In the introduction to the book Traditions of the Thompson River Indians of British Columbia (1898, Download Traditions of the Thompson River Indians), Franz Boas states, "It would seem that mythological worlds have been built up only to be shattered again, and that new worlds were built from the fragments."
Boas wasn't obviously referring to fashion, but we can move from this concept of shattered worlds and new visions rising from the remaining fragments to create modern fashion mythologies evolving from traditions.
In the history of contemporary fashion, using traditional patterns and motifs as starting points for collections or for specific garments often caused terrible faux pas that led to cases of appropriation. Yet it is possible to update traditional moods and inspirations and reinterpret them in modern keys, especially in those cases in which traditions seem to have been abandoned.
Let's consider the case of traditional regional costumes in Italy: in a previous post we looked at the attire of rural women in fascist times, highlighting how wearing their local and regional costumes during parades, they weren't promoting their own individuality against the regime, but were instead being manipulated into showcasing the nation's traditions, hinting therefore at the grandeur of the regime.
As the decades passed regional costumes were gradually forgotten in Italy: nowadays you may just see them in ethnographic museums and at folk exhibitions, or maybe donned by members of folkloristic dance groups or musicians, or at times worn during food and crafts exhibitions by young women to promote the delicacies and handmade products of the different regions.
By the early '80s, regional costumes were already nearly forgotten, but it was still possible to find in some shops nostalgic postcards that celebrated them.
Each of these postcards, almost resembling fashion sketches, featured a young lady in the traditional attire of an Italian region. The dress was decorated by skilled artisans with embroideries that enriched the regional costume printed on the postcard. The embroideries added therefore a three-dimensional tactile quality to the postcards.
This sort of anthropological souvenir – popular in in Italy, but also in France, Spain and Portugal – had already started disappearing in the early '80s (nowadays you may find a few examples of these postcards on eBay with prices varying, depending on the conditions and the number of postcards).
Most of the subjects on these postcards related to regional or national costumes, but there were also occasional religious themes. These postcards, usually sold in pilgrimage sites like Fatima, featured religious icons and figures like the Virgin Mary highlighted with the usual embroideries.
My grandfather used to collect stamps and postcards and also had a few of these postcards: I wouldn't play with them, but I would admire them and cherish the details like the tiny flowers on the skirts of the young women portrayed on the postcards or the delicate stitches used to add lace-like shawls and veils. In my eyes, the embroidered elements on the postcards turned them into kitsch yet mesmerizing souvenirs.
The postcards came to mind while looking at Antonio Marras' Pre-Fall 2024 collection. Marras blended in this collection two different moods – Sardinian patterns and costumes with Native Americans references.
Marras explored the points in common between the two cultures, emphasizing their shared relationship with and respect for nature. The collection featured therefore bucolic inspirations alongside elegant pieces, such as tailored coats and jackets with pleated panels, and clashes of plaids and florals, showcasing Marras' skills through textured and patterned juxtapositions.
Blankets served as a canvas for Marras that created through quilt techniques abstract motifs and figures of animals. The blanket is supposed to turn in this case into a wearable glossary, embodying both Sardinian and Native American elements, while metaphorically hinting at a displaced existence amid wars and environmental disasters.
Talking about embroideries, the collection also included a jacket that could be considered as a wearable embroidery sampler as it featured on one side a selection of traditional embroidered elements, and, on the other, the embroidery of a woman dressed in the Sardinian regional costume that almost evokes the vintage allure of costume postcards (see also last vintage postcard in this post for another version of the Sardinian costume).
This jacket aligns with Boas' concept of shattering mythologies: in this case the designer interpreted regional embroideries, patterns and costumes, building something new from their fragments and recreating in this way a transformative process of traditional mythologies.
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