On the occasion of Pitti Uomo 106, we visited Florence to discover the new IED spaces in the former Teatro dell’Oriuolo. We also met Michel Comte – a multidisciplinary artist and photographer – who was curating an installation created by ten students from the Fashion Design and Styling courses in Italy, Spain, and Brazil. Comte guided the project development, inviting the students to reflect on a theme that, at times, might seem a bit too broad: identity. Nonetheless, it undoubtedly offered the students a wide margin for interpretation. The central questions of this project are twofold: In times when electronic devices have surpassed fashion in terms of desirability, how can we represent who we are through what we wear? And how can we communicate the messages our identity encompasses to the outside world?

Fashion – and consequently the students’ works – is an excellent starting point for answering these questions, which also consider another theme dear to Comte, such as fast fashion, which has been consuming the fashion sector for years. «In a world consumed by fast fashion, I choose Japanese denim as a symbol of sustainable style. This philosophy guides my curation of the IED installation in Florence, where ten equally sized spaces serve as platforms for a collective artwork, blending different personalities into pure magic,» Michel Comte shared during the press conference, before meeting with the students.

All the installations – in dialogue with the space recently acquired by IED – tell something different, a journey into the world of fashion that relates to each of the students involved. Michel Comte – always very close to social themes and committed to innovative materials and upcycling processes – accompanied each of them in the realization process of these installations.