ilaria balliana
Grey Sheep
Location
treviso / italy
University
fashion design, iuav venice
Graduation year
2019
Latest Collection
What is a bond?
This was the crucial question from which the project Légàmi started to develop, for the fact that the word legame (in English “bond”) contains a multitude of different meanings. The first thing that caught my attention was the possibility of reading the word in a double way, according to the accent: legàmi or légami. The first one, a tender word that recalls the emotional sphere, is in contrast with the second one, an imperative, an order.
The key point of the entire work is the bond, seen as connection, correlation, union between people, concepts and objects. In fact, legare means “to tie something”, “to make it closer” and difficult to leave.
Inside one word there is a contraposition between the concrete and the abstract, the visible and the invisible. On one side we find what is materially possible to bond, and we see it with our eyes: to tie with a knot, to fix, to connect two things. On the other side there is the abstract bond, what cannot be seen but exists (the blood ties between two siblings or the relationship between husband and wife): to bond with someone is to harbour mutual affection and to feel emotions.
In the project, the importance of the bonds is accentuated by the intersection of garments and their parts, that almost become as one, as they were glued together. Therefore, they must be worn all at the same time, as if these elements were part of the human being and were anchored to it.
In a world like ours, where everything is unstable, evanescent and fragile, life itself is characterized by this uncertainty, which become common also among the relationships and in everyday bonds. From this point I started to take into consideration the weight that bonds have in real life, their presence in ourselves and in our existence. The purpose of this work is to give the right importance to the concept of “bond” through the different types of connection that fashion offers. How fashion is linked to the different meanings of the word that I took into consideration.
The things that are the most influential in our life and that have an impact on us certainly create a bond with who we are.