The Fashion Issue
Abstract
Here begins the third cycle of ARCHIVIO: four thematic issues, each edited by a Guest Editor specialized in the field in order to have an expert eye to open the doors of the archives and show you where to look in these vast worlds.
The first, ARCHIVIO N°9, is dedicated to Fashion, with Stefano Tonchi—curator and journalist in the field of fashion—as Guest Editor-in-Chief, joined by Marco Pecorari—Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Program Director of the MA in Fashion Studies at Parsons Paris. Editorial direction is by Daniela Hamaui, while the art direction is by Alessandro Gori. For our cover, we asked artist Francesco Vezzoli to create a portfolio that would put fashion archives in conversation with Pop Culture.
ARCHIVIO N°9, offers a mapping of the fashion archives international landscape at this moment in time and an overview of the many typologies and studies happening in the world we live in, divided in three sections: ‘Public & Institutional’, ‘Brands & Strategies’, ‘Private & Personal’. It also includes a special poster: an (in)complete mapping of the countless fashion archives in Italy. A research by Promemoria, ARCHIVIO’s publisher, visually processed by Accurat. The result is a map that is also a small work of art.
Stefano Tonchi,“Fashion archives are always changing, creating new narratives and relationships, always moving. They are living archives.”
Guest Editor-in-Chief
Glimpse of the Month
How to display an archive – Yves Saint Laurent
By Elsa Janssen
Upon being appointed as the head of Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent had made his mark in the history of couture. His radical, new Trapèze line set the tone. He immediately laid the foundations for a style and a way of practicing his profession that would leave a trace on the second half of the 20th century. When he created his company with Pierre Bergé at the end of 1961, he established his signature: a unique, multifaceted, evolving but always recognizable silhouette. Saint Laurent provided an eternal and unchanging character to 40 years of fashion creations that complemented far-reaching societal changes. The climax of this company was the launch of the SAINT LAURENT rive gauche ready-to-wear collection in 1966 that encompassed a new way of dressing women.
