The Many Lives of a Garment

Emanuele Coccia’s curatorial approach in The Many Lives of a Garment exemplifies a philosophical intervention into the conventions of fashion exhibitions, blending speculative inquiry with historical expertise through his collaboration with Olivier Saillard. The exhibition, hosted at ITS Arcademy in Trieste, Italy, destabilizes conventional ideas of museums and display, positing garments as dynamic entities with plural lives—histories, imaginaries, and potential futures—while reframing the museum as an omnipresent concept shaped by interaction between viewer and object.

This ethos is reflected in the inclusion of two dresses from my Sleeping Beauties collection, which embody the transformative and narrative potential of clothing. These pieces, suspended between states of being, align with Coccia’s vision of garments as philosophical objects that transcend materiality to provoke introspection and redefine relationality. By disrupting the static presentation of fashion, the exhibition invites viewers to engage with clothing as an extension of identity and a medium for existential inquiry.

https://itsweb.org/exhibitions/the-many-lives-of-a-garment/