@chantalcammarata_

Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Design, Year 3

22 years old

Voghera (Pavia), 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 classes are an efficient solution for this period, but honestly, if I could, I would do everything to return to my university, with my classmates and professors. We're like a big family and it's strange, because I never thought I would find a mood like this. And now, I miss this: I miss the dialogue with my classmates, the weekly face-to-face reviews with the professors, everything. In spite of the new didactic method, our workshops are running in the best possible way, the professors understand the moment and encourage us to conclude this last lab in the right and normal way. If I could have had the choice though, I would have preferred to do the quarantine locked up in the university! ahah

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?

Definitely the biggest loss for these activities was the profit. The only way to solve this problem at a time like this, was to rely on online sales and I saw a lot of interest from people who maybe didn't even know what e-commerce was before, but they started using this service. Like the motto "If Muhammad doesn't go to the mountain, the mountain will go to Muhammad". This period has perhaps led to the discovery different ways to buy a product and in the future offer more chances to choose and buy a product. Fashion is a global medium of communication, very fast, where people compete to produce visual material capable of raising curiosity and creating unforgettable products. Once a professor showed us a lot of photos quickly and asked us which ones we remembered: out of a hundred we probably remembered 2, because, we didn't have the time to study the photo, the visual impact they generated on us prevailed. I thought that perhaps all this speed did not make me enjoy what I owned because, when I had it, I desired something else, not really experiencing what I already owned. Let me explain better: we are so influenced by everything that surrounds us, that maybe this period has helped us to understand that we need to slow down a bit, give ourselves some breathing space, both consumers and producers, but the truth is that I know that it will never happen. 

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?

I have to say that it hasn't been easy, I'm a person who has always observed and listened to what's around her and very often creative stimuli are born in this way. Luckily I am also very curious, and in quarantine I do a lot of research creating a chain effect of information that helps me find inspiration. I watch all kinds of movies, I read, I reworked some of my old projects that I was interested in because of their theme, form or concept.