At the end of the 1960s, I met Andy Warhol, who then frequently collaborated with my magazines. Every time I went to Paris for the French fashion shows, I would encounter him with his Polaroid camera, ready to capture snapshots of the characters that struck him the most. Andy Warhol was an artist who taught me a lot. 
He captured images that could tell us about the time we were living in.
As his most famous works have testified (from the electric chair of those condemned to death to everyday objects, such as CocaCola or Campbell Soup, to the divas of the time such as Liz Taylor or Marylin Monroe...).
He had also created designs for a famous shoe catalogue. His posters on which he intervened with violent colors on the faces of the characters are iconic pieces of Pop Art.
His background was similar to mine: he too had been a journalist, designer, graphic designer, art director, advertiser. And finally an artist.
I arrived at these "portraits" after thirty years in which I created and directed important fashion magazines, starting with Vogue Italia. In the other thirty-five I worked to delve deeper into the multifaceted aspect of fashion. I wanted to make people understand with my works how much fashion is talent, culture, creativity, research, well beyond appearance. The white series of my Dress Memory bas-reliefs, my large sculptures, my Dolls, are a reaction to the dress: made, worn out, thrown away. They are a tribute to beauty, to youth. Forever.
With the one hundred portraits of HAIR, made with mixed media, different tools and strong colours, I wanted to remember the many women I had the opportunity to meet or to work with. Women in constant change, models, make-up artists, editors, hairdressers, graphic designers, stylists, managers, secretaries, assistants. The hair represented them immediately. Through the movement of the hair it was easy to identify the personality of each one.
This is how I wanted to remember this period of my life, where the women around me were fundamental and represented real life, yesterday or today.
I want to thank the Oblong gallery for understanding the essence of my work which aims to raise awareness of an art form that has to do with the contemporaneity of fashion and with an artist who has lived and loved this world deeply.

Hair, Flavio Lucchini - 28 February/ 31 March 2024 - Oblong Contemporary Art Gallery, BlueWaters Island, Dubai