Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law, Science & Technology

Light in the Darkness: From The Magdalene Laundries to Róisín Pierce's "Mná i Bhláth" (Women in Bloom)

The Catholic Magdalene Laundries represent a dark and sad chapter in the history of Ireland: founded with a charitable intent, the Irish convent laundries became notorious for exploiting women considered to be in "moral danger". In the early days there were mainly prostitutes coming in, but then the covents started admitting more single women who had children born out of wedlock and were rejected by their families.

Treated like outcasts, the women in the Madgdalene convents were usually mistreated, forced to perform hard labour without compensation and led a life of punishment and confinement, while their families and the Catholic church approved. The stories of the women working in the Magdalene Laundries inspired moving biographical films and novels, but certainly not fashion collections. At least until recently.

Irish textile designer Róisín Pierce moved indeed from the Magdalene Laundries for her collection, "Mná i bhláth "(Women in Bloom). 

Pierce graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Ireland with a BA Hons in Textile Design in 2016 and then interned with luxury womenswear brands in Dublin and Copenhagen, developing an interest for experiental silhouettes and textile elaborations.   

In a previous collection, entitled "Man Repellent", Pierce explored the theme of the male gaze and its impact on women's bodies, offering a way to escape from it through garments that revolved around the beauty Vs repulsion dichotomy with distorted and unflattering silhouettes, characterised by bulbous and bulging forms (a concept reminiscent of Rei Kawakubo's "Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body" collection).      

In more recent collections the designer manipulated fabrics, creating 3D surfaces gathering and weaving textiles. In some cases she borrowed these techniques from traditional crafts, in others she tried to come up with new constructions and embellishments to enrich the surfaces of her pieces. 

Pierce's "Mná i Bhláth" (Women in Bloom) pays tribute to the women who were sent to the Magdalene Laundries. This collection and other designs that Pierce recently developed come in just one colour - white - a symbol hinting at babies' baptism tunics, First Communion dresses and wedding gowns. 

The women in bloom theme is also a reference to losing one's virginity, while the materials and sculpted surface elaborations call to mind the handcrafted textiles and techniques such as Irish lace, smocking and the embroideries of religious garments, that the women were obliged to do at the Magdalene convents. Working was intended as a way to atone for their sins and past mistakes, but the women never financially benefited from making these pieces as the money went to the church.   

Pierce received the Public Prize at the 34th edition of the Hyères International Festival and she also won the Prix des Métiers d'Art for the best collaboration between one of the ten finalists of the festival and one of Chanel's ten Métiers d'art ateliers (the prize will allow her to create a new item that will be presented at next year's Festival).

Pierce worked with Maison Michel, creating white ruched broderie Anglaise hats, and while the latter will complement her "Mná i Bhláth" collection, the two prizes she got could be interpreted as a tribute to all the anonymous marginalised and stigmatised women who worked at the Magdalene Laundries. 

On The Upcycling Bandwagon Where Persian Rugs Abound and Where History is Often Forgotten

The winners of the 34th edition of the Hyères International Festival were announced yesterday after a weekend of presentations and exhibitions at Louis Mallet-Stevens' Villa Noailles.

The jury awarded the Grand Prix Première Vision to Austrian designer Christoph Rumpf, from Vienna's University of Applied Arts.

Most garments in Christoph Rumpf's menswear collection were created with repurposed fabrics and elements, including Persian carpets, fringed beaded trims from belly-dancer costumes and textiles used for car seats.

The designs were characterised by strong silhouettes and an emphasis on volumes, slightly reminiscent of creations by Craig Green (where Rumf actually interned).

The jury also granted an Honorable Mention to a Japanese trio - Tetsuya Doi, Yota Anazawa, and Manami Toda - for their womenswear collection made with repurposed vintage finds, deadstock materials and upcycled fabrics.

Upcycling is a need and a logical conclusion for the youngest generations of designers who seem to be more conscious about the impact fashion has had so far on the environment and who may have become more aware about certain practices such as destroying unsold garments.

Yet upcycling has become a trend that too often revolves around collaged pieces: in the last few years we have seen for example Marine Serre, winner of the 2017 LVMH Prize, who has become known for her scarf dresses and garments made with a frayed-edged made with strips of floral fabrics reminiscent of the fringes of Iranian carpets.

At the moment London is celebrating Fashion Revolution Week (FRW) and among the designers involved there is also Duran Lantink.

More famous for Janelle Monáe's vagina pants in her video Pynk and currently on the shortlist for the 2019 LVMH Prize, Lantink actually did rather intriguing photographic projects with the homeless community in Amsterdam and with sex workers in Cape Town that show his interest in diversity.

Equally fascinated, scared and repulsed by sale riots (think about Black Friday...) and the discount practice in the fashion industry, Lantink has developed garments made with upcycled fabrics and with overstock from charity shops and fashion houses. His garments are assemblages and collages made with bits and pieces from different fashion brands such as Chanel, Lanvin, J.W. Anderson and Dior, just to mention a few of them.

Until today Lantink is at concept shop 50M in Belgravia, London, for a designer residency: for five-days he hosted appointments with customers interested in giving him old items that will be transformed into new pieces in his Amsterdam-based atelier.

Lantink seems to excel at recombining outerwear garments, while shoes look a bit problematic, and he loves detailing his Frankenstein operations on his Instagram page with the precision of a mathematician. 

Now, while upcycling is the most logical reaction to deal with textile waste, the most surprising thing about the new wave of young designers who are into this trend is their lack of a uniquely original vision: most of them seem to have taken a passion for dissecting Persian carpets and reassembling scarves into tops and dresses.

And while some of them have undoubtedly turned sustainable fashion around, coming up with fun pieces, at times the results they come up with reek of Margiela-isms. After all, reclaiming vintage pieces, accessories and random objects (think about baseball gloves, combs, windsurfing sails and crystal doorknobs) were definitely Margiela's fixations (in a way also the Persian carpet theme is a Margiela trope... View this photo). 

In the last few years there have also been collections recycling luxury fabrics or vintage designs: Margiela's Artisanal S/S 14 collection featured shirts with panels made with Mariano Fortuny's fabrics, evening gowns created by draping Frank Lloyd Wright's interior design fabrics and coats (one with a Gauguin's painting) collaged out of thick tapestries.

In more recent years Viktor & Rolf's Haute Couture S/S 17 collection was also an exercise in repurposing fabrics and garments since it featured shifts, cocktail dresses, pants and evening gowns made by recombining together sectioned pieces from vintage dresses from the '40s or from iconic designs by Courrèges.

There's optimism in the possibility of reusing fabrics and textiles (especially when it is done in a socially responsible and clever way - think about Anna Heringer's project showcased last year at the Venice Architecture Biennale), but there is a certain bitterness when you consider that the practice of upcycling was a trend decades ago when people couldn't afford new clothes, but we forgot about it. So this practice that should actually represent the future of fashion comes from the past.

During the Second World War many women would make underwear and dresses from parachute silk, while coats were turned inside out when one side would get too worn. So thinking that repurposing a Persian carpet is an innovative idea proves that we are rather ignorant not just about the history of fashion, but about history in general. 

There are also other dilemmas when it comes to designers reusing luxury clothes. Will the brands involved see this exercise as an infringement of copyright? Well, Lantink has actually been contacted by labels that want to work with him so his unique creations may become collaborations.   

And this is where things may become more interesting: fashion houses may indeed try and make more leftover materials available for designers keen on experimenting in more innovative ways with them. For example, leftovers of ribbons and straps are thrown away by the manufacturers producing them for luxury brands as they can't be reused being branded and labels fear they may be used for counterfeit products if they give them away. Now, better policies could be developed also for what regards these smaller materials that could become components. 

As for young fashion designers, yes, they should definitely upcycle materials, but they should also try and find their own glossary to do so, rather than just collaging bits and pieces together. There's a whole world to discover in the fashionable debris and detritus we produce every day. We just need to explore it better and find more innovative solutions also when it comes to accessories. But, for God's sake, leave those carpets alone.  

Material Vs Medium: Sheela Gowda's "Remains" @ Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan

A while back artist Sheela Gowda stated in an interview "Art is not about giving opinions in black and white terms. It is nuanced through a visual language that is also determined by the material and medium". Her current exhibition at Milan's Pirelli HangarBicocca - "Remains", her first major solo show in Italy - revolves around these two elements, material and medium, in an engaging way.

The exhibition, curated by Nuria Enguita and Lucia Aspesi, develops in the Navate and features around twenty installations, sculptures, watercolours and prints from 1996 to the present day, including newly commissioned work.

Born in Bhadravati, India, in 1957, Gowda studied and trained in painting at the Ken School of Art in Bangalore, at M.S. University, Baroda, and at Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan. These institutions offered her an education steeped in the Indian modernist tradition that looked also at popular imagery and craft traditions.

In the mid-'80s Gowda completed her postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Art under British figurative artist Peter de Francia.

Her practice developed from the pictorial space to three-dimensional works taking an abstract turn, while her work became more material-based in response to the sociopolitical situation in India in the 1980s and 1990s, associated with the rise of rightwing politics and acts of violence throughout the country.

Gowda's artworks implied indeed a collaboration, dialogue and exchange with and between local artistic traditions and international forms of art and the inclusion of the audience within her artworks.

The installations included in "Remains" range from different periods and are constructed using various materials and scales. At times they interact with the space, in other cases they seem to rebel to it, but all of them invite visitors to become part of them.

There is poetry in her textile pieces, a symbolic power shines instead through installations such as "And..." (2007) featuring cords made with red thread and sewing needles anointed with a paste of glue and kumkum, a pigment used in rituals.

Architecture is referred to in "Kagebangara" (2008) and "Darkroom" (2006), inspired by the shelters built by itinerant road workers in India, and made with recycled metal tar drums, often used to transport tree resin or oil, opened and flattened into sheets.

Sheets of flattened metal drums are also recycled into "Bandlis" in "What Yet Remains" (2017) - these metal bowls are used in the Indian construction industry to carry concrete slurry, sand and other building materials. Each sheet is cut by hand into 8 circular parts that are then pressed in hand-operated machines into shallow bowls. The bandlis is similar for its purpose to the wheelbarrow used in Europe, but it is intrinsically different at the same time since seems to grow together with the workers who lift it usually above their heads.

Local artisanal skills and craftsmanship are instrumental to make Gowda's pieces: everyday materials including incense, tar drums, ritual pigments, granite stones used as spice-grinding kitchen tools, hair, needles, threads, rubber and cow dung are transformed through handmade techniques becoming artworks that hint at labor, economy and ingenuity.

Cow dung is particularly important since it is considered sacred and it is employed in rural India for construction and as a fuel. In Gowda's practice it is used for paintings and sculptures: "Mortar Line" (1996) is for example a sculpture made with a double row of cow dung bricks that form a curved line.

Gowda's hair ropes integrate instead hair collected as offerings from the people at offering sites and have different meanings tackling the ritualistic, daily and economic spheres, they are indeed mementos of a vow taken, they are used as talismans on motor vehicles and they point at the sale of human hair in world markets.

"Remains" also features two new installations - "Tree Line" and "In Pursuit of" (both 2019): in the former bands of raw natural rubber (supplied by Pirelli in collaboration with its technological center CCM for Research and Development) were woven, creating a linear surface of geometric texture; in the latter, the artist employed human hair to create two large black forms in dialogue with the surrounding architecture.

And while this exhibition first and foremost explores the material vs medium dichotomy, the installations and artworks included are open to different interpretations. As the artist herself explains in a press release: "It is true that my work comes from certain specific contexts, but the final nature of the work is shaped to a level of abstraction: the kind of abstraction I am talking about is not only an aesthetic proposition, but one which does not disembowel the work of meaning and allows for a multiplicity of readings." 

Image credits for this post

1 and 2.
Sheela Gowda
And That Is No Lie, 2015
It Stands Fallen, 2015-2016
Installation view at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2019
Courtesy of the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca
Photo: Agostino Osio

3.
Sheela Gowda
Stopover, 2012
Installation view at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2019
Courtesy of the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca
Photo: Agostino Osio

4.
Sheela Gowda
Kagebangara, 2008
Installation view at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2019
Collection of Sunitha and Niall Emmart
Courtesy of the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca
Photo: Agostino Osio

5.
Sheela Gowda
Mortar Line, 1996 (detail)
Courtesy of the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan
Photo: Agostino Osio

6.
Sheela Gowda
"Remains", exhibition view at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2019
Courtesy of the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca
Photo: Agostino Osio

7.
Sheela Gowda
What Yet Remains, 2017
Installation view at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2019
Courtesy of the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca
Photo: Agostino Osio

8.
Sheela Gowda
Untitled (Cow Dung), 1992-2012
Installation view at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2019
Courtesy of the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca
Photo: Agostino Osio

9.
Sheela Gowda
Protest My Son, 2011
Exhibition copy (2019) from a work in the Van Abbemuseum collection, Eindhoven
Installation view at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2019
Courtesy of the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca
Photo: Agostino Osio

10 and 11.
Sheela Gowda
If You Saw Desire, 2015
Installation view at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2019
Courtesy of the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca
Photo: Agostino Osio

12.
Sheela Gowda
Tree Line, 2019
Installation view at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2019
Courtesy of the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca
Photo: Agostino Osio

13.
Sheela Gowda
"Remains", exhibition view at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2019
Courtesy of the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca
Photo: Agostino Osio

14.
Sheela Gowda
Collateral, 2007 (detail)
Courtesy the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan
Photo: Agostino Osio

Consumer Alert: Faux Cashmere

In yesterday's post we looked at bootlegged designs. Let's continue the thread, but look at a different type of fashion fakes. A joint operation between the Turin and Caserta Guardia di Finanza (Italian Tax Police) seized indeed this week over 40,000 garments in Turin. The designs were accompanied by labels that stated "this garment is made with cashmere fibres, a rare and luxury material with properties that are not found in any other fibre in the world."

Analysed by the Prato-based chemical laboratory BuzziLab, the jumpers resulted instead made with acrylic fibers, a discovery confirmed by the Boston-based Cashmere and Camelhair Manifacturers Institute.

The garments came from a manufacturer based in Bangladesh and were sold in 120 shops of Italian menswear chain Cotton and Silk, retailing at 50 euros each. The chain didn't know the real nature of the garments but had bought the "cashmere" jumpers as a stock in Bangladesh via a broker. The company is currently collaborating with the investigations.

The manufacturer has been sued for fraud in trade and for illicit profit as selling the garments would have resulted in a 2 million euros income. The seized garments will be donated to charities.

This is not the first time the Guardia di Finanza finds faux cashmere: in 2018, the tax police seized in the Turin area 4,000 garments sold as cashmere, plus 90,000 labels and packaging; in 2014, they discovered a faux cashmere factory in the Prato area that produced garments allegedly made with 50% wool and 50% cashmere, but in reality containing viscose, polyamide and angora.  

It is not difficult to find on the market made in China jumpers containing extremely small quantities of poor quality cashmere fibres, but they are very cheap. It is also unlikely to find in a shop high quality cashmere jumpers for 50 Euros, as this is a luxury fibre. While consumers have certainly become savvier and more confident, keeping on educating them is not a bad idea. 

There is actually a trend at the moment for courses or videos on social media that show how to spot original items and recognise fake designs and maybe the specialised groups of the Italian Guardia di Finanza should start thinking about developing a series of short videos to introduce consumers to their investigations into fashion fakes and faux fibres. 

What If Bootlegged Designs Look More Fun Than The Original Ones?

The history of fashion is full of great designers, but it is also plagued by copies. Yet, in between the creative minds that founded or led famous maisons and the chaos of copies produced illegally and of perfectly legal designs that clearly show derivations from other collections, there are some bizarrely fake but interesting products.

They may be T-shirts with fun prints of characters from popular series that people love but that no designer ever considered featuring on their garments or maybe an object of some kind, even an interior design piece with a fake logo. The designs created by Imran Moosvi fall into this category.

The bootlegger comes from the school of thought of Dapper Dan. Known as the hip hop tailor of Harlem, Dapper Dan used to create in the '80s DIY designs from fabrics covered in brand logos such as Gucci or Vuitton. At the time the designer played a dangerously ironic game with power and luxury products/logos. Sued for his bootlegged pieces, after Alessandro Michele at Gucci copied - pardon "homaged" - one of his jackets, Dapper Dan rose to fame again, becoming a Gucci icon and star collaborator. 

Moosvi started combining logos after graduating from college and coming up with a Fred Perry polo with a Supreme logo. Things quickly developed and he began customising designs like Nike Air Force One sneakers with the trademark swoosh covered in fake designer prints. Imran's designs gradually became favourites of rappers like Lil Yachty and Tyga and American hip hop group Migos.

Sneakers and jerseys played a big role in Moosvi's first pieces, but then he moved onto logos and monogrammed patterns, and tried to apropriate and reinvent them, posting his creations on his Instagram account, @Imran_Potato.

So far Moosvi has created Jordans with baby heads and arms sticking out; onesies for his "Gucci babies" (plastic dolls); Gucci toilet paper and LV snowboarding goggles, while his jackets and pants with blown up LV logos, part of a capsule collection launched in January, are currently a hit and were spotted on trap rapper Bad Bunny and singer Billie Eilish among the others. 

Moosvi is based in New York, but his background – his parents are Indian and Iranian-Indian – prompted him to travel and source bootlegged fabrics in other countries such as Turkey and China, where he is producing his next designs and from where he seems to be posting images of mispelt Supreme products (check out the young girl with the "Suepmre" bag in one of the posts) or the hilarious LV Teletubbies.    

Though he would like to move onto other types of customised pieces such as car interiors and furniture, Moosvi doesn't seem to have a huge and structured plan, but he is simply inspired by the things that appeal to him the most visually and by the impact of the monograms he has been using.

What he does is definitely not new and anyone (with some talent for graphics, colours and brand hybrids) could engage in creating their own bootlegged designs. Besides, legally speaking, Moosvi is infringing copyrights using illegal monogrammed patterns for his own creations; last but not least, some of the materials he sourced in other countries may have been produced by exploited people (workers manufacturing fake goods such as counterfeit monogrammed fabrics are often exploited and work in unsafe conditions).

So there are questions behind these pieces, but there is also a key dilemma: design-wise some of Moosvi's creations look more fun than the original ones, especially if you consider collections by Virgil Abloh, current Creative Director of Louis Vuitton's men's collections (who actually seemed to copy cheap items sold on Amazon for his first collection at the French maison) or than the "fake originals" created by some brands like Diesel (remember the Deisel prank?) and make you wonder if Moosvi's custom knock-offs will ever become approved collaborations with powerful brands. 

For the time being Moosvi only sells some of his designs on order and to people he has some kind of relationship with, making his creations scarce and desirable in this way and generating a hype around his name.

But Moosvi's designs make you think: if they are more desirable than the real thing, have luxury brands failed and is the power of the logo their only asset rather than the collections they produce season after season? Food for thought, but maybe the time has come for luxury brands to consider resizing their collections and licensing (albeit in a limited way) products. Would that damage the value of the brand or its heritage as it happened with Pierre Cardin? Who knows. At the same time, some of the big players in the fahsion industry would maybe start taking themselves less seriously and that wouldn't certainly be such a bad thing. So, Gucci toilet paper anybody?

Partisans, Equality and Clothes in the Second World War (Notes on Italy's Liberation Day)

We all dress up to affirm our identities, express our ideas, or even show our opinion about something (think about slogan shirts or about a specific colour or accessory used as a symbol to dissent or show our support towards a specific cause). A strong will to affirm one's individuality also characterises people who rebel to oppressive regimes.

Today it is Liberation Day in Italy, a public holiday in which the country celebrates the end of Nazi-fascism during the Second World War, and it is therefore apt to look at the meaning of certain garments or symbols employed by the partisans.

Photographic and historical essays about this topic show images of partisans wearing scarves in the style of pirates or attaching to their bandoleers useful objects and lucky charms as well such as horseshoes.

Emblems or symbols such as red stars and hammers and sickles were also rather popular and at times they were used to decorate hats or scarves. The latter were often embroidered with slogans, with the nickname of the wearer or with the initials of the women who made the scarves. 

A lot of partisans were low on resources but high on resourcefulness and opted for jackets made with animal skins, camouflage tarpaulins or blankets.

Accessories included all sorts of sturdy boots and shoes, but also hats in different styles. Scarves were donned around the neck or under the shoulder straps of shirts. The men's wardrobe was more eccentric, while women opted for more functional pieces.

Partisans had a hard time getting uniforms and supplies first and foremost because of limited resources, but also because manufacturers were scared of producing clothes for them.

Partisans only had clandestine relations with manufacturing companies and in some cases they came up with logos and symbols that looked like unusual variations of symbols adopted by the Germans.

Some groups of partisans used for example a patch with an alpine star that looked similar to the one of the German mountain troops, but featured some variations when it came to colours and to the number of leaves around the edelweiss.

This meant that the manufacturer producing it may have justified the symbol and the slight differences (if anybody had ever noticed them) attributing them to a Wehrmacht branch, avoiding in this way any problems with the authorities. 

As time passed, though, some partisan groups managed to turn from bands into more organised armies.

Even though emblems, medals and ribbons were still added to the uniforms to customise them (partisan leaders encouraged to lose them to look more credible), the clothes were eventually unified to show people the fighters were part of a structured organisation.

Ordinary clothes were useful to avoid getting noticed, but uniforms gave indeed the impression this was a proper army.

As for women their looks often combined a dress or separates with men's jackets, coats and boots (think about Ada Gobetti or Eva Colombo), but trousers matched with a knitted top (most of them were obviously handmade by the families of the partisans) were also very popular (they were favoured for example by Rosetta Solari and Anna Marengo) and proved handy for women fighting on the mountains or riding bicycles.

Yet partisan women didn't only look for equality in clothes, but in roles: Elisa Oliva stated she joined the partisans to fight and not to look for a boyfriend, fighting against the Nazi-fascists meant for her and for the other women being equal with men.

And while fashion is maybe an ephemeral and superficial way to look at the Second World War and at partisans, it is still another way to study history and in this case to remember those who fought against fascism and who can be an inspiration in today's battles against the current far-right's rise.

Finally Untrending (At Least in France): Destroying Unsold Clothes

There is an artwork that could be considered as a perfect embodiment of the fashion industry - Michelangelo Pistoletto's "Venus of the Rags". This work consists in an industrial reproduction of Venus, representing a degraded idea of the western canon of beauty, with her face buried in a pile of clothes. The garments could be interpreted as shadows of human existences turned into rags, but they also hint at consumerism. Therefore the installation could be a sort of logo for our collective consumption habit and be used to illustrate a horrible practice that has sadly become rather popular in fashion - destroying unsold clothes.

Between 2017 and 2018 there were quite a few reports about fashion companies destroying discarded clothes. This practice was carried out by fast fashion companies such as H&M, but also luxury brands. Burberry's 2017-18 annual report included the cost of finished goods "physically destroyed in the year" that amounted to $37.8 million (the annual revenue was $3.61 billion). Louis Vuitton engages in the same practice while Richemont dismantles its luxury watches to recycle diamonds and assorted spare parts (there are also ready-to-wear companies such as sportswear giant Nike that engage in this unsustainable practice).

Things may be changing, though, at least in France where the government has been working on a legislation to ban clothing destruction.

A few days ago it was announced that Brune Poirson, the Secretary of State to the Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, is working on a law that should stop companies from destroying, throwing away or incinerating unsold clothing. The law will require shops to donate any unsold articles of clothing to charity and tax breaks may also be introduced for companies that re-use and recycle landfill waste such as textiles and plastics.

Consumers have played a part in planning the new law: in 2018 shopper Nathalie Beauval posted on her Facebook page photos of unwanted, abandoned and cut up clothes outside a shop in Rouen, highlighting that this was a terrible waste as people in need may have used the garments. While it is often a shop's policy to destroy torn, stained or damaged clothes that are therefore considered unfit for donations, quite often the clothes seem absolutely fine, but they are defaced to avoid dumpster scavenging.

The first steps towards a proper law were actually taken in April last year when the country released its "Circular Economy Roadmap" highlighting ways to improve consumption behaviour, eliminate waste and encourage recycling.

In that roadmap it was stated that by 2019 the French government will put in place in the textile sector the major principles of the fight against food waste.

In 2016 France became indeed the first country to pass a law to stop grocery stores and supermarkets from throwing away food that neared the expiry date, requiring them to donate the food to charities.

Yet grocery store waste represents just 11 percent of total food waste in the country, while fashion has more polluting potential with statistics reaching 17.5 percent in France (that said the French government is also studying how to reduce the waste produced by other indutries such as electronics, furniture and hotels).  

The announcement of the law being drafted in France was particularly topical considering that it arrived on 22nd April, Earth Day, and that at the moment "eco-friendly" and "sustainability" seem to be the keywords used in the fashion universe.

If France manages to establish a proper law preventing companies from destroying unsold clothing it will set an example for the entire industry and for other countries as well and it will be intriguing to see how companies based in France that engage in clothes destruction (such as Louis Vuitton) will react if the proposal becomes law. 

Bad Fashion Ideas: Revamping a Defunct House (Notes on Schiaparelli)

The revamped interest in the house of Schiaparelli has led in the last few years to a progressive rediscovery of her work and career. Her dresses and gowns often appeared in exhibitions, more designers referenced her in their own collections and, every now and then, there were also special auctions of her pieces. Yet rediscovering this brand hasn't financially rewarded its current owner, Italian entrepreneur Diego Della Valle.

Though Della Valle bought the name in 2006, he waited for quite a few years before relaunching it. During this time he worked on the maison headquarter and renovated Schiaparelli's grand rooms on the Place Vendôme.

Then Christian Lacroix was called to design a one-off collection (that never went on sale), while Marco Zanini was chosen as creative director. He was followed in 2015 by Bertrand Guyon, a French graduate of the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne who had worked at Valentino with Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri.  

But last Friday the house announced it was parting ways with Guyon after four years. An official statement from the brand read: "The Schiaparelli house is grateful to Bertrand Guyon for his contribution to the haute couture activity of the house, in close collaboration with the creative studio and the atelier of the Place Vendôme house."

Today it was announced that 33-year-old designer Daniel Roseberry, has been named Artistic Director of Schiaparelli. Roseberry studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, then for 11 years he worked at Thom Browne where he was also design director of men's and women's collections.

Will he succeed where his colleagues failed? Hopefully, but it is difficult to be sure about it. Delphine Bellini, chief executive officer of Schiaparelli, has announced the visibility of the ready-to-wear line (inspired by the story theme rather than by seasons, with three stories released so far revolving around the artist Man Ray, the Shocking Pink shade and Italian Renaissance paintings) will be increased and the next big appointment for the house will instead be a collaboration with the Paris Opera on its 350th anniversary gala on May 8.

You may argue that failure at Schiaparelli wasn't entirely the fault of its creative directors.

Yet, there has been a tendency in the collections created so far especially the Haute Couture ones (even though they were beautifully crafted) on focusing on Schiap's best known tropes - the Commedia dell'Arte, circuses, trompe l'oeil knitwear, hearts and stars, astrological signs, lobsters and her links with artists and Surrealist icons à la Salvador Dali - rather than in coming up with extremely innovative ideas (leafing through some vintage magazines from the '40s and the early '50s would have led to the discovery of other less known designs by Schiap...).

Besides, there was an emphasis on Haute Couture collections and this meant that the most beautiful, quirky or intriguing gowns and suits reappeared on red carpets or were donned by celebrities such as Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett, Celine Dion, Lady Gaga and Helen Mirren (quite a few designs by Guyon, such as his flamingo-inspired suit, will be included in the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's upcoming "Camp: Notes on Fashion" exhibition), but did not prove extremely inspiring for ordinary people.  

Now, while it is possible to revamp a house, such a project must be done cleverly, and to do it you need money, cool ideas but also a wider range of products that will allow you to reach out to your consumers. Other historical houses that went from languishing to prospering such as Chanel aren't focused just on Haute Couture or on clothes, they are indeed major universes surrounded and supported by a series of powerful satellites, from accessories to make-up and fragrances.

Schiaparelli has so far been represented by fancy headquarters, grand or well-crafted Haute Couture designs and just three ready-to-wear collections, but no real money-making semi-affordable products.

Schiap was known for her whimsical jewellery, but there are no crazy desirable accessories on the brand's runways where the Surrealist humour of the brand's founder is often missing; Schiap was known for her "Shocking" fragrance packaged in a bottle modelled on Mae West's bust, but the maison does not produce any fragrances. Schiap was also identified with a bold and bright colour - shocking pink - that kept on coming back in the most extravagant tulle confections on Guyon's runways, but this vivid shade wasn't transferred onto more affordable products. Maybe a line of make-up called "Shocking by Schiap" (well, Nars launched a shocking pink lipstick and nail varnish dubbed "Schiap" in 2012...) would have won the heart of beauty obsessed consumers or, who knows, T-shirts and sweats with prints of rarely seen photographs of Schiap clothes rather than the usual lobster dress? 

As it stands Schiap remains useless, frozen in time and space (the maison closed in 1954), unable to influence trends and unable to sustain itself. In a nutshell it represents a missed opportunity and a warning to all those entrepreneurs who may want to try and revamp a historical house. People interested in reopening a defunct brand take note: it's a wonderful opportunity, but it can turn into a disastrous idea.

Easter Monday Project: Sunray Pleated Ballgown Pattern (1960)

Last Saturday we looked at the construction of two 1960 dresses. Let's continue that thread for an Easter Monday project with a dress pattern from the same year. 

This bright pink cotton faille dress was designed by Italian tailoring house Tizzoni and was characterised by a bustier (divided in five parts as you can see from the pattern) with a decorative knotted motif.

The best part of the dress was the ample skirt that featured a pleated motif inspired by sunrays that, radiating from the waist, brought dynamic movement to the silhouette. Have a creative Easter Monday!

Easter Sunday Rituals with a Fashion Twist: The Running Madonna in Sulmona, Italy

Easter is celebrated with different rites all over the world and even Roman Catholic traditions may vary from country to country.

Last year we looked for example at a special rite that takes place during the Holy Week in Chieti, Italy, and that has got some connections with fashion, but there are other traditions showing links with costumes and design.

In the town of Sulmona, Italy, for example there is a celebration called "Madonna che scappa" (literally "The Running Madonna").

The origins of this celebration are actually uncertain, but there is photographic evidence showing the rite in 1861, even though some historians say it was already taking place in the 1600s.

The rite consists in a sort of restaging of the encounter between the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus after the resurrection.

On the Saturday night the statue of the Virgin Mary dressed in mourning robes is taken the Church of Saint Filippo Neri. The next morning, while this statue awaits in the church, members of the confraternity of the Madonna of Loreto take the statues of the resurrected Jesus, of Saint John and Saint Peter to the main square of the town, Piazza Garibaldi.

The statue of Jesus stops in the square under the arches of the Svevo aqueduct, while the apostles are taken to the church where the Virgin Mary is waiting.

St. John is taken up to the door to announce the Virgin Mary that Jesus has resurrected, but she doesn't believe him. He therefore goes back to Peter who is taken in turn to the door of the church to bring the same message to the Virgin Mary, but she doesn't believe him as well. John is sent again and eventually the Virgin Mary accepts to go with them and gets out of the church.

Slowly and with a characteristic walk (called "struscio", that is "shuffle") the members of the confraternity carry the statue of the Virgin Mary outside. When she arrives at the fountain of the main square, the Virgin Mary recognises her son and starts running towards him.

Here's when there is a pure fashion moment: thanks to an ingenious system of threads (but don't expect to learn about it since only the members of the confraternity and of the family charged with dressing the statue know about it...), the Virgin Mary loses her black cloak and handkerchief.

A green dress (matching with the colour of the short cape donned by the members of the confraternity who also wear a white tunic) embroidered with gold threads appears in the place of the cloak and a red flower in place of the handkerchief. At the same time 12 doves are set free from under the statue.

If the run takes place without accidents (the cloak perfectly falls to the ground and doesn't get stuck in the curly hair of the statue, none of the men falls and so on), this will be a good year, otherwise, according to the tradition, there will be tragedies or natural disasters (historical falls in 1914 and 1940 are said to have foreseen dramatic events - the First and Second World Wars).

After the run, the statue of the Virgin Mary is taken to the Church of Saint Chiara where her hair and clothes are readjusted before the main procession that takes place in the streets of the town.

There are similar traditions in other towns in Italy, where the central theme is the meeting between Mary and Jesus, but Sulmona is the only place where the Madonna changes her dress as she runs. The act of shredding the black cloak could be interpreted not just from a religious perspective, but also in a secular way, and may be referred at leaving behind Winter and embracing the joys of Spring. Have a lovely Easter, Spring break or weekend!