Clothes, accessories, images, videos. “Memorabile. Ipermoda”, investigates contemporaneity and the role of fashion from 2015 to the present. The new exhibition curated by Maria Luisa Frisa opens on Wednesday, 27 November at MAXXI in Rome. An analysis of the creative and economic structure, design practices and the use of increasingly sophisticated technologies, which are now of primary importance. But also a story on the role of the creative director, of archives as memory, and of independent designers. We have been there for a preview, and will give you a sneak preview.
How it is set up
‘”Memorabile. Ipermoda” runs until 23 March 2025. The exhibition, organised in collaboration with Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana and the Bulgari Foundation as main sponsor, presents a series of sites in which clothes are related to each other. The pieces of haute couture, for example, mingle with those of independent creatives, in a constant dialogue that follows no hierarchies. A path that gradually reveals the clothes and objects on display, but also a reflection on the changes within the system, including the crisis. For the title, Maria Luisa Frisa was inspired by the book Hyperobjects by Timothy Morton, in which the author questions how much and how the spatial and temporal dimension undermines the very idea of object. Garments that, it is worth emphasising, no longer represent just a product of the industry, but a complex system of meanings.
The objects on show
To the garments on mannequins, the curator alternates accessories protected by display cases and videos along the walls, precisely to emphasise the dual relationship (now tenuous) with technology. Thus, we move from a dress covered in leather scales from Bottega Veneta‘s autumn-winter 2023 collection to the upside-down tulle of Viktor & Rolf haute couture 2023 dresses. There is also a piece from Alessandro Michele‘s first collection for Valentino, and the heart-shaped fur from Saint Laurent‘s autumn-winter 2016 collection, the latest from creative director Hedi Slimane. For accessories, the curator chose a large leather basket, also by Bottega Veneta, and the Trash pouch, the bag-shaped trash bag designed by Demna Gvasalia for Balenciaga and made of shiny calfskin.
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