IED Students Explore Identity Through Fashion at Pitti Uomo 2024

Michel Comte, a Zurich-based multidisciplinary artist working across contemporary art, photography, filmmaking, and photojournalism, curated and mentored ten young designers from IED Florence's Fashion Design and Fashion Stylist courses for the project Identity. The collective installation was presented at the June 2024 edition of Pitti Uomo in Florence, held at the former Teatro dell'Oriuolo. Each student created a project based on personal identity research, resulting in ten works that hybridize different languages through fashion. The installation included conceptual garments, contemporary sculptures, performances, drawings, photos, and videos, in dialogue with the ex-theater's architecture and Florence's historic center. Interior designers from IED campuses in Italy, Spain, and Brazil also contributed. Comte emphasized that fashion represents identity in diverse ways, and that identity has become weaker in a world dominated by big brands and fast fashion. He advocates for sustainable style, citing Japanese denim as an example, and sees the Identity project as an attempt to create alternative identities through mix-and-match, seasonless products. The installation aimed to blend different personalities into a collective artwork.