Biography
Since 1992, Art Partner co-founder Giovanni Testino has led the agency known for its roster of fashion creatives and productions. With nearly 30 years at the helm, Testino has grown the agency from a core focus on fashion photography to include styling and creative direction as well as hair and makeup divisions — ultimately becoming an important source of creative talent and content development across fashion, luxury, and beauty.
Testino studied Economics in California before travelling to Peru to pursue work in the shipping industry in the 1980s. Excelling at his work and quickly building robust shipping business relationships, Mario Testino urged his brother to swap ores and concentrates for photography. With an aim to start their own business venture, the siblings opened the first Art Partner office in New York, capitalising on the city's explosive creative scene. Testino spent 18 years at the agency's New York location.
Art Partner offers a fully integrated approach to its brand collaborations, which includes creative development and image consulting— such as Lucia Pica for Chanel Beauty and Charlotte Tilbury for her own brand — as well as offering film production, in-house digital content strategy and distribution, fashion consultation, image syndication, and production services from the agency's offices in New York, London, and Paris. With a knack for brokering deals among fashion industry key players, Testino also advised his brother Mario Testino to pursue portraiture and beauty photographery in the early days of his career, a field he would then go into to become one of the industry's most notable photographers.
Today, the roster of creatives includes Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, Mario Sorrenti , Dan Tobin Smith, Glen Luchford , Harley Weir , Alasdair McLellan , Charlotte Tilbury, Marie Chaix , Lucia Pica, Ezra Petronio , Christopher Simmonds , and Ferdinando Verderi , among others.
Among the agency’s many advertising clients, Art Partner frequently works with Gucci, Stella McCartney , Chloe, Burberry, Givenchy, Versace, Michael Kors , Puig, Valentino, and Lancôme. Art Partner has also worked on campaigns in the electronics and the food and beverage industries, teaming up with clients such as Apple, Samsung, and The Macallen.