The starting point is the farm, the roots, the anthropological view of fashion. The product is not anymore the aim of the creation, but the material and the ability to construct and deconstruct
Polimoda, Florence
Firenze, Manifattura Tabacchi, the third Headquarters for Polimoda students, alongside Villa Favard and the Design Lab, is part of Florence’s regeneration urbanistic project. An industrial and wide space where the students have the chance to create, study, meet and dialogue with professors and relevant people from the fashion industry. They come from all over the world to convey their knowledge.
It is the place where Li Edelkoort decided, thanks to Massimo Giornetti’s proposal, to start the FFF master – from Farm to Fabric to Fashion. An actualization of the ANTI FASHION MANIFESTO. The starting point is the farm, the roots, the anthropological view of fashion. The product is not anymore the aim of the creation, but the material and the ability to construct and deconstruct. Starting from fiber properties to arrive at the final item.
From Farm to Fabric to Fashion – the FFF Master
The FFF Master is about the missing link of the fashion world. No matter the catwalks and events. No matter the disruption and consumerism and no matter the fake – no matter the boring side of fashion. When Massimo Giornetti asked Li Edelkoort to become a Master Member at Polimoda she went straight to the point: the missing links were the fibers and the yarns.
A process which starts from the Earth, observes how the fibers grow – what is the field, what is the farm. Accept the slow time, the pain of the fiber when it is processed, brings empathy – thanks to the redemption of materials and the creation of the yarns. From them a textile is created. It can concern the use of old or new fibers like hemp, linen, pineapple, banana. The aim is being able to create from less waste fibers, like nettle, which does not need water. Re-think cotton, wool, silk and accept the use of new fibers, like silk from polyester in Japan. Fashion textile and items need to be thought around awareness, without avoiding perfection, comfort and feeling as a priority.
The Anti Fashion Manifesto
This Radical metamorphosis of Fashion started in 2011 with the ANTI FASHION MANIFESTO. The trend forecaster, Li Edelkoort, could not ignore the climate crisis, over production and consumption, the stressful way of working and the timelines for luxury fashion brands. She felt the need to be responsible to start a change. It involved the young people of today – the professionals of tomorrow; they must lead this change.
Creativity needs to start from lifestyle trends and consumer behavior. In the fashion turnover The Antifashion Manifesto, wants to celebrate every single cloth. A Master which will be focused on this change and new open perspectives for a new fashion process, which start from what is already present – from the object to the subject. From a leaf to human personal values.
Make Fashion Kind – the FFF master
The FFF students will be part of a transparent system. They will be involved to make fashion kind: help people to see beauty and to take care. There will be fantasy and roughness, not only the fashion industry’s perfection and greedy aspects.
It is based on a gentle way to behave from the beginning, as soon as the weavers start to use the fibers already mentioned, they will be successful. They will understand that the material can be draped and folded in a normal way, even if sometimes it is heavier and with more character. It is a behavior which begins with fibers properties, which request an attentive conception of time far from the clothing production we have seen for years. The element of surprise is in the experience of textile. The inspiration and focus is not in the choice of garments.
It also concerns an attentive way to deconstruct the materials – students are going to do weaving, knitting, felting, and macramé. The purpose is also conveying energy –after deconstruction there is construction with the embellishment, embroidery, dying or smoking. Give more identity to the fabrics to be successful in the creation of garments. The items will be created in the last phase: the surprise and beauty will be in the textile.
«It is a didactic way of bringing awareness of differentiation and excitement. My goal is changing fashion from the beginning and if we push this idea in the industry, we will create progress».
A Radical Metamorphosis in textiles
The Radical Metamorphosis of this teaching method is seeking to help students to shift mentality. They need to become inclusive, concerning their indigenous roots, their location, their target. It is a matter of values and cultural understanding. It is an emphatic way of fashion where creativity returns both as a way of thinking and acting.
They will meet expertise in fiber cultivations, they will explore the human psyche, anthropology, and archeology.
Rediscovery Humanity at Polimoda
It is a process which is still based on a scientific approach (blending the yarns, recycling, reinventing materials, understanding how to avoid plastics), but it also underlines a deep presence of humanity and values. In the midterms students sort out different solutions, new for the human and personal values they were able to convey.
Fiber as a ritual linked to the time calendar, textile as a second skin and home to promote nature and convey a feeling of belonging, natural dying as a link with a family ancestor and domestic life. «My students are already able to discuss what they do, and what they are going to do, if you listen to them everybody will understand. It is not something futuristic, it is close to us and our experience. There is a lot of energy in them».
Li Edelkoort recognizes every student, every individual, has a unique aesthetic. It is a frame of mind, which has to be activated. It helps to switch and leave the conception of beauty as perfection, the one which continues to make money, but is disrupting plants, animals and people. «We must think about the form as something which needs to be constructed and can tell about people and their experience, how it changes after time and how it helps us to be different».
Where is the uniqueness in the use of new and natural fibers? Li Edelkoort explains
«People are sometimes happy to wear the same thing, like a white pair of shoes – it is like being a part of a group. It is a strange hybrid – you want to be part of a group, but you want to be unique and creative. And this is possible today – a part of us is completely communal, a part of us is creative and different». This is a characteristic of our time, it is a social advancement of our contemporaneity. In the past the rule was to be the group or to be the one.
«Fashion needs to be aware of this dynamic, the sixty percent is similar or even the same, the forty percent is new and different. We need to start from what we already have; this can allow variations».
In our wardrobe we can have so many things, but we do not remember – it is a treasure. «I am convinced that there is a solution, and I feel that fashion is becoming a little more creative than recently – there is a little more quality, but it still needs to find the way to go. This must be the task, and I need to see fashion change before I die».
A positive aspect is that fashion students know that the fashion market is far from these steps. They will be part of the change – maybe in the creation of their own studio. The students from the FFF masters need to be idealistic and vanguardist – they must be radical in the way they want to make a change. This is possible thanks to the way of teaching them – they are supported every day, every two weeks they have another teacher which teaches them about another fiber. They come from all over the world: America, Japan, Europe.
Trend Forecasting in the contemporary era – the FFF Master
The FFF master wanted to be considered as a new way of conceiving the fashion process and teaching method. It’s fundamental is trend forecasting. It is a way to look at the future. Like archeology, the collection of different fragments, at one point, allows us to reconstruct the object and how people live. Trend Forecasting is something which struck the eye, and, after time, the result is a complete story.
Nowadays, it is any longer a matter of taste, there are limits in the research; because of sustainability and humanity, everything is narrow and complicated, the aim is to become responsible. Trend forecasting needs to be directly linked to the social world, its anthropology and philosophy. The observation and collection of clues are not enough, it is more a theoretical study of individuals, of groups, of small and big companies, their fluency of thinking.
Hibernation – AW 2024-25 Fashion and Textile Forecast
To better understand, the professor did a lesson in Manifattura Tabacchi’s theater – the topic was a new trend, Hibernation – AW 2024-25 Fashion and Textile Forecast. The inspiration was an approach to animal life. During wintertime they try to preserve energy. How can humanity survive war? How can humanity become more attentive to consumerism and how can humanity solve the problem of inflation? We can learn from animals to save essential energy.
Mammals usually go into a deep sleep, they love the state of torpor, sometimes they find pleasure in drying and shivering. These feelings can be translated into fashion fantasies in textile, in colors, in the way we dress.
It is a language which wants to remind us that people must learn from nature (animals and plants), surviving thanks to time rigorousness.
It could be a knitwear piece, different layers of clothes, valorize old fabrics and blankets and it is the concept of seeking quality then quantity. Find a solution but consume less. The key words are, cuddling yourself, taking care, considering layers, leisure luxury, colossal yarns, fluffy, tweed, bright accumulations, intense colors, loose hands, mohair moments, couture education, patchwork for passions, warm fabrics, socks.
Li Edelkoort
Li Edelkoort, 72, loves any subject that can be forecasted. For her every idea, every assignment, every education, every curation, and writing is related to trend forecasting. This subject is part of her sensibility, she registers something and then she needs to find an answer. The FFF Master at Polimoda is teaching concretely what the ANTI FASHION Manifesto is. She was an educator at Parsons NYC before. She is also an activist, curator, and writer.
FFF Master at Polimoda
Li Edelkoort, Trend Forecaster and FFF Master at Polimoda – the first academic project which supports a radical perspective of the fashion world: the rediscovery of fibers, what comes from fields and what comes from the farm.
Anna Baroni
