Dear Shaded Viewers,
I attended the opening of Substructure, Istituto Europeo di Design’s first exhibition in Paris, presented at Dover Street Market Paris. The project turns away from finished collections to focus on the research that shapes them. Sketches, notebooks, visual references, unfinished toiles, photographs, and fragments of ideas become the exhibition itself.
During the event I met Serena Toffetti, Visual and Creative Researcher, Artistic Director and Lecturer at IED Milano. Our conversation quickly became an impromptu walkthrough of the exhibition as she explained how the material had been developed by students and alumni. Seeing the project through her perspective made clear that the emphasis is not on the finished garment, but on the process of thinking, questioning, editing, and starting over.
Hundreds of research images are projected onto fabrics suspended from the walls, accompanied by a sound composition created by IED’s Sound Design students.
Conceived by Umberto Sannino together with Serena Toffetti, the exhibition reflects IED Milano’s approach to design education by making visible the work that normally remains inside the studio, remaining on view at Dover Street Market Paris through 19 July.
Research, experimentation, doubt, and revision become the central subjects, offering a different way of looking at fashion.
Yours digitally,
Pedro
