Polimoda's founding values reflect the distinctive ethos of Florence’s premier fashion school. The central idea was to connect private and public actors, historically linked to the textile industry, such as the Comune di Prato, with the cultural cradle that is Florence. The school connects Florence’s rich literary, architectural, and museological resources with pathways into industry, positioning itself at the intersection of technical expertise and intellectual knowledge.At this point, these relationships take form: the integration of La Manifattura Tabacchi as a space for exhibitions and the intentional focus on placing the library and documentary research at the core of the school.
“The library, nowadays, represents for me the heart, the soul of Polimoda. That's the reason why the next plan is to move the library from the current campus building to the new one, just in front of us, to create a very strong and solid relationship between professional study and identity.” - Massimiliano Giornetti, Director of Polimoda
This conception, made tangible in the space, situates fashion literature and fashion history as fundamental to the aspirations of the contemporary designer. The possibility of constructing an exhibition discourse around fashion archives takes on meaning within the historical and geographical narrative to which the school belongs. Giornetti further emphasizes the democratic nature of these archives: “An archive should not be something exclusive or protected; it should be open, shared, and accessible to everyone, not just fashion students but anyone with an interest in the topic.”
WHAT IS AN/ARCHIVE EVENT TWO?
AN/ARCHIVE EVENT TWO is a direct embodiment of these institutional values, this time focused on more specifically defined objects: denim, and the color blue. The exhibition space and scenography, designed by the architecture studio Abnormal Studio, immediately convey, via a post-industrial decor, reflections that pay homage to the working-class heritage. This serves as the visitor’s first point of entry into the subjects they are about to engage with.The exhibition delivers these reflections in a sober manner, through various dialogues connected to fashion archives: memory, craftsmanship, and the symbolic inscription of artifacts through time.
The pieces from The Roy Roger’s Archive, tracing 150 years of denim history, are placed alongside Charles Fréger’s Bleus de travail (2003), contemporary portraits of young workers wearing the uniform, sometimes becoming a second skin, sometimes attempting to detach from it. A historical perspective, just a few meters away from its human viewpoint. The theme of craftsmanship is addressed by the installation Zurashi/Slipped by Rowland and Chinami Ricketts, a floating tapestry several meters high, which showcases a Japanese indigo take on the “ikat” dyeing technique. As Giornetti explained, the choice to juxtapose these elements in the construction of the exhibition is a way to create «an imaginary, poetic dialogue between a contemporary and another contemporary».
AN/ARCHIVE EVENT TWO
Charles FrégerThe Bleus de travail (2003) by Charles Fréger situates blue denim and work attire as tools of dehumanization, a uniforming instrument. These monotonous, cold tableaux with the frozen gazes of young manual laborers from all professions (welders, florists, carpenters, or electricians) are stripped of any contextual elements beyond a mere nod to their trade. Presented in isolation, the dominance of profession over “identity” could be absolute, were it not for the work’s emphasis on the reinterpretation, reorganization, and reconfiguration of these workwear outfits by the young men themselves. Rolled-up sleeves, slicked-back hair, piercings, tattoos, patched sections : these are moments of confrontation, zones of resistance at play. Through these minute variations, these micro-disruptions, markers of individuality emerge as the key elements of a battlefield waged against the hegemony of the denim uniform, which, in itself, evokes the industrial and economic weight borne in daily life.
The Roy Roger’s ArchiveOpposite them are garments selected from The Roy Roger’s Archive. Founded in 1952 in Campi Bisenzio and comprising 6,000 pieces, the items showcased in AN/ARCHIVE EVENT TWO capture key moments in denim history, both as a historical material and as a thematic emblem through which its trajectory can be traced. A marker of social memory, the Stronghold jacket from 1895 serves as the first landmark. Crafted from 10 oz selvedge denim and stamped with the insignia “United Garments of America,” it is accompanied by jeans from 1900, stained with wax and candle marks, epitomizing the origins of denim as workwear for miners and laborers. Also featured are Charlie Chaplin’s overalls from 1916 and the first Roy Roger’s zippered jacket, which mark the gradual transition of workwear toward aesthetic purposes.
As Giornetti explains, “Denim has evolved from humble workwear into a symbol of youth and rebellion, as epitomized by James Dean. This transformation shows how simple, everyday elements can become cultural symbols reflecting societal change.”The richness of the exhibition lies in the diversity of its entry points into the subject: the Levi’s 501XX from 1905, the Lee 101 worn by cowboys, and military parkas from the 1970s, embroidered with visible repairs, illustrate a range of signifiers that have alternately become countercultural markers and wardrobe staples. Giornetti explains the underlying curatorial vision: “The concept behind An/Archive Event 2: Blue Revolution is not an analysis of fashion garments. The exhibition was created following a sociological approach, together with a deep analysis of the symbol that blue has represented and still represents today. In a moment when fashion is a propellant for creating strong identities, the concept of the worker stands as an anti-identity.”
To this end, the exhibition also challenges traditional notions of archiving, envisioning: “An ‘anti-museum’, a space that doesn’t restrict people from interacting with garments. Instead, it would be a place where people can freely come, touch, study, and research the message and meaning behind every piece. This is why I refer to it as both an archive and an ‘anti-archive.”Within the exhibition, denim is narrated as a language of belonging, disruption, and endless material reappropriation.
Rowland and Chinami Ricketts, Zurashi/Slipped
Can you explain to us the origin of this work?Rowland Ricketts : Chinami and I work with Indigo, traditional Japanese Indigo. We grow all the plants and make the dye ourselves. This work was initially commissioned by the Seattle Art Museum for an exhibition on Ikat, titled Ikad: a world of compelling cloth. Chinami is trained as an Ikat weaver. And we took her knowledge of Ikat and my work with installation and kind of put them together and came up with this three-dimensional pattern.Many of these historical techniques and processes can seem very complicated, but in fact they're very simple. They use very simple materials, we wanted a design pattern that reflected that. We had to translate the traditional Ikat process to three-dimensional space. That was perhaps the real challenge here.How does the Ikat technique work, exactly?Rowland and Chinami Ricketts : So the Ikat process, if you look here, it’s divided into one, two, three, four, five, six sections. This is one segment. When we did the dyeing, we aligned these points to ensure they were straight. Then we bound the threads and dyed from here to there. Once finished, we unbound the white part and then slipped the yarns. That’s why the title of the work is 'Zurashi', which means 'slipped' in Japanese, and it's also the name of one Ikat technique. We then slipped the yarns this way to create this pattern. When finished, the yarns were aligned straight across.
