Discovering the first exhibition of ITS Arcademy, Museum of Art in Fashion

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Maiko Takeda, photo credits: Massimo Gardone for Its Arcademy

The first exhibition of ITS Arcademy, Museum of Art in fashion, a museum dedicated to the creativity of young talents, students at the most prestigious fashion schools in the world who have participated in the International Talent Support (ITS) competition, will be officially inaugurated on April 18 in Trieste, Italy.

The first exhibition is curated by Olivier Saillard, a curator, fashion historian and designer who, until 2017, directed the fashion museum of the city of Paris, the Palais Galliera. Since January 2018, he has held the position of artistic director, image and culture of the J.M. Weston brand. FashionUnited had the opportunity to have a preview tour of the exhibition and the museum, accompanied by Barbara Franchin, president and artistic director of the ITS Foundation.

The exhibition curated by Olivier Saillard is entitled "The First Exhibition - 20 Years of Contemporary fashion evolution"

Demna Gvasalia, creative director at Balenciaga, Matthieu Blazy, creative director at Bottega Veneta, Alithia Spuri-Zampetti, associated head of design at Alexander McQueen, and Nicolas di Felice, creative director at Maison Courrèges are just some of the names of the finalists who, year after year, have presented their creations in Trieste to win one of the prizes made available by the sponsors who have supported the competition over the years.

One name stands out above all others: Diesel. Renzo Rosso, currently president of the OTB holding group, which includes the brands Diesel, Jil Sander, Maison Margiela, Marni, Viktor&Rolf, Staff International and Brave Kid brands, as Barbara Franchin explained to FashionUnited. "Rosso believed in ITS from the very first moment.”

And the contest has done well, at least judging by it already being in its 20th edition and the interest the collections of its candidates have sparked. Talents that Franchin herself has been scouting all over the world and whose creations are now available to anyone who wants to see them.

Until some time ago, portfolios, sketches and collections were kept in another location. However, given the sheer volume of clothes and material, it was no longer suited to preserving them in the best possible way, nor to allowing the public to view them.

Demna Gvasalia (Balenciaga) Matthieu Blazy (Bottega Veneta): just some of the finalists who participated in the ITS contest

At its new location, ITS Arcademy boasts a 1400 square metre exhibition space, a creative archive and a training centre. The project was made possible thanks to the support of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, together with the CrTrieste Foundation.

The spaces, as a matter of fact, have been made available free of charge by the Fondazione CrTrieste. "We want to open the doors to the city of Trieste and its citizens, to young people, children and the elderly to allow them to dialogue with creativity, with designers, with the history that the portfolios and projects contain," Franchin says.

Each portfolio tells the story of the student who made it, such as that of Israeli Ahron Israel Genish who, through his collection 'Lo tishtok. you will never be silenced', found a way to overcome a difficult childhood. Some of these portfolios will be on display, on rotation, to the public in the showcases of the library where all the projects are stored. The objects belong to ITS but the intellectual property belongs to the designers who created them.

The deconstruction of the ordinary clothing model in favour of an intimate vision that leads to introspection, the evocation of the wounds of the epidermis, whether moral or physical, through the use of incarnate and sometimes bloody materials, are the main characteristics of the designers in this section. The stark colours used, the dark blacks, the drippings and asymmetries on the clothes, true mirrors of themselves, their feelings and moods. All of these reveal a disturbing inner world amplified by the authority of their art.

Matthieu Lavanchy - James Thom, Mikio Sakabe, Olesya Serchenko, Yong Kyun Shin, Heaven Tanudiredja, Aitor Throup, and Cheng Zong Yu, on the other hand, are the protagonists of the 'neo futurists' section. The extrovert shapes that the clothes evoke define a new wardrobe, at times devoid of references to the past. Tones of steel grey, hard blues, the colours of stone or iron mines create dreamlike, optical architectures. Jackets and coats become buildings of the imagination, the clothes are cultivated constructive fantasies, the costumes under an ordinary appearance foretell a future of worries and at the same time of hope, as witnessed by the feeling of reinvention in each of the clothing creations.

“I think that if you can turn off the mind and look only with the eyes, ultimately everything becomes abstract.” The well-known Ellsworth Kelly quote, a quote that inspired designer Kim Shui, is the perfect reference for the designers who make up the 'lyrical abstractions' section: Nadide Begum Yildirim, Heather Blake, Louise Crawford, Valentim Manuel Estevão Quaresma, Susan Maria Dimasi_Chantal Louise Mcdonald, Silvia Noferi, Ruth Roberts Green, Carolin Holzhuber, Yijun Liao, Kin Yan Lam, Jae Woo Lee, and Shie Lyu, Joan Tarrago Pampalona_Karen Scholz, Katherine Roberts-Wood, Kim Shui, David Steinhorst, Michael Van Der Ham, Zoe Waters.

The invention of silhouettes follows geometric shapes, sometimes reduced to the simplicity of a circle or a parallelepiped. Flat colours give even more dimension to garments that are nothing more than volumes. On the body, a true tectonics of fabrics is created, adapted to form a manifest costume, a solution for the future. Oversized shoulders, cubic skirts and dresses and contrasting shades form a radical aesthetic coherence.

A new folklore of emotions motivates the creative methodology shared by Maria Bika, Matthieu Blazy, Paula Cheng, Emma Chopova_Laura Lowena, Daniele Controversio, Nicolas Di Felice, Mark Goldenberg, Demna Gvasalia, Chau Har Lee, Anita Hirlekar, Cecilia Juarez Balta, Matthieu Lavanchy - James Thom, Amélie Marciasini, Slobodan Mihajlovic, Cat Potter, Anni Salonen, Hana Yagi and Yunqi Zhang, artists that come together in the ’raw and singular arts’ section.

Developed in yarn, webbing, chenille, knitwear or patchwork, the garments reflect a renewed interest in forgotten craft techniques. The textile work, whether modest or sophisticated, tends to be obsessive, so much so that the threads, those tied, those loose and those knotted, provoke the material. In contrast, the shapes are urban, sometimes even identifiable as the wardrobe of humble people.

On the surface, these clothes of flesh and expression weave a utopia of appearances, covert rather than personal, in conflict with the world and the way its excesses have been revealed.

Details and portraits characterise the self-portraits section by creators Mason Jung, Shinhwan Kim, Yasuto Kimura, Han Chul Lee, Eleanor McDonald, Ichiro Suzuki. Like the people we meet on the street and the individuals we approach, these costumes are a reflection of society. In the free figure area, the dress is the interface with the other person, with their gaze and with oneself. It is what lies within the lining, what carries and supports it. These are the designers gathered in the 'free representations' section: Tianan Ding, Aitor Goicoechea Aburuza, Courtney Mcwilliams and Syna Chen. Through their printed images, variegated colours and other-centred photographs, the clothes trigger a cross-eyed gaze, which is also experienced from the inside. The goiels section includes pieces by Margherita Abi-Hanna, Shilpa Chavan, Yun Sun Jang, Hazuki Katagai, Asumi Maeda, Masaki Shimizu, Takahiro Ueno and Arnaud Zill.

Finally, Its Contest's collection of contemporary photography comprises 80 authors and 700 prints, both analogue and digital.

Franchin: ITS Arcademy represents the evolution of international creativity "The ITS Arcademy collection is unique in the world because it collects the early works of designers who later wrote new codes of contemporary fashion. It is a twenty-year archive in constant evolution that represents the evolution of international creativity in its most innovative, radical, artistic and experimental expressions," explained Franchin, emphasising that the trend reports of each year's competition represent precious tools for forecasting trends years in advance.

Just to give one example: ITS recorded the 'agender' trend as far back as 2008 and wrote about it in its 2013 trends report. In ITS projects in 2016, 31 per cent of the collections were defined by the candidates as 'agender', whereas in 2015 the percentage was less than 1 per cent. Data like this is important for brands and the fashion industry, which, starting in April, will have a new place to conduct research and analysis on the trends and behaviour of the generations of today and tomorrow. It comes as no surprise, then, that some of the collections on the catwalks these days resemble the designs and collections nominated for the ITS contest in previous years.