Tell us something about yourself.

I’m a couturier and production designer. My atelier focuses on the idea of timeless elegance, and reflects a sense of a researched and applied aestheticism. Its mission is to push artisanal design as a self-sustainable local industry through concept-based fashion that embraces beauty, individuality and style. I would list drinking wine and eating at museum cafeterias as hobbies. I live with three friends and our cat, Kit (sometimes Christopher or Kraken), who is the undisputed prince of Instagram photos.

How often do you travel?

It really does boil down to the workload I’m undertaking that particular season.

Do you remember your first time abroad, and can you tell us about it?

I’m not really sure; I think it was when I went on a cruise with my parents, aged eight. I don’t remember much, apart from the fact that I was bored, constantly.

Best holiday ever and why?

Probably when I met up with two of my best friends in Vicenza, whom I hadn’t seen in over a year. It was great fun, we went around the Veneto region on bikes. Verona is beautiful, and so are the outskirts of Vicenza (Palladian Villas) and Padua. I loved the Guggenheim collection and Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Venice.

Which place would you never visit and why?

No idea.

Maltese cuisine is largely borrowed and is in dire need of an update

Best travel companion?

My friend Vivienne Bajada, because we share a love for art and food.

And what’s the worst your travel companion could do?

Attempt to wake me up really early. Vivienne sometimes does this – I should add that early means 8am.

What do you usually look for when you travel?

Food, mostly.

The perfect holiday would be... ?

I would like to go around Central America, drinking cocktails in hiking shoes.

Package tours or DIY?

DIY.

What the best travel advice you can give?

I don’t really have any. Perhaps when in London, go to Nightjar for the best cocktails you will ever have and then drop in at East Bloc for amazing, electroclash music. Also, don’t go to Yasmin Hammamet sporting long, blonde hair in finger waves. It attracts a lot of unnecessary attention, unless you want that, of course.

And what’s the worst piece of advice you’ve been given?

I can’t really think of any.

Left: Luke AzzopardiLeft: Luke Azzopardi

Flying – hate it/love it/neutral?

I hate it. The only flight I ever enjoyed was going to Vienna from London to meet my family, but that’s because there was an odd amount of leg space. Cue, hashtag ‘tall-peopleproblems’.

The one place you never get tired of visiting?

Perhaps Capri. I’ve only been twice, but I would definitely like to go again soon. Salzburg is also very pretty, but I wouldn’t want to go in winter again.

Describe one memory that stuck with you from a place.

The double portrait of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt (The Hermits) at the Leopold museum – it’s an incredible work. I also remember really enjoying a cooking class in Perugia during a gourmet trip with the Kunsill Studenti Universitarji. One of the chefs was called Tita and she was the most Italian woman I’ve ever met.

You met the coolest people in?

Padova Pride Village and, to my surprise, when I was there a group of drag queens opened the show with that year’s signature song: a choreography to Kurt Calleja’s This is the Night. My brain could not process all that was happening. I’ve also met some pretty amazing people when I was studying at Central Saint Martins in London.

Your best budget tip to save money on holiday?

I’m really not the best person to ask for holiday budgeting.

If you actually had to live away from Malta, where would you pick?

No idea. I guess somewhere in Europe.

What’s the one thing you would never do in a foreign country?

Never thought of that, really. I’ve done quite a lot of silly things.

Anything on your travel bucket list?

Egypt, Argentina and everywhere else that Vice magazine would be interested in documenting.

Travel is important to you because... ?

It fuels my personal work. I think that the act of travelling itself is one of the most important phenomena in fashion-making. It’s all about cross-referencing styles and cultures at various moments in time in order to create an aesthetic for what is to follow.

What has travel taught you?

That Maltese cuisine is largely borrowed and is in dire need of an update.

Where would you retire and why?

Gozo, because it’s unspoilt and quiet. I would like to live in Għasri.

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