He’s got 75.9K followers (and counting), his own catchphrase and a wardrobe brimming with Burberry Nova Check and Balenciaga — but who actually is Ecce Homo? “I’m an atypical influencer,” Ecce (real name Simone) tells SLEEK when we manage to catch him in the lull before fashion month. “I don’t go crazy for smiles, paid advertising and fluff.” And he isn’t mad on fashion-perfection either, instead littering his feed with curling toes, blistered heels and garish over-accessorisation. His carefully curated anti-aesthetic moodboard is so-bad-it’s-good fashion at its absolute finest, spanning everything from ‘90s Pamela Anderson to the oxymoronic triumph of Y/Project UGGs. If the typical fashion influencer is a peacock, fluffing its feathers at every opportunity, Ecce Homo is a quiet hawk, waiting patiently for that golden moment when imperfection rears its ugly head.
And, the elusive Instagrammer has been an total enigma to his fans until recently. “I realise that there is a bit of mystery around my figure,” he admits. “I always tried to to focus on my aesthetic rather than my image.” Finally, however, Ecce Homo has been given a face, and it’s that of 30-year old fashion buyer Simone Cotellessa, who lives in Milan and spends his downtime drinking Aperol Spritz and reading Nietzsche. We caught up with the unorthodox influencer in the run up to MFW to find out more about the man behind ugly fashion’s favourite account.
Ecce Homo isn’t your first Instagram account — what’s the story behind its inception?
Ecce Homo was born in 2016 and it’s the official heir of an other account that Instagram shut down, Minima Moralia. The name was inspired by the homonymous book written by Theodor Adorno in 1951 and its reflections about the disturbing aspects of everyday life. It was censored because, according to instagram, some of the pics were too explicit. Ecce Homo is born from its ashes, by preserving all of its ugliness, but in a fashion context.
How did you first become interested in fashion?
Actually, fashion has always been one my greatest passions, together with art history, philosophy and niche perfumery. Since my adolescence, I have always spent a lot of time watching fashion shows, browsing fashion magazines, cutting and saving the best editorials, or even looking for fashion show soundtracks to listen on my iPod. During those years, I was particularly obsessed with Davide Sorrenti and the magnitude of his photographs with James King, permeated by love and heroin, but also by the timeless glamour of Gucci collections by Tom Ford and his campaign shot by Mario Testino, starring Georgina Grenville, one of my favourite models to this day.
Why “Ecce Homo” — it’s biblical, right?
Ecce Homo are the Latin words used by Pontius Pilate in the Vulgate translation of Johannes 19:5, when he presents Jesus Christ to the hostile crowd before his crucifixion, but is also the title of the last book written by Friedrich Nietzsche in 1888. It’s about the desperate attempt to unhinge with hyperbolic images the dominating puritan beliefs, and this is something very “Ecce Homo”, I mean. Moreover, Homo could be interpreted like homosexual, linking to the gay aesthetic that dominates the whole Ecce Homo feed.
What makes something “Ecce Homo”?
My inspiration generally comes from the ugly aspects of beauty. I think that the best way to appreciate beauty is by contemplating its inner ugly aspects. This is the reason why on Ecce Homo even the glossiest fashion pictures have something disturbing. For example, you can see one of the most wanted shoes of the season worn by horrible feet. It’s disturbing, it’s horrible, sure…but it’s so Ecce Homo. I really don’t care about what beauty should or shouldn’t be. Everything is beautiful or disturbingly attractive in its own way.
It seems 75 thousand people agree with you…
Ugliness is the dark side of beauty. It’s that veil that no one has ever tried to lift up too much, despite being an essential component. As if hiding the dust under the carpet means cleaning the house. I’m not obsessed by ugliness…maybe I’m so obsessed by beauty that I want investigate it so thoroughly to end up falling in love even with its shadows. I don’t know if ugly is the new beautiful, but for sure, beauty is the new ugliness.
And we need ugliness to appreciate beauty.
Right. I think that if beauty is an end in itself, it’s surely boring. We need ugliness to find excitement in beauty. For a long time, fashion has always ostracised ugliness, trying to chase an always new ideal of beauty, but it ended up in being repetitive. Ugliness, together with trashiness, is attractive. All my references sink their roots in the works of those, from Rosenkranz to Lukács, from Schönberg to EMin, Goldin and so on, who reversed the traditional canons by introducing some dissonances in their work. I want to be far from the “triumphalistic” aspects of traditional fashion accounts. If people side with Marie Antoinette, I side with Madame Du Barry.
What design do you think is the pinnacle of ugly fashion?
In my opinion, no one interprets ugly fashion like Miuccia Prada, the designer who invented ugly chic, la jolie laide, with her shocking use of wrong materials, sometimes stiff and unflattering to settle the roots of a new kind of beauty to fight back against the common aesthetic.
What were you wearing as a teen? What ‘phases’ did you have?
During my adolescence I was crazy for D&G, the young line from Dolce & Gabbana. It was so cool, probably one of the first attempts of street style as we think about it today with collections made of statement t-shirts and denim, even with a trashy touch sometimes. All my best fashion memories are linked to D&G. I was already a big fan of Prada collections and Miu Miu menswear….back in the days!
What’s the first piece of designer clothing you ever bought?
A no-iron zebra print shirt by Just Cavalli in white & light blue from SS02.
What was your biggest fashion faux-pas?
Mmmm, it’s the same answer as before.
What’s your most coveted item of clothing?
I’m obsessed — even nowadays — by the waxed outerwear from Prada SS07 in atomic orange or lemon yellow. That collection was crazy, probably, one of the most Ecce Homo ones, with impeccable tailor suits paired with ugly wool socks and sandals.
What do you do on a day to day basis?
Generally speaking I spend my days going between showrooms and my office. My off-hours are all about Instagram collaborations. I’m so happy and satisfied that brands contact me because they are interested in my project, my vision and my message.
What’s coming up for you in the near future!?
Happiness and gratification, I hope. The other projects will be unveiled soon.