Image courtesy of Palazzo Madama
GIANFRANCO FERRE’. Under another light: Jewels and Ornament
Palazzo Madama, Turin
From October 11, 2017 to February 19, 2018
Organized and produced jointly by the Gianfranco Ferré Foundation and the Turin Museums Foundation, the exhibition will present a world premiere of 200 jewel objects that cut across the entire creative narrative of the famous Italian fashion designer.
Image courtesy of Palazzo Madama
Ferré always had a passion for ornamentation – a passion inseparably linked to his fashion collections and significantly determined by an enthusiastic and often innovative approach never inferior to the one he took in designing clothes. We see lustrous stones, enameled metals, smooth shells, painted woods, Murano glasses, retro ceramics, Swarovski crystals, as well as wood and leather and iron and copper and bronze, follow one another along an enchanted horizon of pins, necklaces, belts, rings, bracelets, bangles. For Ferré the ornament is not the ‘lesser child’ of a precious jewel, but a concept of eternity that must represent the immanence of the present.
Image courtesy of Palazzo Madama
The objects on display, created for fashion shows dating from 1980 to 2007, tell a story that is complementary to the clothing and relative accessories. Yet they are exhibited together with designs where it is precisely the jewel-material that invents and shapes the dress, becoming its substance and soul. In this case too, Gianfranco Ferré’s attention to materials is determinant, an essential part of his research.
Image courtesy of Palazzo Madama
The exhibition project – ideated by architect Franco Raggi – plays upon the contrast between the Hall of the Senate of Palazzo Madama, a place of immense architectural value, and the simple minimalist structures in iron and glass of the exhibition set-up. Thus highlighted is the imaginative beauty of the jewels designed by Ferré, which seem to soar in the semi-darkness.
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