Exclusive: BLUEVIET by Maria Chiara Casillo, Where Ginevra Falls Into The Blue

By Jessica Ye (Jessica Yap)

Blue is often associated with melancholy, but photographer Maria Chiara Casillo had something rather different in mind when she began developing BLUEVIET. Conceived shortly after her move to Milan, the photographic editorial follows model Ginevra as she becomes BLUEVIET, a character inhabiting a universe of her own, where blue gradually envelops her, becoming almost a second skin.

Created exclusively for Couture Troopers, the series explores transformation through colour and character. For Casillo, blue was never intended to represent sadness. Although Picasso’s Blue Period came to mind during the early stages of the project, she was more interested in the possibilities of the colour itself: how it could surround a person, alter the way we see them and become an integral part of their identity.

In the photographs, Ginevra gradually takes on the persona of BLUEVIET. Blue becomes more than a visual choice; it is a substance that seems to envelop her, allowing her to dissolve into her surroundings without disappearing altogether. Her transformation is not about losing herself, but discovering another way of being.

There is a cinematic reference behind the concept, too. David Lynch’s Blue Velvet was another source of inspiration, particularly its suggestion that something entirely unfamiliar can exist beneath the surface of an ordinary setting. Casillo was drawn to this idea of an alternate reality concealed within the everyday, where familiar surroundings can take on an entirely different character.

And, as it happens, the setting for BLUEVIET was far more modest than one might imagine.

The entire editorial was photographed in the living room of Casillo’s first small apartment in Milan, which she shared with her roommate, Imma. For one day, the familiar domestic space became the backdrop for BLUEVIET’s universe. There was no elaborate studio or purpose-built set. Instead, Casillo worked with the space around her, turning a corner of her everyday life into the setting for a character born from her imagination.

Imma’s contribution extended beyond offering the space. She also designed the editorial layout and played an important role in bringing the project together. Casillo describes her as someone who welcomes her ideas without judgement, even when they are still taking shape, and encourages her to pursue them. It is a creative relationship that has given her the freedom to experiment and see where an idea might lead.

Ginevra, meanwhile, was essential to giving BLUEVIET a physical presence. By embracing Casillo’s aesthetic and trusting her direction, she helped bring the character to life. Their collaboration developed through curiosity, experimentation and the freedom to explore the photographer’s vision without having to follow a predetermined formula.

That sense of trust is an important part of the story behind the photographs. While BLUEVIET began as an idea in Casillo’s imagination, its realisation depended on the people around her: Imma’s encouragement and creative contribution, and Ginevra’s willingness to step into a character that had not existed before the shoot.

Casillo describes herself as Parthenopean, and her artistic practice centres on giving form to the images and characters that first take shape in her imagination. Each character she creates inhabits a universe with its own rules, perspectives and ways of existing. These are suspended, almost ethereal spaces where conventional explanations are not necessarily required, and where the figures are free to exist on their own terms.

With BLUEVIET, she brings that approach into fashion photography, using colour as the starting point for a character study that is as much about imagination as it is about the people who help make it possible. The result is an editorial with a distinctly personal origin: a new life in Milan, a small apartment shared with a friend, and a creative collaboration that gave an imagined figure somewhere to take shape.

That is where Ginevra became BLUEVIET. And that is where, quite simply, she fell into the blue.

Photography: Maria Chiara Casillo (Artemyde)
Model: Ginevra
Creative collaborator and editorial layout: Imma

Exclusive to Couture Troopers.