Chic Words for DEHA
 
Follow us on Spotify as iDEHA from July 12, 2024

Chic Words is super excited to announce the launch of iDEHA – Feel your Rhythm su Spotify, a major initiative dedicated to women’s wellness!

The inspiration for this project was born during the graphic design and communication workshop I held last November at IUSVE – Salesian University Institute Venice.
The insights proposed by IUSVE male and female students, were later taken forward according to the methodologies of open innovation. From the encounter between Chic Words, DEHA and IUSVE Cube Radio the insights came to life in the form of a series of podcasts dedicated to exploring the theme of women’s well-being.

The‘open innovation is an approach that values collaboration between different realities, fostering multidisciplinarity to generate innovative solutions. Therefore, in the different episodes, professionals and IUSVE students will be involved, who, combining their skills and passions, offer valuable insights and practical advice to improve daily well-being.

I thank my brilliant male and female students for their commitment, enthusiasm and dedication.

I thank IUSVE, for giving me the opportunity to realize this project, confidently supporting our vision, and Cube Radio for valuable and super professional technical support.

I thank DEHA, which has proven to be a partner open to welcome new ideas and ready to really work in close synergy, fully embracing an open innovation perspective.

I thank the experts involved who you will have the opportunity to hear from:

• Valia Benedetti,Yoga teacher, pilates, massage therapist and posturologist and xpert in the Eastern philosophy of yoga;
• Simone Panizzuti,psychotherapist, occupational psychologist and lecturer at the Salesian University Institute IUSVE;
• Alessandra Semenzato, professor of cosmetology at the University of Padua and scientific director at UNIRED, a spin-off of the University of Padua;
• Marcella Bounous, Sports psychologist and lecturer at the Salesian University Institute IUSVE.

Chic Words, as always, stands by women, promoting a message of empowerment and well-being.

Listen to podcasts iDEHA – Feel your Rhythm su Spotify at this link.

iDEHA Feel Your Rhythm
Open Innovation and Wellness for the podcast series
that Chic Words created in collaboration with DEHA and IUSVE
 
Follow us on Spotify as iDEHA from July 12, 2024

Fashion Metaverse.
Fare Innovazione unendo Moda e Tecnologia
Online Conference
14th November 2023 – 4:30 p.m.

Are you a company or professional in the fashion industry?
Are you a company that makes digital avatars or other technologies for the Metaverse?
Are you passionate about fashion and the Metaverse?

Attend the Fashion Metaverse online conference!
Participation in the event is free after registration.
For info write to: >>> maddalena@maddalenadesign.it!
(The conference is held in Italian)

Operational tools to delve into the Metaverse

The fashion industry has already taken some significant steps but, especially in Italy, the opportunities offered by the Metaverse are not well known.

Chic Words has therefore decided to initiate the research project Virtual Influencers: opportunities and critical issues for the Fashion Metaverse, in collaboration with the IUSVE University Institute of Venice, to investigate the communication and marketing possibilities offered by the new virtual worlds and make available to companies, professionals and enthusiasts in the ICT and fashion sectors some reflections of the Metaverse and its potential.

The working team includes professionals and academics:

• Maddalena Mometti, Project Coordinator e Communication Department consultant;
• Giovanni Fasoli, Consultant Pedagogy Department;
• Marco Zuin, Consultant Psychology Department.

A Community for Innovation

The idea for this research project stems from Chic Words’ desire to investigate the new frontiers of innovation in the fashion industry.
Through the blog, the research project, and a series of online and in-person events, we would like to create a community to initiate synergies with companies, professionals, and academic specialists, who wish to materialize innovative ideas in fashion, sharing values, passions, and goals from a Human-Centered Design, ethics, and sustainability perspective.

A free operational guide

Through the research project, an operational guide to the Metaverse dedicated to fashion businesses and professionals has also been developed and will be made available free of charge to all those who register for the November 14th online convention. The report will be available also in English.

Program of the November 14th online conference

16:30 – 16:50
What is the Metaverse? What does the Metaverse have to do with the fashion industry?
Maddalena Mometti, Reseracher – IUSVE University Institut and Editor in Chief of Chic Words Blog

16:50 – 17:20
How do you access the Fashion Metaverse experiences?
Maddalena Mometti, Reseracher – IUSVE University Institut and Editor in Chief of Chic Words Blog

17:20 – 18:50
Interview with One o One Games, Centounopercento and Virtuall Pro companies: what communication opportunities for the Fashion industry are there in the Metaverse?
Led by Maddalena Mometti

18:50 – 19:10
The research project Virtual Influencers: opportunities and critical issues for the Fashion Metaverse to investigate the communication and marketing possibilities offered by the new digital worlds.
Maddalena Mometti, Giovanni Fasoli, Marco Zuin, university lecturers – IUSVE University Institute

19:10 – 19:30
Questions from the audience

For info write to: >>> maddalena@maddalenadesign.it!

The Metaverse access guide for all fashion-loving souls continues.

Follow me on Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@chicwords for a wonderful reportage on Metaverse FASHION Week 2023 by Decentraland!

Follow me on Tik Tok!

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The Metaverse access guide for all fashion-loving souls continues.

Follow me on Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@chicwords for a wonderful reportage on Metaverse Art Wekk 22 by Decentraland!

Follow me on Tik Tok!

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The Metaverse access guide for all fashion-loving souls continues.
If you still think that the Metaverse is not a fashion theme, I share with you a quote by Pierre Cardin: “The clothes I prefer are those that I invent for a life that does not yet exist, the world of tomorrow.”

For those who missed the previous post, you can find it here:

• >>> Introduction to the Fashion Metaverse

For everyone else, read on!

Steps to enter the Metaverse

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In the Metaverse, there are 3 main levels of interaction.
Type in the web address of the platform you want to visit.

• level 1 – log in as guest, to have a quick look;
• level 2 – create a free account, to interact with other users and perform tasks;
• level 3 – associate a Wallet with your account, to access all functionalities and explore all territories, you have to delve into the world of cryptocurrencies (coin) and create a digital wallet.

The third level may seem complicated, but there are actually management platforms that come to our aid.
The important thing is to understand what cryptocurrencies (coins) are, what they are for, and to use them responsibly and consciously.
Cryptocurrencies are virtual currencies, virtual money in short.. They are called virtual because they do not exist in physical form, but are generated and exchanged exclusively by electronic means. Their name is a combination of the terms cryptography and currency. Cryptography is the use of advanced mathematics to protect data.

Metaverses are virtual worlds with their own internal economy, which is based on cryptocurrencies. Within the metaverse, it is possible to buy digital objects, but what one actually buys are digital certificates of ownership stating that one has rights (different depending on the object) to what one has bought. Such certificates are called NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens).

Digital objects that can be purchased in this way are virtual fashion garments and accessories or digital gadgets that can be used in video games, but also intellectual property rights to works of art such as songs, paintings or patents.
Wallets are secure systems for storing, sending and receiving digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Dash, Ethereum, etc. Most currencies have an official wallet and some recommended third-party wallets.

This all sounds very complicated but with an example it will become clearer.

• Don’t miss the next article or follow me on >>> Tik Tok!

See you soon!

******
For a technical presentation of cryptocurrencies and to use them with an awareness of the possible risks, I recommend consulting >>> the website of CONSOB, the Italian financial market supervisory authority.
For a clear and concise discussion of NFTs, I recommend >>> the Borsa Italiana website.
This article is for information purposes only and is in no way intended to encourage the use of cryptocurrencies and/or related financial services.
******

The research project
in partnership with IUSVE University

---

This topic fascinates me so much that I decided to start a dedicated research project.
The project will analyze the opportunities of interest to the Fashion industry offered by the Metaverse and it will involve both Fashion professionals and enthusiasts!
If you would like to participate in exclusive digital events and/or share your opinion on the Fashion Metaverse please subscribe to >>> our mailing-list.

Here you can find more information:

• >>> Virtual Influencers for Fashion Metaverse
  Description of the research project and presentation of the team!

IMAGE
[Picture 1] Image taken from Pexels.com, author Cottonbro.

You know: my greatest passions are Fashion and Technology . If technological innovation goes hand in hand with the creation of glamorous experiences, clothes or accessories, I am absolutely unable to resist!
The latest in technological glamour is the span style=”color: #7c8aa4;”> Fashion Metaverse, a term that has become so viral but is not always understood correctly.

“The term “Metaverse” is composed of two words: “meta” means “beyond”, and “towards” means “universal”.
The word Metaverse was first used in 1992 by Neal Stephenson within the cyberpunk novel Snow Crash to refer to a “a 3D virtual world populated by digital human replicas by which a convergence zone of interactive virtual spaces is defined.”[Note 1]

What is the Metaverse?

---

So what does Metaverse mean today?

• It is the evolution of the Internet towards a more immersive and immersive experience.
• A new universe in which digital and physical influence each other.
• A set of interactive virtual spaces, in which the human presence is represented by Avatars..

.

Pay attention! We are not talking about an imaginary dimension, but a concrete reality, the first manifestations of which we are beginning to see, and in which all human activities in the physical world (educational activities, economic activities, entertainment, and even the monetary system) find a digital transposition. What happens in digital space has real repercussions on the world made of atoms: purchasing goods, company meetings, collaborations, events,… are some of the examples of what is already happening in the Metaverse. It is up to us to understand when and why to enter this new universe.

How can you access the Metaverse?

---

So how can you access the Metaverso?
There are several virtual spaces and platforms to choose from and many are emerging. The enthusiasm of users and companies that are doing business with the Metaverse is very high! The situation is constantly evolving.

hardware point of view:

• a computer with a stable Internet connection is sufficient to visit some digital realities;
• others are visited via a Smart Phone;
• and still others, for a truly immersive experience, require the use of Virtual Reality Visors.

The keys to enter the various digital spaces are different:

• the access to platforms such as Decentraland and Roblox is allowed to everyone by creating an account on their site;
• other particularly exclusive digital lands are only accessible by invitation

Fashion Metaverse

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Characteristics such as Exclusivity, Innovation and Technology could not fail to attract the Fashion World, which immediately seized the opportunity to create new experiences and new aesthetic expressions. Names such as Gucci, Moncler, Benetton and Luis Vuitton are entering this new universe.
The strategies followed are multiple: creation of events and fashion shows, digital or physical accessories to be used within or in the physical world, creation of wearable accessories. All wrapped in an aura of innovative style that makes the Fashion Metaverse truly appealing, not only to gaming enthusiasts!

And Chic Words is here to tell you about this!

Some previews had already been hosted on our pages:

• >>> Digital Glamour: when fashion opens up new worlds An example of a virtual fashion show told through an interview with the founders of Bigthinx

 

• >>> Green Carpet Fashion Awards 2020 An event realised during the lockdown that brings together holograms, television instruments within 3D reconstructions of Teatro Alla Scala in Milan!

Follow the next posts!

The research project
in partnership with IUSVE University

---

This topic fascinates me so much that I decided to start a dedicated research project.
The project will analyze the opportunities of interest to the Fashion industry offered by the Metaverse and it will involve both Fashion professionals and enthusiasts!
If you would like to participate in exclusive digital events and/or share your opinion on the Fashion Metaverse please subscribe to >>> our mailing-list.

Here you can find more information:

• >>> Virtual Influencers for Fashion Metaverse
  Description of the research project and presentation of the team!

 
 
 
 
NOTE
[1] Excerpt of the definition of metaverse from the online Encyclopaedia Treccani (Italian language).
 
 
 
 

IMAGE
[Picture 1] Image taken from Pexels.com, author Cottonbro.

Let me take advantage of today’s story to come out: I am hopelessly sensitive to the cold. Yes, I can no longer hide it: my level of cold tolerance is truly among the lowest ever!
I beg your pardon? Would you like some examples? Well, suffice it to say that I already start wearing gloves at the end of September, I can’t go out in winter without a (strictly stylish) hat, and I have a large collection of outerwear for all occasions (including the breeze on SUMMER evenings). It follows that one of the materials I use most often is wool, the warm and comfortable material par excellence!

The wool of my childhood

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Wool represents many things to me, but the strongest feelings belong to my childhood, when woollen clothes were really made of wool and mothers knew how to knit with skill. When I think of wool, the first thing that comes to mind are big, knitted sweaters with hand-embroidered flowers and butterflies, colourful, furry balls at the foot of the sofa moving swiftly as my mum created unique garments made for me and my Barbie. Could my playmate be left out in the cold? The great thing was that the jumper for the doll could be designed and produced in about 20 minutes! What fun! I could then give the stylist’s touch by adding beads and sequins.

Over the years, synthetic fibres have gradually replaced wool, but not always, in my opinion, with satisfactory results in terms of both aesthetics and performance. Personally, a synthetic fibre jumper does not protect me in the same way from the cold!
So I decided to investigate this topic for you by starting to study the types of wool that exist and who produces them, especially in Italy. In the course of my research, I came across the knitwear factory >>>M3 Knitwear and the family history of Marzia Saccon, CEO of M3 Knitwear.

The M3 Knitwear factory is located in San Vendemiano, a town of just under 10,000 inhabitants in the province of Treviso, which thanks to its technical know-how and passion collaborates with famous fashion brands located in different parts of the world.
Here is the interview with Marzia Saccon, owner, with her brothers Mauro and Michele and her sister Reginetta, of M3 Knitwear! We will talk about >>>Made in Italy and >>>Moda Sostenibile! ! [Note 1]

Interview of Marzia Saccon of M3 Knitwear

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Maddalena Mometti: Hi Marzia, thank you for your availability. Chic Words aims to describe contemporary fashion, in all its facets, by interviewing designers and entrepreneurs who have particularly distinguished themselves. Today we are here to tell your story, so let’s start in order: how was M3 Knitwear born?
Marzia Saccon: M3 Knitwear was born in 1992 to give continuity to my family’s business. My parents founded a small company from nothing in 1962: zero money, zero materials but just a lot of my mom’s will and my dad’s desire to indulge her in giving her the opportunity to do the work she loved. My mom, Annamaria, had started working at a very young age of 10 because there were no great economic possibilities in the family. As soon as she saved some money, she asked my grandparents if she could go and learn to be a dressmeaker. From this experience was born in her the desire to work in the knitting industry and to open her own business: the Sapam, precisely.
Thirty years later, in 1992 precisely, the company went through a very difficult period due to the first major relocation of the European fashion industry. My parents at that time had about 70 employees, but suddenly, over the course of a couple of seasons, they lost several orders because some major customers started moving production to Hong Kong (in China) and the company was closed.
My brothers, Mauro and Michele, had finished their university studies and had already gained a few years of work experience, while I was graduating at the time. Together with them, we decided not to let the know-how acquired by our parents dissipate and we founded M3 Knitwear. (In fact, M3 stands for the initials of Marzia, Mauro and Michele.)
We preserved some of the pre-existing staff, bought back all the necessary facilities and machinery with the help of a few customers, and started from zero again. We chose to keep the size of the company smaller but to continue to enhance the skills we had acquired and thus continue to produce luxury knitwear especially for foreign brands.
Even today most of our customers are outside Italy, mainly in Europe. These are big names that make total looks, who outsource all their knitwear collections to us.

Maddalena Mometti: A truly fascinating story! Thank you for sharing it with us. A curiosity: why the choice to work mainly for the foreign market?
Marzia Saccon: Let’s say that a series of conditions led us to enter this kind of market. Already my parents were exporters. In the 1970s in the fashion world there was a big boom for Italian knitwear, which was really in great demand by foreign companies, especially Americans and British. So from the very beginning our company weaved relationships with the foreign market, which is characterized by a different working method than the Italian one. The demands from foreign customers were: ability to have staff dedicated to the individual customer, language skills (which at that time were not as widespread as they are today), precision and rigor in delivery, and even interpersonal skills! It was not so obvious at the time to be able to interface properly even at a distance, but it was good and exciting: with some clients we can say that we have really grown and evolved together! We have a major client that we have been working with since 1988 for example!
I would say that our relationship with the foreign market has been a natural evolution of things because first through the business opportunities that were coming up and then through our ability to respond to their requests. And then I think also thanks to word of mouth: in fact, we have many relationships with companies in northern Europe who know and appreciate us and then choose us!

A “fantasist knitwear company”

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Maddalena Mometti: I read on your website that you call yourself a “fantasist knitwear company” because of the use of raw materials of different types but all made in Italy. How did this name come about? Which raw materials do you use and which are the most innovative?
Marzia Saccon: I started using this term to explain to various interlocutors the specificity of our work: in my opinion, knitwear production is divided into two major categories. On one side there are what I call the “classic” knitters, who work in a specialized way with very noble fibers such as pure cashmere or cashmere-silk for the production of basic garments, preferring plain colors and essential shapes for the manufacture, where the added value is given mainly by the quality of the material used. On the other side there is us. M3 Knitwear has always made patterned productions and, for this reason, has always used many different raw materials. For example, we are very skilled in jacquard workmanship, know-how that we inherited from the Sapam knitwear factory created by my parents. In the 1960s and 1970s Italian fashion and, especially knitwear, was interested in the taste for rich, complex and colorful decorative motifs. Think, for example, of the creations of Pucci and Roberta di Camerino on textiles, Missoni and Krizia in knitwear… Later such decorative motifs were in less demand, replaced by other suggestions that we were able to satisfy thanks to the skills acquired in the period of the jacquard boom. This is a specificity of ours that we wanted to preserve in order to make it available to our customers.
Moreover, we never produced an entirely “classic” knit. Even in the case of the absence of pattern, the preciousness of the garment was given by the mixing of different yarns, the study of custom stitches and weaves, and the creation of innovative volumes in the making. In some cases, through input and exchange of ideas with our customers, we created truly unique shapes that almost required an instruction booklet to understand how the knitted garments were to be worn! It was really exciting!
In the last 7-8 years the demand for jacquard work has become very important again, and the fact that we have preserved in our archives the history of stitches devised in the past and the very memory of the staff who have been working with us ever since, has been a great strategic advantage! In addition, of course, to the constant technological updating of the machinery. We have therefore been able to repurpose even very complex workings that perhaps other colleagues are no longer able to reproduce at present.

Maddalena Mometti: I’d like to see some examples of these jerseys with innovative volumes. Who did you make them for?
Marzia Saccon: Mainly they were models by Marithé et François Girbaud. Another signature we have been collaborating with for quite some time is Sara Pacini, a Belgian brand that is currently working, however, more on the stitches and the three-dimensionality of the knit itself, not so much on the volume. We have also worked for Thierry Mugler. Innovation in contemporary fashion is mainly aimed at the issue of sustainability. And ensuring a sustainable product by using many different yarns and materials is an interesting challenge!

Maddalena Mometti: What are the materials that you work with?
Marzia Saccon: In the winter seasons we work mohair of various types, different types of alpaca wool and also mixes of different yarns.
In summer we use viscose yarns, linen, cotton, all high-end, very fine yarns. Some of them also have yarn mixes with polyamide and polyester, which are used to give structure to the yarn itself, and mixes with lurex yarns to give shine. We work with so many different fibers!
In the winter we are mohair specialists, working both the high quality non-stretch firm mohair, stretch mohair (which is tricky to work with and requires specialized skills)and silk mohair of controlled and certified origin for a customer who makes only completely sustainable products.

Commitment to Sustainable Fashion

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Maddalena Mometti: If a brand asks you for a sustainable product, how does that process play out?
Marzia Saccon: We first started this kind of project a few years ago for the brand Katia Sanchez, which started with us to make its sustainable fashion collections.
First of all, we identified a material that was pure so that it could be recycled as easily as possible. In addition, a high quality natural raw material allows the garment to have a long life. Obviously, for this to happen, the various processing steps of the garment itself, such as weaving and tailoring, must also be carried out with great care. Finally, the garments must be treated by us in a very specific way so that they can then be safely washed at home while maintaining all the original characteristics of beauty, softness and wearability. Let us not forget that the packaging must also be appropriately respectful of sustainability rules.
From this first project onward, we too wanted to embrace a path of sustainability. We buy certified yarn and we are working to ensure that all the workmanship we make is certified as well! This is a slow process, made up of many steps. Thanks to some European funding, we have taken some courses to educate ourselves on the subject and have been mapping the company to understand our degree of sustainability and how to improve. As far as social sustainability is concerned, we are already at the highest level because our company has always strived to minimize energy and material waste. In addition, any leftover materials are made available to third parties, such as for nursing home residents. We have already started to organize the deliveries of our finished products in a more calculated way with the aim of reducing the number of trips, thus the CO2 emissions caused by them.

Maddalena Mometti: Just a curiosity: when you talk about certified materials from a sustainability perspective, does that also cover avoiding mistreatment of animals?
Marzia Saccon: Absolutely! Let’s take the case of certified mohair as an example, which has to come from farms that guarantee that animals are not mistreated. Goat farms for making mohair wool have long since begun the certification process. These are large-scale farms that, because of the living conditions required by this type of goat, are located in South Africa, Texas and Turkey. In the case of alpaca wool, on the other hand, the farms are small and scattered over vast geographical areas, a fact that makes it very difficult to be able to carry out controls. Add to this the fact that the demand for certified raw materials is increasing exponentially, while the supply is not large enough, at least at the moment! For this reason, orders for certified raw materials should be placed a year in advance and in small quantities!

Maddalena Mometti: Are there certified farms in Italy?
Marzia Saccon: A few but very small. There are more in France, in the Pyrenees, but still small.

Where to see products from M3 Knitwear

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Maddalena Mometti: Where is it possible to buy some of the products made by you for the brands you collaborate with?
Marzia Saccon: Most of the brands we collaborate with also sell through e-commerce. Some garments made for Sara Pacini are also available in La Rinascente chain stores. Katia Sancez sells exclusively online. Natan, in Italy, also sells only through e-commerce.

Collaboration with big brands

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Maddalena Mometti: For a brand, how is the collaboration with you?
Marzia Saccon: Every early season we make a selection of yarns from the different Italian spinning mills for our clients. Some of the brands we collaborate with come to us at the company to see the color charts, for others we move or work remotely.
We then make stitch proofs together, interpreting the style, the philosophy of the different signatures, from sketches, photographs, detailed patterns or even just emotional suggestions that are provided to us. Having approved the stitch diagrams, we move on to prototype making.

The whole process takes 3 to 4 months and is repeated twice a year for the main seasons. But there are some clients who do not follow classic programmed seasonality and fit into this calendar with customized timing. This is a very close collaboration where we have from time to time 5 or 6 people from our staff dedicated to a single collection. For each client we manage to develop as many as 60 / 70 different patterns! In order for our work to be sustainable, including the purchase of raw materials without surcharges, we consider a minimum production of about 150 / 200 pieces per pattern.

Maddalena Mometti: What does knitting mean today? How have the technologies changed?
Marzia Saccon: On one hand, knitwear is constantly evolving technologically in terms of both machinery and programming and processing speed. The figures of textile machine programmers are very important! Even personnel who have been working with us for decades have to take refresher courses every 1 or 2 years. On the other hand, knitwear remains a very artisanal job in terms of making and finishing. There is a dualism that has to coexist.
Knitwear in Italy has evolved because the whole supply chain has been kept active in Italy. The most important spinning mills are all Italian, they buy foreign raw materials, but the finest and most beautiful yarns are all produced in Italy! Many knitters have been preserved. The manufacturers of accessories and zippers, the experts in embroidery and finishing are there. And they are essential because they all bring innovation and creativity to the finished product.
In France, for example, there are no more knitters! All French brands find themselves having to produce abroad, and a great many come to Italy. So you can understand how very important it is to preserve the supply chain in order to maintain this specific strength of Made in Italy!

More gems about ecoglamour:

>>> Green Carpet Fashion Awards 2020 “What we wear speaks to who we are and what be believe in” Robert Downey

>>> Aquafil: a company where the economy is truly circular N.B. Aquafil is one of the sponsor of Green Carpet Fashion Award! We love it!

>>> Ananas for your ecoglamour

>>> Ecoalf: rethinking fashion business models

>>> Carry Somers’ revolution
 
 
 
 
NOTES
[1] Interview with Marzia Saccon by Maddalena Mometti on March 7, 2022.
 
 
 
 

IMAGES
Images courtesy of M3 Knitwear. Starting with the other:
[image 1] Detail of knitwear made for Katia Sanchez

[image 2] Photos of the production area of M3 Knitwear

[image 3] Detail of knitwear made for Katia Sanchez

[image 4] Photo of M3 Knitwear managers

[image 5] Photo of M3 Knitwear staff

[image 6] Detail of knit made for Natan

[image 7] Detail of knit made for Natan

We continue our journey of discovery of the Grove installation, a metaphor for new spaces to live in and an evolution of the human species towards the creation of hybrid beings in close connection with both technology and the environment, understood as plants, animals, but also as minerals and inert beings!

If you missed the first interview with Philip beesley - architect, visual artist and director of >>>Living Architecture Systems Group in Waterloo, Canada and author of Grove Installation at the Biennale Architettura 2021 - >>>you can read it here.

Today we will explore the point of view of Sascha Hastings – very skilled curator and art producer, and a very nice person – who followed the complex process of moving Grove from Canada to Venice: an adventure further complicated by the arrival of the global pandemic in 2020.

Interview with Sascha Hastings

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Maddalena Mometti: First of all, I would like to ask you to tell me about the genesis of the adventure and all the stages of organisation required to get Grove Installation to Venice, please.
Sascha Hastings: In the early fall of 2019 Hashim Sarkis invited Philip Beesley and Living Architecture System Group to the Venice Biennale. At that time Philip contacted me about being involved as I had worked with him on his 2010 installation at the Canada Pavillion and on other Canadian exhibitions at the Biennale.
He was working on an exhibition in Cambridge, called >>> Meander which included an immersive distributed soundscape developed in collaboration with the Netherlands-based group >>> 4DSOUND .
And we had the idea of linking the new Venice installation to Meander, to create a connection between the two pieces of art. We imagined a very interactive installation. So we came to Italy in January 2020 for a site visit and meetings with the Biennale in order to understand how to make this possible and to plan the construction of the installation.
But then we started hearing news about the pandemic and at the end of February 2020 Italy was in lockdown. So we asked the Biennale organisers what they thought was going to happen. They assured us that the Biennale would still take place as planned.

Unfortunately, the pandemic progressed rapidly and we were told in March that the Biennale would be postponed until a date to be determined.
So we started to ask ourselves some important questions:
_ can we afford to continue working on the project, considering that postponing it even by six months was a major investment in terms of time and costs?
_ can we propose the same type of installation in a context where social distancing is required?
We decided to modify the exhibition in order to fit the new situation of social distancing and we started thinking about what we would do if the Biennale would be transformed into a digital-only event.

And the idea that came to our minds was to reduce the physical density of the installation while dramatically enhancing the use of sound to create extensive sound piece and to design custom speakers. We also decided to branch out into film as major new component of our work.Through Philip’s previous collaboration with avant-garde Dutch fashion designer Iris Van Herpen, he had met the very skilled British filmmakers Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton-Jones. They showed us some CGI [Computer-generated imagery films]films they had already created: they were completely amazing!
We decided that together with Warren and Nick, we would use the new Venice work to convey the idea of life coming from death, to give a message of hope during difficult times.
We started to work with the filmmakers. We sent them digital files of Philip’s physical work and they transformed them into computer graphics.
In the meantime the composer, Salvador Breed, and sound designers, 4DSOUND, started creating the sound component.
Warren, Nick and Salvador worked together to create a film and sound experience that meld together seamlessly, like they are one thing.

The installation team

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Maddalena Mometti: What about your collaboration with the Conservatorio di Musica di Vicenza “Arrigo Pedrollo”?
Sascha Hastings: It was a wonderful collaboration! We were so lucky! When I was in Venice in January 2020, after meeting you Maddalena, I also met some other friends and contacts to potentially work with. We already knew we needed to find a very skilled local installation team that also specialized in audio/video but of course, at that time, we didn’t realize how heavily we would come to rely on them because of the pandemic.
Some friends who are pioneers in he filed of Interaction Design introduced me to Davide Tiso, a sound designer and professor at the conservatory. And then Davide managed to involve twenty-one of his students in our project.
The Biennale was also very supportive and provided four Academia students. Davide coordinated the whole installation team, with some help from two of our colleagues.

It was really incredible! The students were very dedicated and enthusiastic to be involved in our project. I think they were particularly excited because they hadn’t had a chance to do any practical things for a whole year (because of the lock down period).

In spite of all the difficulties due to Covid-19 restrictions – masks, regular molecular testing, etc. – the students came days after days to help us with great generosity and commitment. We were really lucky to have had them on our team! I really want to thank them again!
Normally, when Philip’s studio does an installation, we send a large team that has experience installing his work, because it is quite complex. This time we had to improvise because of travel restrictions. It went like this: we flat-packed the pieces of the installation in crates and sent them from Toronto to Venice. The students then assembled the installation’s physical “cloud” component and the speakers, under the guidance of Davide and two of our former colleagues who were able to travel to Venice to assist. While the Biennale built the concave floor screen for the projection of the film.
At that point another new local colleague, Amerigo Piana, joined the team to help us adjust and synchronize the sound, film and lighting on site. One of the conservatory students continued to collaborate with us throughout the Biennale, by regularly checking that the technical equipment (speakers, etc.) was still set up and working correctly.

It was quite an adventure for our studio to coordinate the installation team remotely, from so far away and with six-hours time difference. But our colleagues in Venice were fantastic! At the end of each day they sent us photographs and notes of what they had done, and then Philip and our studio tech team gave them instructions for the next day. Of course we also had lots of video calls – thank goodness for Whatsapp!

Maddalena Mometti: What was the best moment of this adventure?
Sascha Hastings: There were several very emotional moments. One was when we figured out how to make the installation possible despite the pandemic by modifying the initial design of the project to focus more on the non-physical components — sound and film. We realized that we could deliver a great installation, whether the Biennale happened in real life or was only virtual. Another moment was when we saw the first preview of the film. It was simply breathtakingly beautiful and astonishing to see Philip’s work come to life in film.
But for me the most amazing moment was when I first saw the complete installation up and running. We almost couldn’t believe it after all the setbacks and challenges. There were times it had felt like maybe it was impossible to do with Covid-19. But we persevered and we did it!

This adventure has been a miracle!

What it means to be a curator

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Maddalena Mometti: Can you tell me more about your job as curator?
Sascha Hastings: I started my career completely by accident. I studied Renaissance Studies and German Literature in Toronto and Germany. I knew I wanted to work in the arts and culture world but I didn’t know where and how yet.
Then I got an internship at CBC Radio, where I started doing research for the flagship national arts program, and then gradually I learned how to produce interviews for the radio! It was amazing training for curatorial work: in radio you have to tell coherent and interesting stories to an audience that is curious and intelligent but doesn’t necessarily know about the specific art topic in detail. I learned a lot about how to present and tell stories to diverse audiences and about arts in Canada, and around the world in general.
Being a curator is very similar to being a radio producer, only your medium is more visual than verbal. You still have to tell interesting stories to people and keep them engaged. As a curator, I see myself as a kind of conduit or editor between the artist and the public. My role is to translate and transmit the artist’s work to the public in the best possible way.

About Venice

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Maddalena Mometti: What brought you to Venice in the first place?
Sascha Hastings: Years ago I produced a radio interview with some Canadian artists who were doing the Canada Pavillion at the Venice Art Biennale and I thought: “This is so cool! One day I want to work on the Venice Biennale!”. Then a few years later I had the chance to work with Philip Beesley on his exhibition for the 2020 Canada Pavillion – that was my first Biennale experience.
Since then I have worked on five Canadian exhibitions at the Biennale, and even lived in Venice for a year. I really love Venice!

>>> Vai all’intervista con Philip Beesley!

Other posts on new fashion scenarios:

>>> A new architecture for a new kind of human beings Interview with Philip Beesley

>>> Fashion is design Il ritorno della Moda con la “M” maiuscola a Venezia

>>> Fashion and Science

>>> Digital Glamour: when fashion opens up new worlds “Digital as the fifth element, in addition to air, water, earth and fire” by Chic Words

>>> Green Carpet Fashion Awards 2020 “What we wear speaks to who we are and what be believe in” Robert Downey

 
 
 
 
IMAGES
All photos are courtesy of Philip beesley and Sascha Hastings.
Starting from the top:
[images 1,2] Grove installation photos

[image 3] The students who did the installation

[image 4] Chic Words visiting the Grove installation

Fashion has always been a phenomenon that interprets and reflects the society of which it is an expression, telling dreams and visions and interpreting technological, scientific and cultural discoveries.

The event that has had the greatest impact on society in recent years is the pandemic. Our daily lives have changed, but our way of perceiving ourselves and our relationship with technology and the world has changed even more. We have realised how our destinies as individuals are intertwined, how our survival is linked to that of others and to the health of the environment. And in this period of profound uncertainty, our gaze has turned both to science, asking medicine and chemistry to find a cure for the physical ailment that was afflicting us, and to new technologies, asking them to provide us with the means to fulfil our daily and professional needs to connect, interact and exchange ideas, emotions and even material goods at a distance. We realised how real and important the virtual dimension really is and how it is inherent in our very nature.

These reflections arise from the extraordinary opportunity I had to talk with Philip Beesley - architect, visual artist and director of >>>Living Architecture Systems Group in Waterloo, Canada – and Sascha Hastings – very skillful curator and art producer and nice person – about Philip’s work presented at the 2021 Biennale Architettura.

This opportunity arose from a series of fortunate coincidences. I had the opportunity to meet (virtually) Philip a few years ago, on the occasion of an interview I conducted for a magazine I was working with at the time, and I immediately appreciated his artistic work and his great empathy on a personal level. Afterwards, I was able to meet Sascha, the very skillful curator who followed the organisation of the transfer of his work from Canada to Venice: the last chat I had in front of a cup of raku ceramic tea in Venice before the lock down in 2020.
From there I followed the fate of the Grove installation until finally, this year, I was able to admire it in all its beauty at the Arsenale in Venice.

This resulted in two interviews that I propose in two very exciting articles! You can find one below as you continue reading, the other one at >>> this link!

Interview with Philip Beesley

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How can we live together?

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Maddalena Mometti: How did the concept for Grove installation come to your mind? What inspired you?
Philip Beesley: What inspired me at the very beginning of this project was the question that Hashim Sarkis sent to me in his very first invitation at La Biennale di Venezia: “How will we live together?” It made me pause and try to gather hopes and dreams in response.
In answering that question I made a little drawing. The drawing shows a rather strained surface of the earth. I have been fortunate in living on strong, solid land. In Canada, I can sometimes stand on intensely deep, solid granite, carved by the ice ages. Similarly when I lived in Rome, I loved standing on the tufa rock, with its deep, soft surfaces hardened by the sun. Yet the land that we now stand upon seems very different from those confident examples.
In this drawing I wanted to express the feeling that the earth is insecure. The surface seems almost hollow, trembling. That feeling was the start of the Grove project. Living on that surface I asked the questions: “If we will live together, who are we? Are there many kinds of beings that can live together with us?”. My little sketch drew groups of different beings: some old, some young, some able bodies, some less able. It includes small and large, and fragile individuals alongside proud leaders. The drawing shows groups of beings asking the question: “Can we live together?” This kind of gathering is both hesitant and strong at the same time: hesitant because this group do not come from one nation or one family or one company, and also strong, because the gathering of multiple different kinds of species and humanities seem intense and fertile.
In my drawing, reaching far overhead, above this trembling ground and the gathering of people, there is a radiant lace-work of clouds, creating canopies, and shells, and nests, and webs. This offers a kind of gentle architecture. It offers a common song of hope.
That was the sketch of what we hoped we would be able to offer in the installation. The work was titled Grove, like the opening in a wild forest, where we could gather in peace, a foundation place of a city. This might remind us of legendary beginnings of historical cities. Perhaps this ‘grove’ might even feel like a temple, opening us to powers that lie far beyond us. Whether large or small, this architecture acts as the most gentle gathering place.
We live in urgent times. We need so much hope!

The gentle architecture after the pandemic

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Maddalena Mometti: How has the current international situation of the last two years and the related constraints affected the creative process?
Philip Beesley: At the beginning, before the pandemic, the project was based on a deeply physical gathering place. We conceived a radiant spring opening inside a forest, evoking original growth where the first city gathers. A full range of mechanisms and architectural components were developed to build that vision. We tried to consider dimensions far behind human domains enriched with living beings of all kinds and the emergence of life, and minerals and elemental material as well. We were thinking about whispering songs and distributing sounds and gentle movements: the experience of a new kind of artificial life interweaving with natural life. New flexible skeleton scaffolds, basket-like columns and shells, and new meshworks of microprocessors were all prototyped and launched toward mass manufacturing. We started working very hard, more than two years ago , building up this physical paradise- garden.
And then everything changed with the pandemic. For a while we thought it would be impossible to recover. We were forced to close down. Like so many others, we said: “We are so sorry, it is impossible!” But Hashim Sarkis and his group encouraged us to renew things and to find a way to continue. So, we tried to change. Instead of a completely physical work, we thought about a layered and open system, not depending so much on epic scales and major resources. We conceived a lace-like open cloud that could spread and nourish while at the same time consuming only the lightest, most minimal resources. We imagined offering an architecture transformed into a gentle air filled instrument, full of light and shadow and sound. That led us to conceive of making a film, translating as much as possible from the physical design that we had intended to build and recreating it within a virtual world.

The film: a dialogue between Architecture, Design & Fashion!

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Maddalena Mometti: This is the first time you translate your work into a film… is it correct? Tell us your experience, please!
Philip Beesley: Yes, this is our first major work in film. With the renewed vision of working with these immaterial, energy-filled dimensions, we reached out to four collaborators– the brilliant film-makers Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton-Jones, the sound-composer Salvador Breed, and couture artist Iris van Herpen. With Warren and Nick, we took the deeply interwoven component patterns that had been intended for physical fabrication, and we translated those into projected digital animations, rigged and animated within comprehensive virtual world. With Salvador, we conceived of vast fields of sound, using multitudes of individual small speakers that could carry intimate whispers while also growing into thundering storms. Conversations with Iris revolved around the emergence of a child-like being who might live within interwoven membranes floating within the space of Grove.
Combining all of those conversations, we created the film together. We worked on some new softwares that allowed us to translate the massed arrays of intricate architectural components into animated fabrics that shift and flex, and that could carry transparent liquids and crystalline light. We engineered a new kind of speaker that could radiate sound all around it, and tuned it so that it could carry a wide spectrum of frequencies. We designed a floor surface with a hollow that could receive the projected film, giving the experience of looking into a deep pool carved into the ground.
As soon as the film started to emerge, we discovered just how potent that new medium could be for us. It allowed us to go further in emotional dimensions than we’ve every gone before. It seemed to allow us to touch joy, all the while building up new crystalline worlds. We traced the story of a child in birth. That in turn allowed us to embrace suffering as well, and eventually we also embraced almost unspeakable loss. All of those dimensions can, I think, be seen within the film.
It impressed me very much how closely architecture and industrial design and the world of film and fashion too can come together. A kind of new possibility-space where forms and visual gestures, sound and video all work together.

Maddalena Mometti: And it is a good metaphor of our times! Above all in these two years we perceived that digital is very physical for us in some way! During the lockdown period digital meetings were the only contact with other people! And we really needed this kind of relationship!
Philip Beesley: That makes me think of a realization that comes from the reality of the last couple of years in which on one hand we can say that everything is virtual, the weaving of all the possibilities is projected onto the potential of virtual media, a complete world. On the other hand those digital forms are of course profoundly physical. I love the sense that these things are in fact one. It is a false opposition. Ideas are actions. Actions are ideas. In Nature opposite dimensions constantly arise together.

Maddalena Mometti: Let’s talk about the film in detail! It was very surprising to me and very captivating! In some moments I had the impression of being a spectator, in others I had the feeling of being the human protagonist myself and thus having a subjective view…
Philip Beesley: Yes, the vision inside this film does invite you to feel like you are inside it, and even that you are dreaming of the world that you are seeing. In the first part of the film you can see emptiness and distance, then slowly you get closer and more deeply involved. You might feel that you are breathing and evolving. There is a sense of being embraced. Then, suddenly, you are flung back into a terribly alienating space, as if an unthinkably large explosion has happened and you are left with the terrible aftermath. Small flickers of motion arise again, and slowly build, and you find yourself deeply immersed again. Those cycles continue, with increasing intensity. When I watch the film I find it both very encouraging and also frightening and disorienting.
I am encouraged by the possibility of offering people an experience that can be glacially slow and also sharing an intense energy. Salvador has woven together a tissue of sounds that accompany this immersive world.Some of the sounds are alien and artificial, utterly cold. In some other parts of the film the atmosphere is welcoming, and joyful.

A new kind of human being?

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Maddalena Mometti: In the film is there a sort of projection of a new kind of human being?
Philip Beesley: Yes. The film attempts to create a kind of new myth of the origins of life. Within that new myth, a new child is offered. Perhaps this child is a new kind of human being with the body of a cyborg whose body contains densely interwoven artificial and natural parts, living intertwined within both nature and technology. The film builds on that vision. For parts of the film, a child can be seen, within the space of a nest, deep within layered meshworks. Within those parts, the sculptural forms seem fertile, like nests surrounded by lush soil. We can see the child stirring, gently touching and reaching.
The sound that accompanies this film includes spoken texts from the nineteenth-century French author Gustave Flaubert’s Temptations of Saint Anthony. That author inspired a generation of surrealist artists who followed him, and I have returned to him again and again for inspiration within my own work. The Temptations evoke tribulations that overwhelm the Saint in tumbling nightmares. It then moves into lovely passages where the Saint feels united with rocks, minerals and plants. That metamorphosis is a gift of life from death. For me, the child within the film embodies that transition. That’s what we want to offer with Grove in this intensely strained time: a gift of life from death.
Let me say a little more about some fundamental ideas within this project. Some old myths suggest that life is always separated from technology. Within that way of looking at the world, the myriad forms of non-human living plants and organisms somehow carry tangled disorganization and disease, while the inert minerals and pure elements might seem like better and stronger building materials that allow us to control and clear the world, making it safe. Lifeless minerals might be for tools and for making the walls and floors of architecture, with nature kept safely outside and under control. I think this idea is present in many parts of our culture. I think that separation has created deeply harmful conditions in the world.
However, I don’t believe that separation is necessary. I love the sense that we could look very carefully and slowly at a rock and ask, in all seriousness: ”Is it alive?” In some remote parts of our culture, the answer could be ‘yes’. The ancient Greek principle of hylozoism suggested that. Hylozoism means ‘life from material’. That concept is one of the bases for the construction of the film- the sense that it is not necessary to have a strong separation between you and a rock or a tool.
I tried to express that idea by presenting primary elements, organized in harmonic arrays. Waves of energy transform them into new kinds of material. They make chains and bundles. Metabolic reactions rise up and transform them again. The crystalline structures of those forms attract new materials and organize them, acting like templates. Information emerges, coded within their structures, carrying the patterns for composing those bundles and groups. Chains and membranes roll and curl, making rippled surfaces. They react and exchange. Hollows emerge, and curl in on themselves. Curling membranes connect into vessels and nests. There are waves that ripple out ahead and backward from those actions, creating kinds of projection and memory. Perhaps even consciousness emerges within those ripples of reaction.
Within the thickets of sculpture that surrounds the child’s body, resplendent life flows out, budding and swelling with innumerable plant and flower-like forms. Clouds roll far above, suggesting that this landscape might continue into multiple worlds. Within other parts of the film, we witness a desert-like plain that takes over the landscape. Shattered forms speak of intense forces that have swept over the land, obliterating almost all living forms. The child also appears momentarily within those sections. We witness them buried, in death, in a vision of sacrifice where they might be transforming into soil. Those transitions continue with life succeeding death and subsiding again in multiple cycles.
This is a potentially valuable message, I think. We are not alone. Our actions ripple out and touch everything. Everything around us touches us. The story of the film is based on that.

The physical installation

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Maddalena Mometti: What about the materials of installation?
Philip Beesley: I hope the qualities I’ve been describing might also be seen in some of the physical craft of making Grove. I think you can see that at work in the canopy, made with lightweight and resilient polymer sheets. That can also be seen in the thicket of standing speakers that surround the viewer, with each printed shell floating in a delicate basket of stretched metal. Those forms attempt to be sensitive, offering intimacy.
The main fabric that we can see in Grove is a large suspended fabric made from PETG polymers, while the speaker shells seen within the standing columns are printed from synthetic material, made from a bioplastic based on plant sugar. The fabric is cut using a laser, using carefully-developed patterns that attempt to form reactive frond-like forms that can be stirred into action with only the slightest of touches.

Maddalena Mometti: Did you create these polymers (above all the bioplastic) especially for Grove or did you already work before with them?
Philip Beesley: Some materials are traditional, some of them are new. Polyactic Acid (PLA) printing filaments have now entered wide use, thankfully. We are trying to improve the materials we use. We are still searching for a bioplastic sheet that can be flexible enough to handle wide twisting and bending forces while also staying transparent. We aren’t close enough to that goal, but it seems that progress is being made. For now, we are continuing to use recyclable PETG polymer sheet, while we search for replacements that come closer to fully circular design standards where all material can be reused, with minimum carbon impact in the world. One of ways we have made strong progress is in using a radical minimum amount of material by using very thin sheets.
We work with compliant force-shedding design. We try not to resist forces. Instead, we are working to create something as flexible and resilient as possible. This way, the systems can handle wide environmental changes. When I was learning architecture I was taught to build things in the opposite way, following the Roman writer Vitruvius’s philosophy of making strong things, built to last: “First of all firmitas!” My new work, however, tends to oppose that view. I do not believe we need more walls today. I believe that as architects we need to conceive open, deliberately flexible and ephemeral systems.

Maddalena Mometti: How about the name Grove?
Philip Beesley: I love the word grove, because it means a place of presence and a place of opening in a kind of wildness, embracing the surrounding space. The idea of a grove is a fundamental gathering place. It offers an opening, a fundamental emplacement. This is not an act where we claim territory. The opening invites gathering, and speaks of the deep tradition of democracy.
I think a new space for democracy needs new kinds of space. To me, it is motivating to hear the voices of new physicists encouraging us to consider new conceptions: rather than describing space fundamentally empty, with individual atoms dancing like infinitesimally small spheres, surrounded by void, I think I am now encouraged to see a possibility of mass arising everywhere. In the quantum realities that are now being confirmed by the amazing experiments of the CERN instruments, it even the birth of mass itself could be seen as a kind of fundamental particle, the Higgs boson. If mass can arise everywhere, then space is full, not empty. Encouraged by this, I am tending to use new terms as well. I think we could use the mediaeval word aether instead of the rather cold and somehow polarizing word space. I love the sheer fertility and potent fullness that aether evokes. Grove embodies that kind of gathering space.

The mechanical empathy
of responsive buildings

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Maddalena Mometti: I read the press release: your installation was described using the word empathy. How can this kind of empathy be put into architecture projects of real buildings and cities?
Philip Beesley: I am optimistic about the possibility of responsive buildings offering a precise kind of mechanical empathy that might help renew what architecture can be. Empathy can be felt when a person sees that their own thoughts and feelings are being fundamentally ‘heard’ and integrated by others. Empathy could also be expressed by mechanisms and buildings, where those systems sense what humans are expressing and respond to those expressions. Perhaps some examples of that are now ordinary: we take for granted that a shopping-mall door will open before us when we walk toward it. That ordinary example might suggest that mechanical empathy is a viable technical craft, but I should acknowledge that it is also full of problems. It can also imply that we are not free. An active mechanism can even become a monster that can hurt us. So, the power of this way of working is large. However, if we look more closely at scaffolds and information together, it seems possible to make architectural fabrics that are very senstive in their mechanisms. Rather than simply pushing and pulling, manipulating things with maximum power, they can resonate and harmonize the forces that pass through. With computational controls, we can orchestrate ‘learning’ functions that help the work to act sensitively. So this kind of work becomes empathic, hearing what you say, moving with you, anticipating what you are going to do and in some way shifting and dancing with you. We need to work to make building sensitive, learning from human empathy.

Maddalena Mometti:A beautiful vision!

About Venice

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Maddalena Mometti:My last question: which is your personal relationship with the city of Venice? Is there a connection between this city and Grove?
Philip Beesley: Grove is conceived to work precisely with the Arsenale, casting shadows and echoing within that extraordinary and vast space. Its canopy projects clouds that float in the imagination out amidst the canals and walkways of Venice. The ground of Venice has so many kind of histories into it. By spending extended time on that ground my body becomes touched by a certain way of walking and being. The floating city is of course a place of dream, a place that concentrates urban space, ground, water. The sun rises and sets on the great lagoon. The water is moving all around you. This experience of moving up and down against a surface of water, in and out, produces the most delicious sense of immersion. In that space it is possible to experience qualities of amphibian beings. It is the space of dreams for me. The most vivid dreams happen when I sleep in Venice. Its haunted sounds and whispering echoes are eternal. Venice is irreplaceable.

>>> Go to the interview with Sascha Hastings!

Other posts on new fashion scenarios:

>>> The journey of a work of art from Toronto to Venice Interview with Sascha Hastings

>>> Fashion is design Il ritorno della Moda con la “M” maiuscola a Venezia

>>> Fashion and Science

>>> Digital Glamour: when fashion opens up new worlds “Digital as the fifth element, in addition to air, water, earth and fire” by Chic Words

>>> Green Carpet Fashion Awards 2020 “What we wear speaks to who we are and what be believe in” Robert Downey

 
 
 
 
IMAGES
All photos are courtesy of Philip beesley and Sascha Hastings.
Starting from the top:
[image 1] Screenshot of Grove Cradle film

[images 2,3,4] Preparatory sketches for the Grove installation by Philip Beesley

[images 5,6,7,8,9] Screenshot of Grove Cradle film

[images 10,11,12] Grove installation photos

[immagine 13] Chic Words visiting the Grove installation

Have you ever wondered what the colour of sustainability is? From a communication point of view, sustainability is most often associated with the colour green, evoking a natural, uncontaminated image. However, this association, as images that have conditioned us in this sense have settled in our visual memory, has become an induced reflex. As you may have noticed, in the pages of Chic Words where Sustainable Fashion has been mentioned several times, the colours used have been deliberately varied (not necessarily shades of green)! In fact, I like to think that there are many ways, techniques, strategies and roads that can lead us towards a more Sustainable Fashion, thanks to the progress of research and the commitment of professionals and companies.
In my new interview I therefore wanted to present you with an in-depth look at blue jeans!

I don’t know about you, but I have been craving jeans for a few days now! Spring is finally approaching and I can’t wait to rediscover the pleasure of wearing a nice pair of jeans on my skin. Just the word makes me think back to open-air trips I’m already starting to smell the saltiness!
With the fear of being caught unprepared by the first warm days, today I launched into rearranging the wardrobes at home to start preparing for the seasonal change. I found some jeans from a few years ago – that I no longer wear – that I can’t leave because they have accompanied me on important and pleasant occasions in my life. And I realized how widespread this fabric is in my wardrobe. But in the case of jeans, can we still talk about ecoglamour?

But in the case of jeans,
can we still talk about ecoglamour?

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But in the case of jeans, can we still talk about ecoglamour?
I asked this question for you to a new, young and aware Italian brand and here are the answers of Fedora Agosti, Sustainability Ambassador of Par.co Denim. [Note 1]

Maddalena Mometti: Who is Par.co Denim? And, above all, do you think we can talk about sustainability in the world of jeans?
Fedora Agosti: Par.co Denim is the brand founded in 2014 by the cousins Diego and Matteo Parimbelli – the name comes from the acronym Parimbelli cousins – pursuing the idea of creating a brand that produces high quality jeans, in Italy, in a sustainable way. This becomes possible by rethinking the entire jeans production chain, applying sustainability policies right from the start of the garment’s life cycle: in the choice of raw materials, accessories, suppliers, collaborators and partners. Thanks to Matteo Parimbelli’s deep and direct knowledge of the world of denim and its potential, yes the challenge of creating sustainable jeans becomes possible!

Maddalena Mometti: How does a Par.co Denim collection come to life?
Fedora Agosti: Our company is currently a micro enterprise. Today, design and prototyping of the product are followed entirely by Matteo Parimbelli - who has 15 years’ experience in the denim world – in collaboration with a patternmaker. This allows him to follow the entire development process of the garment and therefore to trace the supply chain with precision and to personally guarantee that the most appropriate choices are made in line with the commitment to sustainability. The company is in any case experiencing a positive moment, despite the difficult situation, and and we are planning to expand the internal design team with the aim of creating a total Par.co Denim look: so not only jeans but also jackets and much more!
Style and sustainability are two aspects that always go hand in hand in our collections. Let me give you an example. If Matteo sees a fabric or a type of colouring that he finds interesting, but whose compliance with the desire to minimize environmental impact cannot be verified, that fabric or technology is discarded. The skill lies in the search for beauty and style, but with great awareness! Our garments are made in Italy with a short supply chain 100% Made in Italy: small artisans and local companies, located within 35 km of the brand’s headquarters in Bergamo, manufacture our jeans.

Short supply chain: 100% Made in Italy

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Maddalena Mometti: I saw that you took part in WHITE 2021 in Milan in February, would you like to tell me a bit about this event?
Fedora Agosti: Sure. Par.co Denim was one of the emerging brands selected to present their garments in the WSM section of WHITE Milano, the White Sustainable Market. And we are very proud of it!
The autumn-winter 2021 collection was previewed there and is a total look. It was made entirely from GOTS-certified organic cotton and Global Recycled Standard (GRS) regenerated fabric produced from regenerated polyester and recycled cotton. [Note 2] [Note 3]
For the shooting of the garments chosen for the White Sustainable Market, White Milano provided a team of professionals who interpreted the proposals of the brands.
We are currently working to participate in the summer edition!

 
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WHITE Milano, founded in 2000, is an important showcase for contemporary fashion dedicated to emerging designers and stylists, which is presented during Milan Fashion Week with 4 appointments a year. It also tells the story of craftsmanship for fashion and new trends, and acts as a launch opportunity for young brands, designers and companies.
Since 2020 WHITE has also had an online presence and in 2021 it has been enriched with a series of thematic “Special Areas”, one of which is dedicated to the theme of Sustainable Fashion: White Sustainable Market. [Note 4]

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Maddalena Mometti: I read that the new Par.co Denim collections, from 2020 will use a “special” fabric, would you like to tell us about its points of interest?
Fedora Agosti: Yes, with pleasure. It’s called Bio Eco Denim. It is a fabric of which we are particularly proud! It is produced by one of our trusted suppliers: Berto Industria Tessile, an Italian company that has been in business for more than 130 years! [Note 5]
We are very proud to have chosen it. It comes from one of our trusted suppliers Berto Industria Tessile, an Italian company with more than 130 years of history. [Note 5]
The raw material is, as we said before, GOTS-certified organic cotton. In this specific case, the cotton is grown – without pesticides or chemical fertilizers and without the use of genetically modified seeds – in India, where ginning also takes place. The cotton is then spun in a factory in Cene, near Bergamo, and woven by our supplier Berto Industria Tessile, near Padua.
Another element to highlight is the dyeing process. Indigo is the typical blue dye used to dye the warp, the thread that, together with the weft, will form the denim fabric. Bio Eco Denim is dyed with indigo of natural origin, i.e. from the processing of the leaves of the Indigofera Tinctoria plant through a bio-fermentation process!

Maddalena Mometti: A curiosity, given that the topic of sustainability is becoming a major issue in the fashion industry: how does one become a Sustainability Ambassador?
Fedora Agosti: I can speak from my own experience.
I have a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and a Master’s degree in International Cooperation. During my Master’s degree, I took part in an ERASMUS exchange in England, which enabled me to do an internship in the Environment and Sustainability department of the University (about 5 years ago). This experience opened my eyes to this topic and the new professions related to it. I then attended a Master’s course at the Feltrinelli Foundation on sustainability in business.

Maddalena Mometti: And what does a Sustainability Ambassador do?
Fedora Agosti: When a request for a new project arrives at our company, I make an initial analysis to highlight all the potential critical points and opportunities from in term of sustainability and a list of the aspects or issues we need to document in order to take it forward.
During this period, I am starting to systematize all the company documents relating to sustainability policies: choice of raw materials, relationship with suppliers, code of ethics, workers’ manual, and everything else needed to make the value of sustainability operational. By the end of 2021 Par.co Denim will draw up a proper Sustainability Strategy. As a small company we would not be obliged to draw up all this documentation, but it is something we believe in and we want to do it!

Maddalena Mometti: What are your future goals to overcome this critical moment for the fashion industry?
Fedora Agosti: We are increasingly implementing our brand’s digital communication and enriching the online shopping experience. We are working on offering our customers the opportunity to personalize the garment they want to buy.
One particular shopping experience that is already available from November 2020 (and which is generating some interest) is that of pre-orders series. For spring-summer 2021, five new garments have already been launched. Here’s how it works. First of all, Par.co Denim buys a square footage of fabric for the production of a defined number of garments. Then a deadline is set for reserving a garment made from that fabric at a favourable price. Production starts as soon as the requests are completed. As a result, production is carried out in small batches and on the specific request of the user, avoiding waste and overproduction. Furthermore, this system favours customization and the production of micro collections. Obviously, the system will not be 100% perfect in the initial stages, but it certainly represents a more sustainable alternative to mass production. As users become aware of the advantages and the logic of pre-orders, we trust that the system will be perfected and that we will go down this road together! As our philosophy, we would like to gradually move away from the logic of end-of-season sales and work entirely with pre-orders!

Thanks to Fedora Agosti and Par.co Denim, we can now add indigo to the colours of sustainability! As well as adding jeans to our wardrobe in the name of Sustainable Fashion.
If I had to describe this new brand with two adjectives, the words that come to mind are transparency and enthusiasm. Transparency because they are really open to presenting their business processes and raw materials as truthfully as possible. Enthusiasm because you can clearly see the desire and passion with which they want to innovate the fashion supply chain towards a sustainable model!

More gems about ecoglamour:

>>> Green Carpet Fashion Awards 2020 “What we wear speaks to who we are and what be believe in” Robert Downey

>>> Aquafil: a company where the economy is truly circular N.B. Aquafil is one of the sponsor of Green Carpet Fashion Award! We love it!

>>> Ananas for your ecoglamour

>>> Ecoalf: rethinking fashion business models

>>> Carry Somers’ revolution

FOOTNOTES

[2] Interview with Fedora Agosti, Sustainability Ambassador of Par.co Denim, 18th January 2021. Par.co Denim official web site: https://parcodenim.com

[2] GOTS stands for Global Organic Textile Standard. “GOTS is the world’s leading textile processing standard for organic fibers, which includes ecological and social criteria, supported by independent certification of the entire textile supply chain. GOTS-certified end products can include fibre products, yarns, fabrics, clothing, home textiles, mattresses, personal care products, as well as food contact textiles and more.” Source: https://www.global-standard.org

[3] “The Global Recycled Standard (GRS) is an international, voluntary and comprehensive standard that establishes requirements for third-party certification of recycled input, chain of custody, social and environmental practices and chemical restrictions. The primary goal of GRS is to increase the use of recycled materials in products and reduce the harmful social, environmental and chemical impacts of production.”
Certification requirements include: “Materials are verified to meet the ISO definition of recycled. Both pre-consumer and post-consumer materials are accepted.[…] GRS sites must meet strict social and environmental requirements. Potentially harmful chemicals may not be used on GRS products.”
Source: https://textileexchange.org

[4] WHITE Milano official web site: https://www.wsm-white.com

[5] Berto Industria Tessile, official web site: https://www.berto.it

 
IMAGES
The images are published by kind permission of Par.co. Starting from above:

[image 1] Graphic composition by Maddalena Mometti with a detail of Par.co Denim Jeans

[image 2] Par.Co Denim fall-winter collection 2021

[image 3] Jeans weaving by Berto Industria Tessile

[image 4] Par.co Denim – jeans detail