From 8 February to 15 May, a piece of the history of Italian fashion is on display at the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles as part of the exhibition “Gianfranco Ferré. Design Principles”, curated by the Gianfranco Ferré Research Center of the Politecnico di Milano University, which was established in December 2021 following a donation by the Ferré family.
The exhibition reveals Gianfranco Ferré’s unique approach through a selection of his sketches and iconic creations, offering the visitor an immersive experience enriched by the digital connection with the Ferré archive, with images and videos that give insight into the very story of the exhibition. In the “drawings wall”, the designer’s sketches accompany the public on a voyage to discover Ferré’s approach to fashion design, understood as a dynamic process resulting from a continuous search for a synthesis between art and science. The drawings are grouped in thematic sections (body, material, colour, detail, volume, movement) along an itinerary in which the principles of design materialise in the infinite variations on the archetypal white shirt, a true icon of the designer’s creative work. A familiar garment that plays a part in our daily lives by responding to the needs of contemporary living, but which at the same time represents a blank page to be manipulated and transformed through the fashion designer’s infinite creative spirit.
The inauguration held on Wednesday, 8 February, in the presence of the Consul General of Italy in Los Angeles, Silvia Chiave, the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, Emanuele Amendola, and the exhibition curators Paola Bertola and Rita Airaghi, also featured speeches by Dennita Sewell, professor at Arizona State University, fashion expert and former curator of the exhibitions “Gianfranco Ferré and The White Shirt According to Me. Gianfranco Ferré”, David Paul and Nick Verreos, co-chairs of the Fashion Design, Fashion Design Advanced Study, Film & TV Costume Design department at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles.