GIANFRANCO FERRÉ STORY

KNOWING THE ARCHITECT OF FASHION


Known as “The Architect of Fashion” for his original attitude towards creating fashion design, Italian fashion designer Gianfranco Ferré has firmly established his groundbreaking status in the industry through his iconic creations.

He began his fashion journey in 1970 by designing accessories and went to India to extensively study textile and textile design in the following years. In 1974, he founded his own company Baila, and launched his first collection for women. In 1982, he introduced his first men’s collection which was followed by more releases such as fragrances, eyewear, and couture collection.

Throughout his career, Gianfranco Ferré received numerous accolades and distinctions. This includes the Occhio d’Oro Award which he was given six times, for Best Italian Designer, the Gold Medal from the City of Milan, the Commendatore del Ordine decoration from the President of the Italian Republic, and De d’Or (Golden Thimble Award) for his first haute couture collection in 1989.

“Many people defined my clothings as architecture in fabric. I like that definition. It gives a good idea of what a design is for me: the result of a meeting 'guided' both by the creator’s hand and heart between form and material”.

shaping the future


Gianfranco Ferré’s search for harmonizing his emotional intuition with both the rational conception of methodology and the technical dimension of making found fundamental sources for inspiration in history and memories. The relationship between new design principles and goals and historical memories and archetypes was continuously questioned by Ferré. Ferré moves from this cultural imprinting along an endless and very personal deepening of this controversial relationship between modernity and the layered dimensions of materiality and history. Today Gianfranco Ferré’s design principles can be rediscovered in light of the actual digital transformation, which is breaking in new ways the relationship between the tangible and the intangible, giving birth to a cyber-physical reality transforming materiality and memories into data, as well as enabling the translation of data into a new “matter.”

“The color represents an essential category within the whole idea of a new garment, of its shape and nature, embedded in it since the very f irst concept and sketch on paper.”

Gianfranco Ferré

colors


The chromatic research run by Gianfranco Ferré is clearly expressed by this cluster of drawings. Color is not only a superficial dimension characterizing the appearance of a garment: it shapes the dress itself. At times it fills volumes, or shines as colored glow, sometimes transforming into a touch of shimmering or materializing into encrusted gems. Details and decorations have a rather unique function, expressing Ferré’s tension to transform his creations in theatrical plots, searching for what he defines “effects”. A watercolors floral carpet gently lied down the shoulders, glittering tridimensional polkadots, fluffy exaggerated bows, are intentionally applied on his volumetric or slick silhouettes, in search for that “wonder,” as important to him as the rational composition of the garment.

“My garments are born to dress living and moving figures, that respond to precise requirements of freedom and comfort.”

Gianfranco Ferré

Design principles


Gianfranco Ferré’s design approach is codified through six principles rooted in the fundamentals that have characterized Italian fashion and the polytechnic culture that – as shown in the previous chapter – strongly characterized the designer’s methodology. These design principles: the body, the matter, the color, the detail, the volume, and the movement describe a creative approach and a unique and original vision that reinterpreted the forms, languages, practices, and meanings of fashion. At the same time, this material and immaterial knowledge preserved in the Ferré archive has become a driver of innovation, challenging conceptual categories and suggesting multiple languages and interpretations. With this premise, Ferré’s methodological approach is becoming increasingly relevant and contemporary, offering new perspectives on fashion design that have learned from the great masters and look at the future through encoding new meanings and exploiting cutting-edge technologies.

Design archetype


Ferré’s conception of the construction of dresses belongs to his architectural approach. He often creates a dialogue between the natural silhouette of the body and the geometry of the garment. Through an interplay between harmonizing and contrasting, and mixing and overlaying circles, triangles, cones, he creates a new “living space” for the human figure.

“The essential form is the one of the human body, with its physicality, its real moving requirements, its dynamic of interaction with what it wears and its surrounding environment.”

Gianfranco Ferré