written by ALESSANDRO BELLO
photography by PASQUALE VINO
art direction GIORGIA PRESICCE MOLLONE & FRANCESCO MELELEO
styling by GIORGIA PRESICCE MOLLONE
beauty team: NICCOLÓ CRACCO, DOMENICO MILONE, EMMA MENDOLA, MATTIA MARZOLO
Today, people talk a lot about subcultures. The idea of a group living inside the mainstream, with its own values, codes, habits, and way of moving through life. I searched for a definition, and Gemini described it as “a distinct group within a larger society, sharing beliefs, interests, behaviours, or values apart from dominant culture”.
Clear enough.
You see it in the queer skating community of New York, which we met a few years ago. You see it in club scenes, running clubs, underground music spaces, and groups where style becomes a shared language before anyone explains it. From the outside, you see clothes, gestures, bodies, references. From the inside, you understand the rules.
So what about bodybuilding? What about the gym?
It is one of the most visible cultures around us, yet we rarely look at it as culture. We treat it as fitness, discipline, vanity, health, routine. But inside the gym, there is a full visual world.
There are uniforms. Oversized hoodies, gloves, lifting belts, high socks, worn sneakers, headphones. There are rituals. The warm-up, the set, the mirror check, the pump, the progress photo, the shaker after training. There is a language too. Reps, sets, macros, cut, bulk, failure, volume.
Every detail has a function, but also an image.
This is where the fashion reading becomes interesting. Because the gym does not start from clothes, it starts from the body.
It is about entering a visual culture. A place where people learn how to carry themselves, how to build a silhouette, how to perform confidence, and how to use the body as a form of style.
Fashion usually dresses the body. Bodybuilding designs it first.
Shoulders become structure. The waist becomes proportion. Muscle becomes volume. Posture becomes attitude. Clothes then arrive to frame the work. A tank top is no longer only a tank top. A hoodie is no longer only a hoodie. They become part of a code. What you hide, what you reveal, when you reveal it, and under which light.
With The Beauty and the Gym, we wanted to look at bodybuilding beyond strength, at the aesthetic of this subculture. The discipline, the vanity, the silence, the noise, the desire to change, the desire to be seen.
Because the gym it’s a place where bodies become images.
My name is Ethan, and for me, the gym is about healing and learning how to live safely in my own body.
The parts of my body I care about most are my face and arms, and after a workout I feel refreshed.
For me, strength means feeling confident in your own body.
My name is Kieran, and the gym for me is a place where the noise of the week is left behind and the body comes first.
The body part I care most about is the core, and my post-workout feeling is that is satisfaction and accomplishment.
For me strength looks like optimizing and prioritizing your physical and mental health based on your bodies needs and not falling victim to comparison or societal expectations.
My name is Sebastiano, and the gym for me is healthy masochism. The body part I care most about is my butt, and my post-workout feeling is confidence.
For me strength looks like weakness.
My name is Iris, and the gym for me is like going to therapy.
The body part I care most about is my face, and my post-workout feeling is a boost of happiness.
For me strenght looks like being at peace and accepting yourself all the time no matter what.
talent ETHAN LARA
models SEBASTIANO FICHERA, KIERAN VERA, IRIS DRAGO
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