Polimoda is back promoting the creative vision of the school’s best students with its Anthos – Graduation Show, held in the new building B4 at Manifattura Tabacchi. The event of the year showcased collections by the best fashion design students, products of the creativity and passion of young talents who are making their official debut in the fashion world and freely developing their personal identities through an individual process of study and experimentation.
Inclusive and diverse, visionary and disruptive, never conventional, Polimoda’s Graduation Show embodies the cultural and design heritage of the School led by Massimiliano Giornetti.
“The time is necessary to create a collection, the time that’s essential to make mistakes, grow and mature. This is the real luxury in fashion today. Being able to wait for the results of precise and delicate work. To define the aesthetic of a brand that needs to be recognised even without the ostentation of a logo. To go back to a signature style like the great creators of the past, who were in no way tempted to recycle other people’s ideas.
This, for me, is the value of celebrating the talent of Polimoda students at the Graduation Show. The freedom of creative thinking, pure and uncontaminated.
Every graduation show is a new emotion. Polimoda fashion show is a delicate rite of passage for our students. The runway debut of the best designers is the highest, most genuine expression of the creative flair shown by these young designers who have come to Florence from all over the world,” said Polimoda Director Massimiliano Giornetti.
24 collections took to the runway with over 100 looks, expressing the talent and identity of emerging designers from every corner of the globe.
The participants in the show were 3rd and 4th year students on the Fashion Design course and the Master’s in Collection Design and Creative Direction, chosen for their outstanding talent by the School’s faculty together with Director Massimiliano Giornetti and Caroline Issa, CEO and Fashion Director of Tank Magazine and mentor for the School’s fashion design undergraduates.
The designers who presented their creations at the 2023 Graduation Show are from 18 different countries, demonstrating the sort of intercultural contamination that has always marked out Polimoda.
The collections were by Anna Casalini (Italy), Fernanda Castro (Peru), Siying Chen (China), Charles Cote (Canada), Olivia Doose (Canada), Rahel Ercolini (Ethiopia), Iman Zubair Fazal (USA), Eleonora Federico (Italy), Haigann Fevier-President (Canada), Carola Emma Galli (Italy – UK), Giorgia Giannotta (Italy), Alisa Kosiborod (Russia), Xiaodan Liao (China), Chia-Ying Lin (Taiwan), Giulia Mauro (Italy), Giovanna Miali (Italy), Keziah Hyacinth Ottman (Ireland), Filipe Daniel Silva Mota Cerejo (Portugal), Abygail Nathale Smith (Jamaica), Danielle Smith (South Africa), Mingze Sun (China), Rachel Tay Za (Myanmar), Amina Vanneling (Iran), Gabriele Venturi (Italy) and Marija Yankovich (Serbia).
Mingze Sun
Xiaodan Liao
Giulia Mauro
Haigann Fevrier-President
Charles Cote
Chia-Ying Lin
Giorgia Giannotta
Iman Zubair Fazal
Abygail Nathale Smith
Eleonora Federico
Rahel Ercolini
Keziah Hyacinth Ottman
Siying Chen
Anna Casalini
Alisa Kosiborod
Filipe Mota Cerejo
Amina Vanneling
Olivia Doose
Giovanna Miali
Fernanda Castro
Gabriele Venturi
Rachel Tay Za
Marija Yankovich
Carola Emma Galli
The fashion show
An outstanding team worked on the production of the Graduation Show 2023. Under the artistic direction of Massimiliano Giornetti, who personally supervised the development of the students’ collections and offered them unique opportunities for learning and professional growth, the show boasts the special mentorship of Caroline Issa, ongoing collaboration with well-known fashion stylist Serge Girardi, and the valuable participation of Diego Dolcini, who provided his expert guidance in footwear and accessories to the young fashion designers. The show’s sound design was by famous French composer Frédéric Sanchez.
Guests
Among the guests, in addition to a large audience of industry professionals and personalities from the world of fashion and culture, there are young talents from the music world such as Gaia, Beatrice Quinta and Tommy Dali, international film stars like Ed Westwick and Amy Jackson, and the young actress and singer Clara. Among the influencers, we have Danae Mercer Ricci, Mina Le, STYLE NOT COM, Fashion Boy, Zachary Weiss, Brett and Scott Staniland and Ludovica Ragazzo.
Location
The Polimoda Graduation Show unveils the new B4 wing of the Manifattura Tabacchi, where Polimoda’s workshops are situated.
The location forms part of the new area of this urban regeneration project, a rationalist structure designed by architect Pier Luigi Nervi that today reflects Polimoda’s state-of-the-art approach and embodies the need to use space in a contemporary and accessible way that is instrumental to creative expression.
The project points up the building’s original architecture, preserving its industrial charm and unique character, while the fascinating play of shadows and transparencies created for the show’s set design offers glimpses of the collections, to great visual and emotional effect.
Live on social media
The event was live streamed on Polimoda’s website, and social channels: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and TikTok.
Other initiatives at Pitti Uomo
THreSH(h)ōld - a point of beginning
From June 14 to 18, in building B9 at Manifattura Tabacchi, students on Polimoda’s Fashion Art Director course present the exhibition THreSH(h)ōld – a point of beginning. Open to the public daily from 5pm to 10pm, the show presents a collection of installations that explore the intersection between the visual arts and the world of fashion, transforming retail spaces into an engaging and metamorphic cultural experience. THreSH(h)ōld invites visitors to cross a physical and allegorical threshold, surrendering themselves to a kaleidoscopic vision interpreted in fourteen projects created for different fashion brands in the search for new proposals in experiential fashion retail.
DO by Domenico Orefice
Lastly, from June 13 to 16, DO™ makes its debut as a brand at Pitti Uomo with the a-seasonal collection A0 24 MODERATE. Founded in Florence by designer and former student Domenico Orefice, the project was incubated and supported by Polimoda. DO™ is a dual universe made up of worlds that coexist and complement each other through a collection characterised by a dimension where sportswear and innovation, tailoring and artisan craftsmanship intersect and contaminate each other without limit; a celebration of the ‘Made in Italy’ ethos, characterised by a contemporary and placeless aesthetic code. The DO™ stand is in the show’s Futuro Maschile section in the Central Pavilion, Attic Floor, section I/20 at Fortezza da Basso.
CREDITS
Creative Direction: Massimiliano Giornetti
Styling: Serge Girardi
Mentorship: Caroline Issa
Music: Frédéric Sanchez
Scenography Concept: (ab)Normal
Hair & Makeup: Santini Academy
Technical sponsor
Lanificio Balli
Special thanks
Diego Dolcini
Richie Ye
Georgia Forconi
Phoebe W. S. Evans
Tauras Zemaitis
Photography: Filippo Fior (runway), Serena Gallorini, Patrizio Marcocci, Lapo Quagli, Matteo Oltrabella.
