Not everything always goes as you've planned it. This is a general life truism that perfectly fits to the fashion world as well, a place where everything flows rapidly and fluidly, transforming, changing and at times perilously mutating.
And so it happened that one day the MA Fashion and Textile Design graduates from Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano (NABA), coordinated by Course Leader and crochet artist extraordinaire Aldo Lanzini, arranged to have their end of the year show at the beginning of July in the gardens of Milan's Triennale. An endless rainstorm disrupted their plans, but they managed to secure another space on the top floor of the Triennale Museum.
Yet, after the heavy rains, the latter got flooded and in half an hour lecturers and students resorted to a third and final plan, that actually turned out to be their best.
The students showcased their collections (each student created 6 designs each) in a show on the go: their models climbed the steps of the Triennale, while dancers Nicolò Besozzi, Giuseppe D’Andrizza, Vittoria Franchina, Anita Lorusso and Erica Meucci, choreographed by Davide Montagna, performed around them.
The NABA courses are usually attended by international students and they have an English-speaking class curated by Romeo Gigli and Claudia Nesi with Geni Iorio as tailoring support, and an Italian-speaking class with Claudia Nesi as lecturer and Anna Cardani as tailoring support.
For the performance at Milan's Triennale Romeo Gigli picked 48 designs - by Francesca La Russa, Kuo Shih Chi, Chen Siyin, Mariia Rudenko, Lin Siming, Yang Yunxiao, Zeng Shinan, Yue Ziyan, Xu Jinghui, Sun Xiaoyan, Tan Yuchen, Wang Anqi, Wan Ning, Ren Song, Lin Xin, Ming Yue, Sharon Della Tommasina, Yuan Ding, Li Bingxin, Xu Ningyang, Chen Tianyun and Qian Xiaoyi - to create a visual short story.
The title of the performance - "Against the Grain" - referred to the English version of the book "À rebours" (1884) by Joris Karl Huysmans, a title that invites to go beyond the superficial attitudes of our society and follow your own path.
The designs in the performance were obviously very different one from the other, reflecting the different passions and styles of the students.
There were experiments in deconstruction here and there with some clear Margiela-isms; a few students experimented with futuristic themes and materials, others tried to come up with genderless designs; some went for a colourful palette, others for more muted nuances, maybe borrowed from urban landscapes.
Rather than distracting, the dancers provided a sense of unity: quite often when seeing graduate shows comprising several different collections, you get the final impression of having seen a fractured runway, a monster with many souls. In this case instead the dancers were the metaphorical and physical thread that stitched together the show.
As they moved around the models, the dancers invited them to join in, performing delicate and slow movements inspired by the natural slow rhythms of life rather than by the frenetic rhythms of fashion.
There is an ongoing battle between fashion design courses and universities from different countries with some faculties being more advertised than others on specific fashion publications.
The NABA students showed academic institutions shouldn't compete but break boundaries, saying goodbye to traditional graduate shows and opting for more intriguing visual performances.
Maybe other universities should pay attention, after all there will be time for these students to be swallowed by the industry, but, for now, let them dream about a slower and more poetic industry, where it is still possible to be free, dance, readapt your show at the very last minute in adverse climate conditions and even be coordinated by an iconic fashion designer.
Image credits for this post
Images of the NABA show by Giacomo Giannini and Bruno Santinoli
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