The importance of fashion in a Design Museum

The relationship between fashion and design has always been a constant in Italian cultural history, but in Milan, a city that has always been a crossroads of creativity and innovation, this connection has found a new space for expression with the inauguration of the Fashion Department at Triennale. Marco Sammicheli, director of the Museum of Italian Design and a key figure in this project, explains how the institution decided to embrace such a vast and cross-sectoral field, creating a dialogue that spans across eras, materials, and languages. «Triennale is a major Italian and international public institution. For almost a century, it has been home to many disciplines because, by statute and tradition, it has always hosted contemporary expression that thrives on multidisciplinarity», Sammicheli told us – a vision that is fully reflected in the new Department, which aims not only to celebrate fashion as an aesthetic phenomenon but to explore its "interferences" with other cultural fields, such as design, illustration, and even nautical design. This choice stems from the recognition of the deep connection between these disciplines, a connection that is more alive than ever in Milan. The first concrete manifestation of this approach is the exhibition Forme Mobili, «whose installation was specifically designed by Luca Stoppini, scientific advisor to the Fashion Department at Triennale Milano», and in which «objects from the Triennale’s permanent collection have been grouped into ten thematic sections that aim to represent constants in the history of Italian design, such as the relationship with the mechanics of the body, inspiration from art, the connection with craftsmanship, and the role and tradition of drawing».

The key element of the exhibition is to demonstrate the multidisciplinarity and permeability of the different disciplines: «The movement is that of a garment on the body, and at the same time that of a vehicle, a cabin, but also a social habit that transforms», explains Sammicheli, for whom dynamism is the guiding thread of this narrative. In the exhibition, fashion plays a leading role, with garments by Versace, Alaïa, and Comme des Garçons alongside objects embodying the genius of Italian design, creating a visual and conceptual dialogue that aims to explore the fundamental synergy between sectors, through which «design engages with three new areas of research and dissemination: fashion based on compositional similarities between shapes, materials, historical periods, and design ideas; nautical design, represented by drawings and models, and illustration, which includes projects related to satire, magazine and newspaper drawings, and authorial graphic design». However, the work of the new Fashion Department goes beyond exhibitions. One of its key objectives is to build a bridge between the institution and the academic world, involving schools like NABA, Politecnico, and Marangoni. «The relationship with schools will be very active. It already is with students who choose our institution for conferences, study days, or exhibition visits. The Fashion Department will strengthen these relationships and create projects that intertwine field training with what takes place in university classrooms», Sammicheli explains, emphasizing the importance of creating «an integrated training project that will include professionals, companies, and students in pathways dedicated to professions active along the textile and garment production chains».

An especially interesting aspect of the project is the focus on both major archives and new talents. For Sammicheli, it’s not just about celebrating the glorious past of Italian fashion, but placing it in a relationship of continuity with the present and future. «We are interested in the living and generative force of Italian fashion and the fashion that is designed, produced, and exhibited in Milan. Therefore, both emerging talents and the archives of major brands are at the heart of our work», he said, «whether it’s the presentation of a monograph celebrating a brand or the intention to tell the stories of young or major brands through other activities, what matters to us is not a scale of preferences». Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of a «program already in full activity» are the connections established with local institutions and especially «with all the partners who have already chosen to work with us for the new setup of Forme Mobili: from the Gianfranco Ferré Research Centre to the Sozzani Foundation, not to mention all the brands that have donated or loaned the garments currently on display in the museum». A point that the director emphasized, however, is that «the culture of fashion was already present in Triennale's programs and research. We have acquired the archive and correspondence, notebooks, and library of fashion journalist Giusi Ferré, we have the Nanni Strada fund and the Carla Crosta fund». Naturally, the launch of the initiative has led the fashion community to question why Milan still lacks a national Fashion Museum, a gap that the new Department does not claim to fill (the entire history of Italian fashion is truly something vast and complex, not only to narrate but to bring together), but to address from a different perspective: «The activities related to the world of fashion that Triennale has launched do not fill a gap and do not replace the Fashion Museum. They are research that approach fashion from the perspective of the Museum of Italian Design, telling how these industries and creative studies have synthesized a way of life, accompanying the evolution of behaviors», Sammicheli clarifies.

It is an ambitious project that not only aims to exhibit garments or objects, but to delve into their impact on culture and society. As was the case with Forme Mobili, where «together with Luca Stoppini, we chose to bring together disciplines related to design, which today are increasingly interconnected in content, messages, guiding principles, and production practices, with the intention of investigating the link between design and movement over time». With the Fashion Department, Triennale Milano will bring the public closer to the history of fashion, speaking to both experts and laypeople, and most importantly demonstrating that fashion does not exist in a bubble by itself but is able to engage in dialogue with other disciplines that fall under the broader concept of design and with the cultural dimension of citizens. A narrative that, like fashion itself, is in constant motion. «As President Stefano Boeri likes to say», Sammicheli concludes, «by dealing with multidisciplinarity, we are the house of interferences, and the interferences between the world of design, the world of furniture, and the world of fashion are everyday occurrences».