Daniela Agnelli on giving sustainable fashion the green light
She’s the hyper-social former Vogue fashion editor who’s one half of the powerhouse team behind Agora, the environmentally conscious fashion and lifestyle store that’s been the celebrity hit of the summer. But it’s Ibiza’s feminine energy and conscious community that has stolen super stylist Daniela Agnelli’s heart. She talks to L’OFFICIEL IBIZA’s Maya Boyd about a whirlwind fashion life that’s brought her right back to the heart of nature.
You've worked everywhere! Can you tell me a little bit about your personal history?
I grew up in Milan and that’s where I did my degree. I was always a fashion journalist. I’d been travelling to London a lot for work and when I was 24, I decided it was time to move there. London was a good compromise for me because it wasn't too far. I had been thinking about perhaps New York, but London was a good compromise as I was still close to my family in Italy. I still felt a real sense of freedom and London in 1993 was beautiful! It's still a beautiful city but at that time the fashion was fantastic, mind-blowing. Street fashion has always been my inspiration. I became a fashion editor and launched several magazines – Red and InStyle – and I was also at Marie-Claire. I was fashion editor of the Telegraph and I stayed there for 15 years. Later I launched Vogue Arabia and Vogue Poland. Fashion has been my life.
You seem very at home in Ibiza now - what is your connection with the island?
I’ve been coming here for many years, in various ways. First with an old boyfriend when I was 19. But it wasn’t my place back then. Greece was my place, and I had a love affair with Greece that lasted for many years. Then, one year, I came back to Ibiza for friend’s wedding – Charlotte Tilbury. That wedding was a three-day extravaganza that took us from San Carlos to Formentera and everywhere in between. We stayed at Can Talaias, [the actor TerryThomas’ old house up above San Carlos] and later at Las Banderas [now Can7], the boho chic beach hotel on Formentera that was owned by Charlotte’s sister Leah. The wedding was like a who’s-who of fashion people and just extraordinary in every way! I once read that Mario Testino had declared that wedding ‘more fun than Studio54’ and it was! It really was. After that, Formentera became my special place. I had a friend with a house there, and every year after the fashion weeks were over, I would go spend a month on Formentera to reset and recharge. I was starting to reconsider my career a little – magazines were changing, and I had been in that world for so many years. A friend told me that he knew someone who was looking to start a project in Ibiza, within the new Six Senses. I met the owner, Jonathan [Leitersdorf] and I brought my dear friend Tiffanie Darke on board and the Agora was born! The name actually came to me while I was meditating. In Greece, the agora is the plaza, the hub of a village, where everything from commerce to community to religion and drama would happen. It was the perfect fit.
Agora is all about the four Rs – reduce, recycle, rent, restore – how does that work?
Listen, I worked in fashion in the 1990s and sustainability was not a conversation that was going on. As I got older and I found my voice, I realised that when you have a profile you also have a responsibility to use your platform for good. Tiffanie and I believe deeply in every designer we work with at the Agora, because they are going against the tide and doing whatever they can – however small – to make the world a better place for the future. My friend Carolyn Roumeguere is a jewellery designer who spends her life between her native Kenya and New York. She was raised among the Maasai because her mother, a social anthropologist, married a Maasai warrior. Carolyn raised her children the same way and her work supports the futures of these tribes. Caroline Sciamma from SKIIM works with Arizona Muse as a sustainability consultant to ensure her pieces are as ethical as possible. SMR Days use only recycled fibres for their menswear and JJ Martin’s use of fine craftsmanship with La Double J ensures a future for Italy’s heritage artisans. Everyone is doing something.
What about the major labels – how do they represent your ethos?
Gabriela Hearst is a dear friend from way back before she was at Chlöe. She is a remarkable woman. She loves the store and of course her pieces are as ethical as can be. Gabriela employs craftspeople in her native Uruguay, uses recycled fabrics, campaigns for women’s rights. She’s an absolute crusader and she has been stocked with us for a long time. And then of course we have Loewe. We wanted our first major brand to be Spanish, of course, and the Loewe x Paula’s Ibiza collection is produced in ways that work for us. And our own Cinderella concept has been a huge success. We rent iconic looks by the night, and we look after all the delivery and the care of the pieces. Ibiza is the most social place you can imagine in August, and women might be going to five events in a week. To not have to travel with huge cases full of expensive gowns or buy new pieces here is a win-win for the environment.
How has your own life changed since moving to Ibiza?
Immeasurably, actually. Nature has always been my number one priority for wellbeing. Even in London I lived near Hyde Park so that I had access to those wide-open spaces and ancient trees. Here, I live in nature, but I am also very close to an incredible network of spiritual and connected people. Especially women, I feel very attuned to the feminine energy of Ibiza, and I feel my spiritual connection getting stronger and stronger by the day. I meditate. I go to healing groups, women’s circles, ceremonies. I love temazcal [ a traditional Mexican sweat lodge]. The community here is quite extraordinary. I’m very sociable and at a dinner here I can be sitting next to a film director on one side and breath worker on the other. Or a healer, or a musician, or an artist. It is a conscious and creative community like none I have discovered before and I feel that the longer I am here, the more abundant my life becomes.
