Gaia Ciminale

SCHOOL

IED - Istituto Europeo di Design

INSTAGRAM PROFILE

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Website

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ABOUT GAIA:

Fashion is an art form that I’ve been in love with since I was a kid. I remember myself at 7/8 years watching fashion shows on youtube and browsing my mom’s fashion magazines.

I’ve always enjoyed entertaining myself with all kinds of art form: painting, crafting with paper, creating pop-up cards, origami, designing and making miniature clothing pieces.

I inherited my artistic vein from my family: I had in fact a seamstress grandmother and another one who liked painting and I also have other family members who love to create during their spare time.

After graduating from the Liceo Scientifico Galileo Ferraris in Turin, my love for fashion led me to deepen and study this topic by attending the Fashion Design course at IED in Milan. Every year I was able to discover, learn and expand my technical knowledge and, at the end of my journey, show in my final collection Camenae all the information that I’ve gathered along the way.

ABOUT GAIA'S COLLECTION:

«In the grass, […] above his head the trees were pink and white, and everywhere there were sounds of wings flapping, flutelike notes, buzzing, sweet fragrances.»¹ Flowers rained down from the branches, falling on his robe, with some getting caught in his long blonde hair. A nymph rested her body on the bank of a spring while her companions were busy immersing themselves in the «clear, fresh, and sweet waters»².

Creatures of Latin mythology, nature deities worshipped by the Romans, the nymphs «were created from the living flow of water, from its magic, from the power it emanated, from the murmur of the waters», as historian Mircea Eliade³ states, noting that they may have received their human form and name from the Hellenic people.

They dwell in what humans have described for years as a locus amoenus, an enchanting place, attracting poets, writers, and painters with its nature so far removed from any human imagination. A bucolic landscape with a poetic atmosphere; characterized by fragrant air, a clear sky, and nature that becomes the guardian of all living creatures.

The antithesis of this idyllic world is the metropolis: piles of concrete, mountains of garbage, and clouds of smoke are the nymph's new home. A place that loses its meaning of family, refuge, and protection, becoming hostile and aggressive. A frenetic reality contaminated by constant visual and auditory noise, a society polluted by humans, who «the more they excel at creating new materials, the more the trash improves its substance, resisting time, weather, fermentation, and combustion.»⁴ Humanity has done nothing but cause deforestation and fires, urban expansion, and increased carbon dioxide emissions.

What would happen to a nymph if she found herself catapulted into this world? To her eyes, it would appear apocalyptic and catastrophic. Would she fight it to rebuild her enchanting landscape?

Contrary to Rousseau's claim, a return to the natural state would be quite utopian. Humans crave more and more, and being constantly surrounded by a multitude of new apparent needs does not help their perpetual desire.

Modern humans observe nature from the outside, like mere spectators watching what happens, from afar, without a true connection. They view it as a malign entity, a continuous threat. From nature «we are surrounded and enveloped, unable to escape, unable to delve into its depths. Unbidden, it grabs us in the whirl of its dance and drags us until, exhausted, we break away from its arms. We live in the midst of it and are strangers to it. It speaks to us continuously, but it does not reveal its secret. We act upon it constantly, but we have no power over it,» Goethe states in Die Natur⁵.

In reality, though, nature simply continues its course, enduring the threats posed by humans. Only through awareness and consciousness can we reach a turning point: we must rediscover the relationship and connection that humans have had with the natural world for centuries. The nymph is the key to the «alliance between man and nature»⁶ as Mme de Staël stated during the Romantic period.

Inspired by the fashion of the 1830s – with its wide and exaggerated volumes, majestic collars, ruffs, ruffles, and appliqués – and the couturiers of the 1980s, the collection features garments created from basic shapes such as the circle, rectangle, and square, with the aim of minimizing fabric waste. The scraps are transformed into refined decorations to be added to the garments, making each creation unique.

The selected fabrics all belong to the world of shirting: with a crisp and firm hand, cotton is the main fiber composing them. Alternating between a simple poplin (in two different weights), organza, and gazar, and other more elaborate fabrics like plissé and fil coupé.

Knitwear plays a fundamental role in the collection. With a mix of the most diverse stitches – fur stitch, elongated stitch, crocodile stitch, flower stitch, braid, rib – it is handmade with thick yarns often paired with thinner ones. Sometimes it is integrated into the construction of the garment; other times, it replaces the fabric.

The romantic silhouettes are interrupted by the addition of straps with metal buckles used as belts, suspenders, or simple decorations, and by the color palette, which includes shades like black, desaturated dark purple, military green, and burgundy, contrasting with colors like blush pink and ochre, and the bright tones of fluorescent yellow and electric blue.