Color bomb in Florence: it’s Costume Colloquium time!

From the 20th to the 23rd of November the city of Florence will add many other fashion colors to its already wonderful palette thanks to the Costume Colloquium IV: Colors in Fashion, the two-year cycle of lectures organized by the Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation, in collaboration with the Associazione degli Amici della Galleria del Costume di Palazzo Pitti.

For four days the Auditorium al Duomo in Florence will host the fourth edition of Costume Colloquium, one of the top event for fashion researchers in which leading personalities of the field will discuss about costume history, conservation techniques of the clothes and contemporary fashion. After the editions dedicated to the costume historian Janet Arnold (2008), the clothing for dance (2010) and the influence of historical styles in contemporary fashion (2012), this year the Costume Colloquium will be focused on the importance of color in fashion: color as an expression of power, its role in the construction of the identity, its creation through contemporary techniques, but also the classification and coding of colors and so on.

As soon as I read the theme of this year I smiled because I remembered the enthusiasm that I put in my first article published on Vogue.it entitled The color of the fashion designers, for which I selected the most important fashion designers whose reputation was linked to the use of a peculiar color. My excursus went back from the Lanvin blue inspired by Fra Angelico’s paintings, until the white of the Roman marbles reinterpreted by Laura Biagiotti since her first collection in the 70s; then I went through the shocking pink by Elsa Schiaparelli, the more than 500 shades created by Emilio Pucci, the green and white striped pattern of M.me Carven, the Renato Balestra blue and the legendary Valentino red.

The official program of the Costume Colloquium conference is plenty of interesting lectures thanks to the several worldwide speakers who will examinate the importance of color in fashion without any chronological and geographical limitation. The red-white-blue tricolor of the famous fashion show held at the White House in 1968 which claimed the pride of American fashion, will be mixed with the blue and the pink of childhood uniforms, with the black robes used in the legal field, with the gold gown worn by Queen Alexandra of Denmark for her coronation, but also with the iconic red soles of Christian Louboutin shoes and the colors of the Asian imperial costumes.

The participants to this imaginary fashion journey will be delighted with exclusive guided tours in special museums such as the Emilio Pucci Archive in Granaiolo (read the post on LVMH Les Journée particulières); the Teatro del Popolo and the BEGO Museum in Castelfiorentino, in which are preserved the frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli; they will also have the chance to see some rarely exhibited precious costumes of the Stibbert Museum in Florence; then a tour in the Galleria del Costume di Palazzo Pitti (Women in the spotlight of the twentieth century) and the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo in Palazzo Spini-Feroni.

For all those who wish to participate to this amazing appointment I remind that August 31st is the last day to get a special discount on the registration fee.

The surprises do not end here, because if you’re a fashion blogger, you can attend the Blogger Colloquium contest organized by Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco sending (no later than August 31st) the link of one or more posts dedicated to the Costume Colloquium IV: Colors in Fashion, with a brief description of your blog and a brief curriculum vitae, at info@costume-textiles.com.

The most original and interesting author will win an accreditation to the event, the opportunity to be the official blogger of the event and the accommodation in Florence at the Pitti Palace al Ponte Vecchio Hotel (www.florencehotelpittipalacealpontevecchio.com). Other four bloggers, whose posts will be considered particularly interesting, will win the free accreditation to the event and the opportunity to attend the event as official blogger.

Visit http://www.costume-textiles.com for more info

Alessandro Masetti – The Fashion Commentator

The pictures of the Emilio Pucci Archive in this post were taken during the MONUMENTAL PUCCI EVENT – Pitti Uomo 86 held in Palazzo Pucci, Firenze