Photos courtesy of Eileen Myles and Versace.
This week, Versace kicks off a new era with VERSACE EMBODIED, an initiative spearheaded by freshman Creative Director Dario Vitale spotlighting the voices and visions that reflect the house’s provocative spirit. Comprised of a series of chapters and installments, think of it as a mood board distilling the essence of the 47-year-old brand. Among the contributing artists, from Collier Schorr to Camille Vivier, is the poet Eileen Myles, whose work has long challenged power structures with sly, sensual clarity. From their home in Marfa, Texas, we asked Myles to reflect on the Medusa (“female power, dark essence”), their most Italian quality (“my poetry,” of course), and the city of Milan (“all the great things.”) They’re a somewhat unlikely match made in heaven for a house that remains as “surprising and cool” as ever, as Myles put it.
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Where are you? I’m in my house in Marfa, Texas.
Where do you want to be? Exactly here.
What’s your most Italian quality? My poetry. I was invited a few years ago to submit some of my poems to an anthology of American poets translated into Italian. At the time I was struggling with the idea of making a selected poems which is kind of a career retrospective for a poet who’d been writing for a while. It was hard. Though when I was asked what poems of mine I’d like to see translated into Italian I knew instantly which ones they’d be. I realized Italian was somehow at the core of my sense of beauty. It was at that time my idea of the essence—in terms of art, food, people. I’ve been to Greece since then so Italy has some competition but I’m an Italian poet at heart. Once I was traveling on a train in Italy and the conductor asked me what I did. I said I was a poet. The conductor smiled and said Po-e-ta. I. thought, “I love it here.”
What does the Medusa mean to you? Female power. Dark essence. Turning a mirror on the patriarchy and beating them at their own game.
What inspired “Put it Back”? I was and am in love.
“Put It Back” by Eileen Myles, courtesy of Versace.
If you had to suggest we read the work of one Italian poet, who would it be? Sandro Penna. He’s the greatest, perfect, better than Pasolini—in fact, Pasolini emulated him.
What’s luxury to you? Time.
Who are you in private? Very OCD, ritualistic, an ungendered experienced child. A reader.
Can you describe Versace in three words? Surprising and cool.
If Paris is the city of love, then Milan is the city of… The future. I know it is fashion and art. And publishing. All the great things. Money too, I bet. I’ve never been there.
What did success solve for you? It convinced me how relative all things are, especially fame and attention. Nobody’s looking all the time, being alone beats being looked at. Success makes things possible though, so I’m grateful for the success that I’ve had. In the eye of everything it’s best to be humble, I think. And then lavish, whatever that means.
