12th - 16th of May 2015
17th annual conference of IFFTI - International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes
“MOMENTING THE MEMENTO”
Polimoda, Florence 

At the end of Linda Loppa's tenure as director, Polimoda organised an international conference that, according to Linda’s vision, became a vibrant and multifaceted event: an academic conference, a set of exhibitive and performative events, a moment of collective brainstorming and generally, a statement about how fashion education can be rethought and redesigned. 

I collaborated with Linda on the talk sessions “In Conversation With” that took place in the Odeon Cinema, as well as on other curatorial aspects, which led to the realisation of the entire event. 

It all began much earlier. In 2012, there was a gathering called “SALON” organised by Linda, which I attended alongside Barbara Vinken, Filep Motwary, Stefan Siegel, Danilo Venturi, Alberto Salvadori, and several other panellists. 
Then, between 2014 and 2015, we began to meet more often with Linda, to envision how an academic conference could become a way to re-evoke the Florentine Fashion Biennial organised by Germano Celant, Ingrid Sischy, Franca Sozzani, and Luigi Settembrini in 1996/97. The twentieth anniversary of that great event, a real milestone for the history of fashion curating, would be a year later, in 2016, and we were totally aware of that. 
Danilo Venturi wrote an essay titled “Momenting the Memento”, which provided a conceptual spark and also served as the title for the entire event.
Linda formed a small group, inviting Francesca Tacconi from Pitti Immagine, Alberto Salvadori from Marino Marini Museum, myself, and a few more collaborators to serve as a jury and review the applications. We were gathering in a small room behind Linda’s office, which gradually became our “dream” place. Walls were covered with images, prints from portfolios, various visual references, and keywords BODY | SPACE | DRESS | IMAGERY | CALLIGRAPHY | CRAFT that were central to the curatorial and conceptual framework Linda envisioned.

Stefan Siegel
Stefan Siegel, a native South Tyrolean — the German-speaking part of the Triveneto region in Northern Italy, grew up in an area responsible for over 40% of all high-end and luxury manufacturing. Following his high school career at Venice’s military college, the Francesco Morosini Naval School, he kick-started his career during his Economics studies in Vienna, when he gained experience in the fashion and media industry working for design houses and advertising agencies. Following a successful modelling career, he achieved his MA in International Business Administration in 2004 at the Vienna University of Economics. After graduation, Stefan joined the world of finance, working for companies such as Ernst & Young and Sal. Oppenheim in Switzerland, and finally the Merrill Lynch M&A Investment Banking group in New York and London, specialising in the Consumer & Retail sector and advising publicly listed fashion powerhouses. Stefan used his gained experience to launch NOT JUST A LABEL (NJAL).
Although launching the company on a shoestring in 2008, NJAL today is the leading global platform for emerging fashion designers and ranks among the most respected websites in the fashion industry. As the world’s leading designer platform for showcasing, nurturing and retailing today’s pioneers in contemporary fashion, it represents over 50,000 designers from 150 countries. It is an infinitely expanding destination devoted to facilitating growth in the fashion industry and has established itself as a distinctive creative hub fostering innovation.
With offices in London and Los Angeles, Stefan has spent the past few years expanding a business that is both profitable and ethical. As such, he has become a consultant to the Mayors of New York City, Los Angeles, the governments of the United Kingdom, Italy, and Dubai, and a board member of the European Commission's panel for the Creative Industries. He has contributed to the urban regeneration and growth of the creative sectors globally.
https://www.stefansiegel.com/ 
https://notjustalabel.com

2015

STEFAN SIEGEL: HUMANISE THE FASHION SYSTEM! 

Dobrila Denegri: Polimoda is organising and curating the 17th annual conference of the International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes, providing a platform for young talents to showcase their work and engage in dialogue with Florence's rich artistic and cultural heritage. Linda Loppa is challenging traditional notions of the academic conference by proposing a lively and performative series of events, through which fashion will be presented in more artistic ways. This could also inspire broader reflection on future ways of displaying fashion, including installations, films, or other performative or digitally channelled forms as alternatives to conventional fashion shows. For young designers, what are the new methods of expression, in your opinion?

Stefan Siegel: In the context of fashion–film, installations and other digital forms have never been a more viral tool to challenge stereotypes in wider visual culture. These new forms of expression are wholly accessible to young designers to communicate a specific language and affect broader social and cultural change. Beyond considering how fashion film might alter the apparatus of showcasing fashion, we should start to think about how gender, sexuality, beauty, age and ethnic identity can be re-articulated in the context of contemporary fashion through the lens of these exciting, new digital mediums. I think challenging the status quo and widening our visual culture through the potential of these mediums is what young designers should be thinking about.

DD: NJAL - Not Just a Label, as a huge digital platform showcasing young designers worldwide, became a concrete example of the possibility to create a system which can be an alternative to the existing, and now bit outmoded, fashion system. 
Can fashion school become a more active part in building the new system?

SS: What’s missing in fashion education is a substantial preparation for young designers to operate independently post-graduation–they should be taught the basics of running a small business, accounting and the logistics of being an independent designer with a strong business plan. If young designers are equipped with this knowledge, plus the fundamental elements of a creative design education, then they can be truly ready to do their part to change the fashion system at large.  

DD: Towards what should we, as a collective, aspire to?

SS: Humanise the fashion system.

DD: Towards what should fashion creatives aspire to?

SS: Complete freedom to express and challenge the status quo. 

DD: Toward what should an individual aspire?

SS: Striving to leave the world in a better place than we inherited it. 

Published at the Polimoda website during the IFFTI Conference 

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