Through the lens of subversive innovation, Undergraduate in Fashion Styling students are reimagining the boundaries of identity. Working in collaborative groups, these emerging creatives harness their collective vision to challenge conventional narratives and craft new perspectives on perceived reality, one transformative workshop at a time.



A new educational project created by Fabio Messana, Senior Creative Editor CNCC Italia, and Paolo Convinto for the 2024-2025 academic year at Polimoda, Case of Wonders is a container for creativity that challenges traditional academic approaches to learning. The project recognizes that the value of ideas and creative planning is being lost in a performance and metrics driven world. It provides a remedy for this in which the students are encouraged to unleash their creativity, break stereotypes and play with their ideas.
Consisting of workshops that are structured around realistic professional timelines, each session involves a guest professional from a variety of fields; from hair styling, movement, make up and beauty, scenography, to art and set design. Students receive a brief only three days before the project has to be conducted, reflecting real world timings. They then create a mood board before participating in a review of their project with a teacher. They have to collect any materials or resources they need, before doing the workshop with the professional.
As free as my wig
“Your head is full of ideas.
These ideas can generate wonder.
Your fantastic thoughts can take physical form in reality.
Starting from this insight, create a headpiece that is the physical expression of your fantastic mental chaos.
To wear.”
This was the brief received by students from Pierpaolo Lai, hairstylist who loves to dare and has no fear, living his dream of creating art through hair. Originally from Sardinia, he’s a master of his craft; from firefighter in his twenties, to film and theatre student, and then hairstylist extraordinaire, he doesn’t shy away from breaking established norms with his extraordinary technical skills and imagination.
For this workshop, he challenged the students of Undergraduate in Fashion Styling to create a headpiece that is the physical expression of personal mental chaos. Curious, thoughtful and passionate, Lai told us about hair and beauty as a creative material, the impact of marketing on fashion’s creative spirit and generational learning and mentorship.
Lai sees hair as a material in itself. With enormous potential, it is a vital tool to telling stories; “I saw hair as a material that could be manipulated, almost like plastic. There is a real relationship between material, hair and transforming it. This is what I do in fashion: if somebody calls me, it’s because they want something that’s been molded and shaped.”










He is amazed by the younger generations, commenting on Polimoda students’ hunger for information and their innate curiosity. He’s particularly impressed by their ability to create mood boards, “this is something not everyone can do. Knowing how to create a mood board is about taking the people you’re talking to and bringing them into your dream, and it’s not easy.” He is enthusiastic about working with younger generations: “They take your technique and your experience, but they see it from a contemporary perspective, they grow, and I grow too, because they also give something back to me.”
For this edition of Case of Wonders, the students interpreted the brief as a call to action, creating pieces which were fantastical, nostalgic, striking and current. From a secret fairy garden from childhood, to a chaotic ensemble evoking the messy moments of the early 2000s music industry, the headpieces were an explosive translation of mental chaos while providing an effective learning experience as to the importance of hairstyling in the fashion panorama.
CREDITS
Undergraduate Fashion Styling students:
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
Group 7
Group 8
Group 9
Group 10