The Loved Garment
The exhibition "The Many Lives of a Garment," curated by Olivier Saillard and Emanuele Coccia and on show at ITS Arcademy - Museum of Art in Fashion until January 6, 2025, dedicates a section to celebrating the intimate relationship that develops between us and our clothes.
At the heart of every wardrobe lies a garment that defines us more than others. Whether it belonged to a loved one, reminds us of a journey or an adventure, or serves as our preferred armor to face life's challenges with greater confidence, it is almost always the one we keep the longest, defying fashion trends and the wear of time. Each piece of fabric, every thread, tells stories of encounters, dreams, journeys, and sometimes farewells, transforming the garment into a living diary, an archive of our emotions. "The Loved Garment" opens a window onto the emotions and memories these garments evoke, creating a bridge between past and present, between the individual and the collective.
The curators invite the audience to display their most beloved garments in a glass case and to share their stories, thereby helping to create a mosaic of experiences that reflect the beauty, complexity, and intensity of our lives tied to the fabric of fashion.
You don’t need a museum piece in your wardrobe to participate:
“The beloved garment does not need logos. It’s not the most beautiful or the most refined. It can be ours, or that of a parent, or a loved one we keep for ourselves or for posterity,” explains curator Olivier Saillard. “I am particularly excited to involve the people of Trieste in this exhibition, which will welcome thousands of visitors. Fashion is often perceived as a style exercise but in reality, clothes speak not only of design talent but also of our personal and collective history, as the visitors of ITS Arcademy have already discovered. Each of our wardrobes is a small personal museum, and we look forward to giving voice to the stories of our city and its region,” adds Barbara Franchin, founder and director of ITS Arcademy.
Display your Loved Garment
If you would like to propose your favourite garment for the exhibition, you can send a photo of the garment and a short story about your relationship to it through this form.