Men In This Town officially launched their fourth MITT Magazine issue and FIB had the chance to have a chat with its founder Giuseppe Santamaria as well as some of the creatives featured in this new edition.
Eric Ng, Pablo Chapelli, Leonard Mattis and Giuseppe Santamaria at MITT Studio Talk
For those of you who don’t know about Men In This Town, it is “a street style blog capturing men with a distinct look in their natural habitat.” From Sydney to New York and Paris, photographer Giuseppe Santamaria walks the streets of the world with his camera to photograph the everyday man whose fashion sense expresses something about his personality.
“I was born in Toronto and originally moved to Sydney for love. The more I experience this city, the more I enjoy it. But I must admit that my favourite city to shoot is Tokyo.” – Santamaria
With over 500,000 followers on Tumblr, a book released in 2014 and a printed digest entitled MITT launched in 2015, Men In This Town has come a long way since the blog was created in 2010.There are so many fashion bloggers and street style photographers out there; you would think it’s impossible to differentiate yourself in this industry. However, there is something special about Men In This Town, explains the photographer:
“When I see someone I want to photograph, I don’t ask him to stop and look at the camera. I aim to capture him in his natural environment and I think this is what makes Men In This Town different.”
This 4th edition of MITT Magazine is Santamaria’s first independent issue. The founder also announced the opening of the ‘MITT Market Place’ in July, a creative space dedicated to Men In This Town’s products, but also to talks and meetings.
Leonard Mattis by Johnny Diaz Nicolaidis
To launch his fourth magazine issue, Santamaria hosted a Studio Talk at Kit and Ace in Surry Hills. FIB got to know three Sydney-based creatives featured in this edition: hair stylist Leonard Mattis, bicycle designer Pablo Chapelli and architect Eric Ng. Even though they work in three very different industries, they do have at least two things in common: (1) a good sense of style, (2) creativity. They told us about their creative process:
“The ideas are always there. The problem is: if you have too many things in mind, you can’t find them. So you have to make space in your mind to be able to find those ideas.” Leonard Mattis
Three Men In This Town
This Q/A session gave us the opportunity to meet the man behind MITT, but also three interesting men who are part of this town’s creative scene:
Leonard Mattis owns a hair salon in Surry Hills and is currently working on his own hair product line. The ‘Leonard Mattis’ range of hair care will launch with seven products, all authentically formulated and produced in Australia. Each individual product will be made up using a combination of unique Australian essential oils and extracts. As a whole, the range will paint a portrait of the Australian landscape. A story of pride, and provenance.
“If you can’t find what you are looking for, you have to create it.” Leonard Mattis
Pablo Chapelli – Source: The Smith Journal
Pablo Chapelli is an industrial designer who used to work for a vacuum company. Designing bikes started just as a side project, until it ended up taking all of his time. Indeed Chapelli Cycles have now made their way to Europe and won the International Design Awards.
“When I get passionate about something, I just dedicate myself 100% to it. There’s no point trying to work on something if I have something else in my mind. I just listen to what my mind wants to do.”
Eric Ng
Eric Ng is a senior designer who was born and raised in Hong Kong. He’s not only a renowned architect, but also an illustration and print artist.
“Just because I am an architect doesn’t mean I only look at buildings to get inspired. Inspiration is everywhere, as long as you are open to it.”
Find out more about Men In This Town‘s street styles and profiles on their website.