When the stage lights go down, what does a dancer choose to wear? Vanity Fair Italia put that question to seven performers for a fashion shoot photographed by Nick Thompson and published on 11 November 2026. The group spans principal dancers from Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, a former television talent-show star and performers who have toured with some of the biggest names in pop. Their styles could hardly be more different, yet all of them describe getting dressed as another way of expressing themselves.
Classical Rigour, Personal Style
Martina Arduino, a principal dancer at La Scala since 2018 according to the theatre’s own biography, sees her wardrobe as a calling card. She told the magazine that she wants to genuinely feel what she wears rather than simply put it on. Her guiding idea of elegance is about taking things away rather than adding more, and from the late ballerina Carla Fracci, who once coached her in Giselle, she inherited a fondness for white as a colour of purity and lightness.
Nicola Del Freo, promoted to principal at La Scala in 2021, admits his interest in fashion came late. Today he simply wants to feel good in his clothes and names Giorgio Armani as his style reference, admiring the designer’s simple, essential elegance and his humility. Fellow La Scala dancer Andrea Risso also points to Armani, crediting ballet with sharpening his eye for harmony and beauty. For Sena Motoyashi, a Japanese dancer in the company, choosing an outfit each morning is a small private pleasure, and living in Milan has given her the freedom to experiment while still wearing a yukata at summer festivals.
Fashion as Freedom
Others treat clothes as play. Daniele Sibilli, who has worked with Madonna and FKA twigs, calls fashion an art form in its own right and a way of showing who he is, borrowing RuPaul’s famous line that we are all born naked and the rest is drag. Luigi Turetti describes his look as a mix of elegance and rock, with Lenny Kravitz as his icon and unusual accessories as his signature. Giulia Pelagatti, known from the Italian programme Amici, explains that she once followed trends to find work, but now reinterprets them so as not to lose her own identity, and cites Audrey Hepburn for her humanity rather than her wardrobe.
The common thread is confidence: pieces that move with the body and say something about the wearer. If you are building a wardrobe with that spirit, a refined pair of earrings, a delicate necklace or a stack of bracelets can do a great deal of quiet work, while a structured handbag or a practical crossbody bag keeps hands free between rehearsals and evenings out. For men, our men’s bags follow the same essential, Armani-style logic the dancers admire.
Sources: Vanity Fair Italia (Federica Caiazzo, photography by Nick Thompson, 11 November 2026); Teatro alla Scala artist biography and ballet company roster; Wikipedia (Nicola Del Freo).
