Lombardy is the Italian region that got most badly affected by Coronavirus, so let's virtually visit Milan today, going back in time with two videos recently posted by Marco Poma's Metamorphosi Editrice YouTube channel (with many thanks to Milan-based crocheter extraordinaire Aldo Lanzini who alerted us about the videos being posted).
The first one refers to the 1986 "Fluxus" runway by the late designer Cinzia Ruggeri: the recorded catwalk showed models in constant movement walking from one screen to the next (spot in the video Corrado Levi's "Gioielli guaritori" for Cinzia Ruggeri). The video was projected on two parallel screens during the actual runway with models who statically posed in front of the screens.
The second video is a trailer for the film "Mefisto Funk" (1986) directed by Poma that featured Ruggeri's costumes.
The first video should make us think: this was one of the first attempts at recording a fashion show and at using the film to amplify the content and message of a runway and at interpreting them in an arty rather than merely commercial way.
When Coronavirus started spreading the shows in Milan were ending and some designers like Armani decided to present their collections behind closed doors. A few weeks have passed since then and now the entire world has gone into a major shutdown and many of us have been confined to their houses for days. So what will happen to fashion shows at the end of this pandemic? Will the video format definitely prevail or will real and theatrical shows be popular again?
"Mefisto Funk" was an experimental reinterpretation of Goethe's Faust, with some philosophical questions that seem to be apt even in our days and in the modern fashion industry (in the film Mefisto asked the protagonist if he prefers watching without being watched or watching and being watched, something that seem to anticipate the power of surveillance cameras in our society but also our obsession with selfies).
Did modern fashion ever reference the designs/costumes in these videos? Well, spot the shirts with Ruggeri's handpainted portrait of Frankenstein's monster and you will immediately start wondering if Miuccia Prada remembered these 1986 designs when she designed her Menswear, Pre-Fall and Womens' collection for the last season and was indirectly paying homage to it when she used the monster as inspiration for her designs. Who knows, the dilemma remains. But, in the meantime, you can go and check out the other videos on Poma's Metamorphosi Editrice YouTube channel: quite a few of them are linked with architecture, design and fashion in Milan in the '80s and they will prove inspiring and will keep Lombardy in our thoughts as we hope the COVID-19 outbreak slows down and comes to a halt there, in Italy and in the rest of the world.
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