+32 The great show of ACCADEMIA COSTUME & MODA AT ALTAROMA
The 18 students of the famous fashion academy surprised the public of Altaroma with their mature and hyper creative graduate collections, once again demonstrating the very high level of the school and bringing forward a new idea of Made in Italy. With a double final surprise and the reward of the best designers.
We start speaking about the end of the show, when Lupo Lanzara, Vice President of the school, took the microphone to announce that he will soon leave his role for a year to go in Saudi Arabia to direct the start-up of fashion system in that country. A real surprise for everybody, so used to thinK about Lupo as a reference figure, but especially as one of the most important part of the great family that is ACCADEMIA COSTUME & MODA.
After a moment of emotion pervading the entire public, just arrived the second very important announce. Accademia Costume & Moda will soon open another headquarter in Milan with 300 new students and Sara Azzone, previously in IED, as Director. A real boom news!
Now let’s make a step behind, to the award ceremony for the best students. This year the winners of “ACM Talents Awards”, selected by a jury composed by very important fashion insiders, designers and famous journalists, were three. Eva Bureau won the category for apparel and also the “Pitti Tutorship Award”, Alessia Di Seclì won for the accessories and Camilla Galletta for communication.
How was the final show of the 18 students? A real wonder, a this is not a surprise, because every year the school accustoms us to very high level collections, that are at the same time theatrical, poetic, hyper modern, fancy and sophisticated.
THE CLOTHING GRADUATE COLLECTIONS
Eva Bureau, with her “Hexapoda”, dominated the scene and won practically everything, especially the interest of public and mass media. Her collection, both for men and women, mixes subcultures and cybernetic visions to the insects’ colors and galactic landscapes. A kaleidoscopic mash-up that perfectly interprets what will be the future of fashion.
“Antimony”, the collection realized by Benedetta Cidonio, speaks about the alchemic principle of transformation of matter. And in fact the designer turns the shapes and the volumes of her outfits working especially with the textures of the fabrics and the contrast between bright and opaque surfaces.
The rich, colorful and eye-catching collection “My kind of beauty” by Elena D’amico is the visual and tactile story of the moment of passage between adolescence and maturity of a young woman, who transform herself and the perception of the world becoming even more self-confident and conscious of the value of her unicity.
The concept of time is the leitmotif of the collection “Puffs loop” by Giulio D’Arpino. Taking inspiration from a sci-fi book set between the end of 19th century and the Seventies, the designer brings us in a journey through time in which the shapes of the leg-of-mutton sleeves play together with the trench coat and the eternity of the shell’s shapes.
An oneiric and bizarre tour in the world of the strangest animals existing in our planet, so incredible to seem almost fantastic and unreal. The knitwear collection “Aletheiagoria” by Maddalena Gentile is one of the most subtly poetic I’ve seen during my personal experience, because it’s able to transform these little monster into a joyful and ironic hymn to life.
Find our inner nature through the hybridization of cultures and ages, this is the intent of “Aftermath”, the capsule collection designed by Arianna Irato. From the traditional Chinese dress to the shapes of 17th century collars and the folkloristic garments of the Alaska’s natives, the mix of differences aims to reach the perfect equilibrium.
“X-eniac”, the final collection of Gabriele Larcher, is a time journey from the past to the present, with an eye to the future. It’s the story of Xenya, a character that arrives to our current days from ancient times, bringing with her the armors and the heraldry of middle ages and becoming a modern heroin that fights against virtual reality and technology.
The creations by Marco Passone floated on the air when the models walked on runway. “Gravity”, his graduate collection, is in fact inspired by the parachute’s shape and the military world mixed to the sophisticated and irreverent elegance of Teddy Boys and the topographic maps that play with the artowrks of Ouzo Kim, a Korean artist.
A poetic touch and a very vivid imagination are expressed by the collections “Briseadh” designed by Alice Piscedda, who started by the portraits of the Liverpool’s working class adolescent and the murals in Belfast to create supersized volumes and knitwear textures that have the aspect of paper, as the collection was an elaborated sketchbook.
“Gender-full” by Irene Valandro is an experimentation on the possibilities offered by denim fabric and the washes commonly used for creating jeans, but applied to exaggerated volumes that play with the stereotypes of male and female body’s shapes that in fashion history were differently emphasized by the Dior’s New Look or by the 90s street style.
THE ACCESSORIES GRADUATE COLLECTIONS
“Raksha” is the beautiful collection designed by Sajith Amaratung, who made a journey inside himself and his origins inspired by the discovery of an old photo. The collection mixes two different worlds that are both part of the designer’s life, with the Sri Lankan traditional hand-woven straw technique mixed to the Western modernity and the mask as symbol of protection.
As modern Amazons, the models wearing the pieces of “Nœud” walked fiercely on runway, proud of the perfection of the shapes and refinery of the creations designed by Alessia Di Seclì. The young accessories designer worked on the classic shapes and materials emphasizing the simple and strong beauty of leather and crochet details.
Obsessed by the human eyes, Alessandra Mansi for her accessories collection “Ceci n’est pas un jeux*” found inspiration in the work of Jodorowsky and in the meditation of the eye as symbol of omniscience. The anatomical detail is transformed into the shape of a bag handle or into spherical decorations that recall the pupils.
What’s real and what is part of our memory? Starting from the strange atmospheres of Twin Picks, a cult tv-series of the 90s, for her “Random access memories” Federica Pironti mixes floral patterns and foliage of ancient tapestries with modern shapes, using the contrasts of color to create a certain dynamism in her creations.
A seductive woman and an eccentric man. Beatrice Scanni, with her accessories collection “Les fleurs du mal” mentions Baudelaire and Nick Cave, mixing the idea of a Dandy aesthetic to a bold and strong imagination, giving an extra-luxurious touch to her creations with the use of precious leathers and refined details.
With “Bound to touch” Alessandro Tais invites us to have a personal tactile experience through touching his bags and shoes. Inspired by contemporary and futuristic architecture as well as by three-dimensional fabric manipulation, his creations stimulate the tact through the difference of material’s textures and the eyes with the use of a bold color palette.
Human skin and calf leather united by the same concept. Through unexpected cuts revealing contrasting colors, drapes that recall the wrinkles of the skin and laces that represent sutures, the collection “Scalpel” by Marie Bernadette Wöehrl combines the conceptual approach to the minimal shapes and the unusual ways to wear the accessories.
Hi-tech soul for the accessories collection “Blow Glass” designed by Giorgia Tavian, who worked on geometric shapes inspired by contemporary sculpture and especially on materials, using a fiberglass fabric coated with PVC to transform her bags and shoes into objects both practical and useful, resistant to humidity and even extreme conditions of temperature.
