@aliamascia

Bachelor degree in Fashion Design, Year 3

21 years old

Cava de’ Tirreni (Salerno), Italy

Schools have been among the first institutions to adapt to the new measures of quarantine. How did your school react to the state of emergency? In your opinion, what are the pros and cons of online classes?

Online learning is certainly the best solution for this challenging time, but in my opinion the loss of human interactions in the University reduces the quality of learning. Moreover, those who study design and creative subjects need to interact with teachers in a direct way and express the physical aspects of the project they are working on.

The Fashion and Design Industries have been aggressively afflicted by the state of quarantine and social distancing. As a consumer, but also as a future insider of those systems, what do you think the worst consequences of this crisis will be?

I'm sure the fashion houses will be very much affected by this closure period. There will be collections unsold or to be placed, items to eliminate. I hope, however, that this situation will also bring a conscious slowdown in the ravenous fashion system, and that consumers will develop a new awareness of the product. We need to reconsider the ways and timing in which collections are presented, slow down, focus attention on the value of the objects. We have imposed on the planet that we inhabit a rhythm of consumption that it can no longer sustain. The problem of climate change and the issue of sustainability are not a passing fad, they are a terrible and pending issue. 

Your work is built on creativity. While we’re all in quarantine, what is your solution to keep on being creative? Where do you find your inspiration in this moment?

This quarantine was a way to rediscover what I've always surrounded by and never noticed. I reopened drawers and found items, memorabilia, records and books that helped me keep my creativity alive despite the lockdown. The rhythm of my daily life before the pandemic was so fast that the days followed one another with automatisms that greatly influenced my creativity.