By Dylan Dias
How does the clothing you wear tell your story? When does fashion transcend fabric, design, and industry to become yours? Not in the way that you purchase it, but in the way that you own it – your character, spirit, and individuality. Speaking from personal experience, it can be a complicated thing to make sense of. Because it isn’t only a great piece – it’s our bodies. And it isn’t only how we fit into that garment – it’s how we fit into the world around us, and what it is we’re trying to say. It’s also about the places we call home. Style, material, and culture – how it relates to where we’re from, but also where we end up. Yes, fashion is clothing, but it’s also art, philosophy, and commentary. One of my dearest friends, Amalia Bentivoglio, recently sat down with me over coffee and a light lunch to explore what some of these contemplations have meant to her, as well as a candid reflection on her journey – an artist that has anchored the best parts of her life in the world of fashion, and how she continues to cultivate that dream every day.
On a clear autumn day inside Yorkville’s glittering Park Hyatt, Amalia and I met to chat at the Writer’s Room – the hotel’s elegant and streamlined rooftop space that opens into a magnificent vista of city, architecture, and sky. Originally from Montréal and born to Italian parents that began a new life in Canada at a youthful age, Amalia is one of the most talented and experienced editorial and wardrobe stylists in Toronto. With an intrinsic love and disposition for clothing and design that began at home, Amalia’s career has taken her from Toronto to Italy and back – leaving her mark in nearly every avenue of the industry alongside prolific agencies, designers, and publications. Recounting her early years in Montréal, Amalia’s relationship with fashion, style, and Italy started with her family.
Caught in the crosshairs between the English and French world in Montréal and the rich Italian roots of her upbringing, Amalia grew up like many first-generation Canadians – speaking multiple languages and building bridges of culture between the communities around her, her heritage, and herself, which is ultimately a combination of these things. It was in these complexities that Amalia would find her spirit – the one that adored clothing and design as well as the one that connected those sensibilities to Italy. A legacy largely steeped in the influence of her grandparents and what they carried with them from Letino Matese, a small village in Caserta, to Canada. As well as both her mother and father, and their appreciation for fashion and its purpose.
…it isn’t only how we fit into that garment – it’s how we fit into the world around us, and what it is we’re trying to say. It’s also about the places we call home. Style, material, and culture – how it relates to where we’re from, but also where we end up.
— DYLAN DIAS
“[My parents] were always dressed for the occasion. There was no sloppiness in my house. Jogging pants were for inside the house; no one wore them outside.”
Amalia’s mother was an accomplished seamstress – gifting her the freedom to be creative with clothing early on. Most of Amalia’s garments for weddings and parties were crafted by her mother, while she found joy in choosing the fabrics, trims, and patterns she loved. Her father had a penchant for sharply tailored suiting as well, an affinity Amalia has since carried with her, having helped to conceptualize his pieces in construction, button and cuff detailing, accessories, and finishes at a young age.
“These are some of my favourite memories growing up – having to do with clothing.”
Amalia would eventually study at Montréal’s famed design program at LaSalle College before deciding that this branch of fashion, centred on design and illustration, may not be the right fit for her. This, alongside a growing sense of disassociation to what Montrèal could truly offer her career, Amalia left for Toronto in 2002 to pursue work in the legal field. Although as Canadians we tend to consider bilingualism an asset, Amalia often felt out of place in Montréal – citing her upbringing in an English-Italian household, and not having francophone roots to her name, as a professional disadvantage in the French Canadian city.
“Getting ahead [in Montreal] was really difficult. My bilingualism worked against me.”
In Toronto, diversity opened doors, her bilingualism was needed and valued, and Amalia felt a sense of place that better aligned with who she was and wanted to be – landing her a job in legal almost immediately. By 2004, while pursuing alternative avenues in fashion outside design alone, Amalia had enrolled in the fashion coordination and styling program at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) – one of the premier fashion schools in the country – and loved every minute of it.
“I met so many people from different walks of life, different industries, from all over the world. Toronto allowed me to build a really amazing life for myself…in terms of fashion, experiences, people, opportunities, and open-mindedness.”
Then, in a fateful moment, Amalia discovered a way to bring together the richness she’d gained from fashion in Toronto with its source – the one that came with her family across the Atlantic – and a pathway to Italy opened. At a local event she organized for the Italian community in Toronto, Amalia was able to connect with an individual that worked at helping ambitious people find internships in Italy. After some thoughtful planning and a little gumption in her step, Amalia was accepted into a six month fashion internship in the dense, bustling, and artful mecca of Florence. By mid-2009, she was immersed – working for a major Italian agency and assisting in model castings, soundtrack selection, styling concepts, mood boards, and went as far as to co-produce an entire fashion show in Milan. She also participated in castings for Gucci and Dior, produced a nautical show that sailed from Venice to Croatia, and continued to evolve into essential art direction roles during her time there. It was the dreamlike picture of a confident, spirited artist that lived for what fashion gave her and the worlds it touched. And it was the amalgamation of a heart that grew up in Canada, but a soul that found itself in Italy – where clothing, art, architecture, and all aspects of meaningful design, reverberate.
“It was one of the few times in my life that I cried tears of joy. I always knew this was a hobby for me and that I loved it, but did I love it enough to turn it into a career without it jading me? [in the end] I fell in love with it even more, which I didn’t think was possible.”
However, due to staffing conflicts with the agency, Amalia wasn’t able to stay. And after six incredible months forging the foundation of her career in Italy, she was forced to return home to Toronto. It would be another three years of hard work and hard saving before she was able to return – this time to Rome, this time with the intention of staying forever, and this time with a fire so certain and pure that fashion, and her life, was waiting for her on those narrow, opulent streets. With connections from both Toronto and Italy behind her, Amalia landed media accreditation through Altaroma – the production company behind the shows of Rome Fashion Week – and experienced two fashion seasons, a full year, in the historic city. Throwing her, once again, into the pulsating heart of fashion – timeless, electric, and beautiful – like Rome itself.
“We ran around Rome like it was crazy. There was one show that we went to; I still remember the designer’s name – Giada Curti. The show was outside in the Borghese Gardens. I can’t even put into words how magical it was.”
That said, romance and magic have a way of casting gold on the shadows of reality. Sometimes that’s a wonderful thing, other times it’s difficult. Professional barriers in Italy held her back and no opportunities managed to stay together. After a year of beauty and exhausted resources, Amalia was once again forced to return home.
[You should] feel amazing in your clothes. It’s a small thing that can change everything, genuinely.
— AMALIA BENTIVOGLIO
“It was like a bad breakup.”
Despite our conviction, best intentions, and best efforts, we can sometimes end up astray. Not from the dreams we keep close to our heart, but from the pathways we’ve taken to get there – a feeling I can empathize with all too well.
Heartbreak and grief are not reserved for just one kind of love – sometimes it’s the love connected to our soul, our sense of self, that is the most difficult to process when it shatters. But in a way, it also guided Amalia to step into the avenues of fashion she was able to control – her entrepreneurship, editorial styling, and digital presence; avenues that continued to take shape during the young and vibrant fashion weeks that populated the mid-2010s in Toronto. Sunny Fong, Sid Neigum, Laura Siegel, Stephen Caras, Lucian Matis, Jeremy Laing, Bustle, Chloé Comme Parris – just a small, brilliant handful of the ingenuity to emerge from these collections; ingenuity that defined a generation of fashion media in Canada. And although Rome at the time represented heartache for Amalia, it was this spark of renewal, the home she always felt she had in Toronto, and the passion to continue working in the realm of clothing and style that carried her through. It wasn’t a question of wanting to – it was the reality of needing to.
“For me, it’s who I am. I don’t know how else to be. It’s ingrained in me. I love shoes and clothes and putting them together.”
It’s not just the passion and creativity she was born with, it’s also the veneration of beauty she was raised with – a discernment that is innately present in her connection with Italy – both the country itself and its enduring culture of design.
— DYLAN DIAS
Lovingly dubbed Toronto is my Boyfriend – casually inspired by Carrie Bradshaw’s relationship to New York City – Amalia’s blog and landing page for her styling business began as a testament to the home she created for herself in the city as well as the depth of her repertoire, love, and expertise in fashion. What began as a simple gesture of offering to clothing shop for a colleague shifted into a glaring and promising sense of purpose. That is – impact. Though editorial work was exciting and creative, Amalia found herself consistently dressing one body type for one type of representation – an image. Styling for everyday, different people, building wardrobes that helped them feel incredible in the bodies they had, and granting them power and presence in their own lives held much greater beauty. Today, that is what Amalia centres her work around – fashion with intention.
“It’s not about selling; it’s about reaching people. It’s not about brands and trends, it’s about the person. Everyone is different.”
Throughout everything she’s been through – from Italian runways to model castings, photoshoots, and editorial spreads – Amalia has found purity in helping people discover the best version of themselves, and their wardrobes, through styling. Her advice? Come up with a few key adjectives that mean something to you. How would you ideally like to be perceived? What presence would you like to embody day-to-day? What are the words that you feel relate to the life you live and the life you desire? Edgy, avant-garde, tailored, polished, eclectic, sleek? Words create a sense of direction and resolve and can help lay the foundation for a wardrobe’s visual language. Following that, start with the core of fashion – basics. Clean neutrals, a good blazer, a great jacket, solid denim, crisp boots, and a timeless bag. Then, build outward – specialized pieces, colour, and texture. Eventually, you find more than just clothing – you find identity.
“Fashion is the industry; style is about you. Style is yours. Nobody has the exact same closet, even if we love the same brands. Style is a thumbprint – it is DNA.”
What Amalia offers her clients far exceeds shopping alone – it’s styling and wardrobe building, yes, but it’s done through personal connection, composition, fit, and detailing. The eyes of an artist, not only a shopper. Amalia believes that most of us can identify great clothing, but it’s a bigger task to understand how to put that clothing together and how to wear the best shapes for our bodies. It’s closet building but also closet editing – understanding how to make what we have work, how to fill in the blanks, and how to pinpoint the way forward to create even more. And again – always through a lens of who we are, how we live, and what we want for ourselves. Authenticity can be disarming, which can sometimes feel intimidating, but it can also be liberating – something fashion, at its heart, should always be.
“Clothing doesn’t come to life until someone has it on.”
It’s not about selling; it’s about reaching people. It’s not about brands and trends, it’s about the person. Everyone is different.
— AMALIA BENTIVOGLIO
Amalia Bentivoglio continues to be the same, sparkly-eyed dreamer I met many years ago when it comes to fashion and all the design, art, and beauty that centres it in that world. It’s not just the passion and creativity she was born with, it’s also the veneration of beauty she was raised with – a discernment that is innately present in her connection with Italy – both the country itself and its enduring culture of design. Everything, even in the most casual way, is curated and composed. To Amalia, it’s architecture – and it all matters. The right coat, the best bag, and the perfect boot – in the closet it’s an outfit; on you it’s life. Make the best of it, always.
“[You should] feel amazing in your clothes. It’s a small thing that can change everything, genuinely.”
Thank you, my friend. For reminding me of what fashion actually is and can be – a gateway to culture, freedom, and ourselves. – VV
Amalia Bentivoglio is an editorial, wardrobe, and personal stylist and shopper in Toronto, Canada and can be reached through her website, her Instagram, or by reaching out to amafashionista@gmail.com
Photography courtesy of Amalia Bentivoglio & Unsplash
