The journey unfolds on AN/ARCHIVE’s Research Tables through various facets of blue: from the technical aspects of indigo dyeing to its social significance, denim’s evolution from workwear to fashion staple, to iconic moments like Charlie Chaplin’s overalls and James Dean’s legendary Lee 101Zs.

For blue r/evolution, a comprehensive anthology of texts curated by Polimoda’s library is available to support visitors and students in their exploration of the exhibition’s themes. The selection spans diverse perspectives: from military uniforms and their relationship to identity and belonging, to comprehensive photographic archives capturing workers and professions across time, and iconic films that cement denim’s status as a symbol of rebellion and social transformation. Below you can find just some of the titles available for your own dive into the deep blue!
Books
Blue

Indigo: From Egyptian Mummies to Blue Jeans, Jenny Balfour-Paul
A definitive study of this fascinating dye: from its use in ancient Egypt to denim, this books examines the history, production and dyeing methods of indigo, by looking at the historical, agricultural, and botanical origins of the different plant sources, its production and dyeing methods, role in commerce and economics, patterning techniques on textiles, and significance in art and culture. This book, a result of over twenty years of research, gives an anthropological, scientific, and sociological overview of indigo, right up to its cult status and prolific use in twentieth century culture. A must read for students approaching this wonderful dye and color.
Blue: The History of a Color, Michel Pastoureau
Michel Pastoureau, a renowned medievalist, explores blue as a profound social phenomenon. Tracing the color’s tumultuous journey from ancient Greek rejection to modern veneration, this book reveals blue’s complex cultural significance. From its sacred associations with the Virgin Mary and religious art to its symbolic roles in the French Revolution, military attire, and worker uniforms, the narrative culminates with blue as the defining hue of our planet viewed from space. Beautifully illustrated and written in a clear, engaging tone, this exhaustive exploration captures blue’s transformation from marginalized pigment to ubiquitous chromatic icon.
Denim



Denim from Cowboys to Catwalk: A Visual History of the World's Most Legendary Fabric, Graham Marsh and Paul Trynka
From its roots in 18th-century France to its status as a global fashion icon, this book chronicles denim’s extraordinary cultural journey. Tracing the fabric’s evolution from rugged workwear to a symbol of teenage rebellion, Hollywood glamour, and haute couture, the narrative captures denim’s transformative power. Enriched by personal stories from passionate denim enthusiasts, this comprehensive exploration offers an intimate look at a textile that transcends mere clothing to become a cultural phenomenon.
Global Denim, Daniel Miller and Sophie Woodward
This book explores the causes, nature and consequences of denim as a global phenomenon around the world with dedication and gusto. With clear and decisive explanations for what jeans and denim means for different groups and places around the world, it effectively challenges the accepted history of jeans, going beyond the commercial reasoning for the fabric’s success via a series of in depth ethnographies, no doubt essential for passionate fashion, anthropology or sociology students.
Uniforms

Fashion Army, Matthieu Nicol
Consisting of three hundred and fifty documentary images from US Army archives, this book traces military style from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. With an essay by fashion critic Angelo Flaccavento, this book looks at how military uniform is connected to fashion, power, and aesthetics while interrogating the signifiers of violence embedded in such attire. It highlights questions around the power of clothing in maintaining the sense of social belonging and the creation of the individual sense of self in relation to a collective. A definitive exploration of military aesthetic’s profound influence on fashion design, tracing how military silhouettes, colors, and garment compositions are dramatically transformed on the catwalk. Essential reading for stylists, designers, fashion historians, and creative professionals seeking to understand this powerful sartorial translation.
Vis voluntatis, Charles Fréger
Charles Fréger gives an intimate portrait of the human beings in military uniforms that serve functions like warning off enemies, protecting the body, and enabling soldiers to kill. The book, Fréger writes, comes from his own fascination with disguise and identity via uniform. When the soldier’s look into the camera’s lens, it is like the ruthless guise fades away, and for a second they themselves have forgotten they are soldiers. The title Vis voluntatis, (will power), is reflected in the energetic and obsessive desire with which the photographer took on the task of visiting all the regiments and factions, as well as harboring implicit meanings around force, power, and free will. Through this project, Fréger wanted to create his own guard, an exploration on what it means to belong.
Work

August Sander: People of the 20th Century , August Sander, Gabriele Conrath-Scholl, and Susanne Lange
This was photographer August Sander’s (1876–1964) life’s work, a typological overall picture of the society of his time via hundreds of individual portraits, arranged according to professional, social, or family groups. For this anthropological study, groups were devised: from “The Farmer”, to “The Manual Worker”, “The Woman”, “The Artist”, and, incorporating old age, illness and death, “The Last People”, amongst others. Completed posthumously by the photographer’s grandson Gerd Sander, it consists of a colossal seven volume edition of a total of 619 photographs from the family’s archives. Impressive for its sheer volume, readers will be moved by the humanity and connection one can find here while admiring the eerie similarities between ourselves and people from more than a century ago.
Lavoratori: Un progetto di Fabrica diretto da Oliviero Toscani, James Mollison and Oliviero Toscani
Oliviero Toscani’s compelling photographic collection captures Benetton factory workers in Italy’s Veneto region, documenting a transformative workforce that includes immigrant laborers. Through Fabrica’s lens, workers of diverse ages and origins are portrayed in intimate moments of their daily tasks, each identified by name, age, and nationality. This powerful visual narrative reveals the human stories behind migration, highlighting the often-overlooked dignity of blue-collar workers and the complex journeys that bring them together.
Films
Blue, Derek Jarman (1993)
The last film by British filmmaker Derek Jarman before his untimely death from AIDS is testimony to his battle with the disease and its symptoms. Seventy nine minutes of a single shot of blue, narrated by John Quentin, Tilda Swinton, Nigel Terry and Jarman himself, the film confronts the filmmaker’s illness, describing the many physical assaults his body was under. His diminishing eyesight was a particularly terrifying deterioration in which he would often see flashes of Yves Klein-like blue, coincidentally his favorite color. Viewers accompany Jarman through varying emotions, from fear of losing his eyesight, to the freedom of imagining what lies beyond illness and death.
Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin (1936)
Widely considered one of the greatest films of all time, this is Chaplin’s last performance as the iconic Little Tramp, a character who struggles to survive in the modern industrialized world. Tramp is employed at a highly modern and technical factory where he is overwhelmed by the complex machinery and via various mishaps ends up in jail. Here, he meets an orphan girl and they take on modern life in various job roles. In his working guise, Chaplin’s character wears Stronghold overalls, like the ones on display in the exhibition. Issues like how does man relationship to machines, imminent industrial and technological revolutions, and the extent of rampant capitalism are all raised here.
Rebel without a cause, Nicholas Ray (1955)
A coming of age movie that made history as one of the first to tackle adolescence head on, James Dean plays Jim Stark, a troubled teen with ineffectual parents whose attempts to navigate life results in being drunk, disorderly and getting into fights with other young men over girls. Dean’s character goes down in fashion film history for the Lee 101Z Rider denim jeans, the first zip-fly jeans in production, white t-shirt and red windbreaker he wears in the film, making him into the teen heartthrob and immediate pop culture icon.
Thelma & Louise, Ridley Scott (1991)
A road movie that is an explosive and joyous celebration of female relationships, while dealing with themes of transformation and liberation. Clothes echo the protagonists’ complete metamorphosis throughout the film, charting the journey of their response to each other, the other characters, and situations throughout. For example, after sleeping with drifter and thief J.D., Thelma wears his denim shirt, indicative of her ever-growing distance from her former life as a housewife and her transgression into freedom from the conventional canons of society.
Date and Location
The exhibition is on the top floor of the B4 building at Manifattura Campus.
Polimoda
Manifattura Campus
Via delle Cascine 35, Florence
View on map
14 January – 15 February 2025
Open daily from Monday to Saturday
10 am – 7 pm
Free entry
Thanks to
Head of Polimoda Library
- Marialisa Cornacchia