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Anatomy of Memory: Master in Fashion Art Direction X Vogue Italia

An exploration of what remains when memory stops being image and becomes matter

Anatomy of Memory: Master in Fashion Art Direction X Vogue Italia

An exploration of what remains when memory stops being image and becomes matter

Projects

In Anatomy of Memory, students give shape and form to what it means to carry memory with you.

FASHION ART DIRECTION & VOGUE ITALIA

Students from the Master in Fashion Art Direction in partnership with Vogue Italia curate an editorial project that asks a quietly radical question: what happens when memory becomes something you can inhabit?

THE PROJECT

Anatomy of Memory is the work of Master in Fashion Art Direction students at Polimoda, developed in close collaboration with the creative team at Vogue Italia. The concept was born from a shared starting point: translating memory from a flat image into something liveable, in response to an era in which personal and collective heritage is increasingly dematerialized.

The student team constructed a visual universe unfolding across five stages, where the body becomes a surface upon which individual history slowly reveals itself. At the centre of the scene, a monumental blank-paged album stands over the human figure, recalling a story already told while opening a possibility to a new chapter.

In front of the lens: Elisabetta Dessy, Italian former Olympic swimmer and model for the world’s leading fashion houses. A timeless figure whose strength is the subject for a photoshoot that makes memory physical.

FROM CLASSROOM TO PRINTED PAGE

The collaboration began inside Polimoda’s photography studios, where the Vogue Italia team led a masterclass on the inner workings of a major fashion publication, from the construction of a photo shoot to the dynamics between styling, art direction, casting and set design. A practical, behind-the-scenes framework designed to give students the tools to engage with a real editorial production, beyond theory alone.

From there, Master students were challenged to develop their project. Out of all the proposals submitted, Anatomy of Memory was selected for publication, chosen for the strength of its narrative construction and the coherence between concept, visual choices and production feasibility.

THE BODY AS ARCHIVE

At the heart of the photoshoot stands a monumental blank-paged album, less a book than an architectural presence. As the story unfolds across the images, the album slowly closes, sealing what has already been lived through.

The project moves across five distinct chapters, each with its own color identity and emotional register. Birth portrays the body before any story has been written, in milky whites and soft pinks and enveloping volumes that echo beginnings. Becoming marks the first inscription on the skin, the shift from unawareness to consciousness, expressed through deep reds and close-fitting silhouettes. Fragmentation of Identity introduces tension via saturated pinks, rippled surfaces and layered textures that evoke the friction between inner self and external expectation. Commitment pulls back toward whites and greys, with wide, almost sculptural volumes accompanying the deliberate act of binding oneself to something that shapes the future. The final chapter, Rewriting, closes the arc in black and white, precise cuts, geometric constructions, a figure that rewrites its own history.