DRESSING — THE MIRROR OF THE TIMES: HYBRIDIZATIONS AND INTERSECTIONS IN THE FASHION SYSTEM IN THE AGE OF AESTHETICIZATION. FASHION COURSE

This course proposes to revisit the essential events and characters that have operated, from the first twenty years of the twentieth century to the first twenty years of the twenty-first century, as hubs for the construction of fashion and lifestyle trends from the modernity of the avant-garde to the cultural contemporaneity of hip-hop.

When considering the radical ideas of the avant-garde as a starting point and interpreting the heterogeneous global culture of hip-hop as a paradigmatic culmination of numerous cultural manifestations after the turn of the millennium, we find in this time span of just over a hundred years a rich succession of socio-cultural styles, artistic movements and fashions, shaping and conditioning our way of life at a syncopated, slow or frenetic pace.

The social and political contexts that inspired the creators are reflected in the authorship of works of art, designs and clothes. This expansive century spans from Edith Sitwell’s theatricalised poems in Façade to rock and pop concerts at Coachella; from Mariano Fortuny’s orientalist dresses to designs that hack the signature creations of others by Virgil Abloh at Off-White or Louis Vuitton; from avant-garde exquisite corpses to the technological metaverse.

All of these cultural manifestations are the cornerstones that reinforce behaviours, accompany social movements, support political issues, explain anthropological movements and guide the drift of identity and appearance. We will focus on the evolution of industrial techniques, science and socio-cultural trends and their relationship with culture and artistic movements. From the intellectualised orientalisms, cubism and the avant-garde of the early twentieth century to the heterogeneous silhouettes of the world of aesthetic capitalism and the intercultural fashion of the twenty-first century created under the integrating sign of teamwork, online connections, musical cultures and the pre-eminence of theoretical positions.