60’s’ and feels like a perfect location for Year Zero London’s new studio, workshop and boutique, where the Trilogy showcase their creations and invite clients for consultations about one-off pieces of clothing or artworks.
Year Zero London ‘provide a platform for fashion and art enthusiasts to unleash their creativity and create unique masterpieces’ and is led by visionary designer and artist Rocky Mazzilli, in collaboration with Louise and Tatum. They have made a name for themselves in the fashion and art world for working with clients to transform beloved luxury items like Hermes Birkin, vintage Louis Vuitton, and brand new Gucci purchases into timeless, custom hand-painted designs. With their combined artistry and creative skills, they collaborate on the creative process to realise bespoke, hand-painted pieces for their clients.
Year Zero London’s diverse and international client base includes music icons, Hollywood stars, philanthropists, and even Royalty, and their designs have been commissioned and worn by world-famous stars including Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Kylie Jenner, Will.I.am and K-Pop megastars like G-Dragon, 2NE1, Super Junior, and CL. Their ethos is centred around creativity, artistic skill and an understanding of their clients, and they also have an environmentally friendly approach which they realise by upcycling and reinventing preloved pieces ranging from vintage Louis Vuitton suitcases to YSL coats through to skateboards and handbags.
Culturalee talks to fashionable family trilogy Louise, Tatum and Rocky as they launch their new ‘Year Zero London’ boutique in Chelsea.
Culturalee: How did you come to Chelsea to this Vintage Arcade in Sidney Street?
Rocky: For us it’s been a dream location since a couple of years. We felt that Chelsea is missing that amazing vibe from the 90’s, which was between the Punk, the art, the creation, the looks. So we thought, our clients are all quite central around this area, so we said OK let’s try and find a cool place which is calm enough so we can create, and cute enough so clients can pop in while we’re creating.
Louise: For us it’s very important, because of the last few years of everyone going viral on the internet, we still feel with our clients we need that one to one personalisation when we create pieces for them, because they are all bespoke. It gives them the chance to be part of the creative process with us.
Rocky: We’re very inspired by fashion, movies. My Mum is very futuristic in her creation, while Tatum is very much what’s happening in the moment.
Culturalee: Are all three of you making the pieces?
Rocky: Yes we all work together with the client. It’s really just discussing with the client and bringing out their spirit and their soul. Sometimes the client is not so confident in their ability to create. So we ask them what are your dreams, what do you want to say? Who is your alter ego?
Tatum: We have different clients and different things that they want to create. Some people we’ve never met. I’ve ‘given birth’ with my clients after nine months or working with them on an artwork. We create something for everyone, there is no age barrier, no sexuality barrier, no boundaries in Year Zero London. We can accommodate a genre to the person or it can be a gift to someone else. It’s a process, so you need to build a trust, and build ideas together.
Rocky: It’s really fun to create something with our clients. You’ll be surprised how touching it is spending time with someone creating something. We had a very cool client from India who wanted a portrait of his Dad, and we recreated it using new technology including AI, because you need to stay modern. We transformed the first image with AI then we had to hand-paint it.
Louise: We had a client from Finland that we’d never met who wanted portraits of her pets. She had dressed them up and wanted to do something different, so we said ‘let’s give it that Punk, year Zero London vibe!’ and we designed bags with portraits of her pets.
Culturalee: So you work with people from around the world? Do they find you through word of mouth?
Rocky: Usually through word of mouth. Also on social media. But it’s usually through someone who said ‘my friend had one of your pieces’. It’s always about letting people express themselves and trying to find a voice. We try and give a pop culture phenomenon and a lot of humour because of how much tragedy there is in the world.
To view a selection of Year Zero’s hand-painted projects, visit www.yearzerolondon.com.
Year Zero London’s Boutique is at Hanby and Bourbon Vintage Arcade, 151 Sidney Street, London SW3 6NT.
IG: @yearzerolondon
