On November 13th, the exhibition "Dreamy Dressing: The Birth, Evolution, and Narration of Fashion", which focuses on Italian fashion, opened at the historic building "Bund Source One" over 170 years ago. The exhibition showcases over a hundred exhibits, including fashion, manuscripts, literature, and images, and presents the century long evolution of Italian fashion since the 1900s through several sections.

The exhibited fashion works are mostly created by internationally renowned fashion designers, such as Maria Monaci Gallenga, the modern fashion godmother of Italy, Emilio Schuberth, the founder of Italian haute couture, and Roberto Capucci, known as the "fashion architect". Strolling through this century old architectural space, one will also encounter opera and film costumes such as "The Camellia Woman," "Medea," "The Prisoner," "Roman Holiday," and "Magical Animals.".

Roberto Capucci, the first Italian fashion show 50th anniversary ceremonial dress (2001, made of Indian silk and velvet) and her original manuscript at the exhibition site. (All images in this article are provided by the organizer)

According to the organizer, the exhibition is also the first exhibition of the ART SHANGHAI European National Collection Exhibition series. The ART SHANGHAI European National Collection Exhibition is led by the cultural ministries of various European countries, and is jointly curated and planned by Han and Tang cultures and important cultural institutions of various countries. It revolves around four major clues: decorative art, women's fashion, urban culture, and the mirror of the times, presenting a century old classic European culture. This series will present exhibitions focusing on themes such as French century old decorative art and Spanish century old naturalistic art in the future.

Encountering Italian Centennial Fashion in Historic Buildings on the Bund

The Bund Source No.1 (No. 33 Zhongshan East Road) is located at the intersection of Suzhou River and Huangpu River. It is an excellent historical building in Shanghai and an important component and source of the Bund Architecture Group, a national key cultural relic protection unit. "Dream dressing" is the first time that the building has been opened to the public as an art exhibition space.

"Bund Source No.1" (No. 33 Zhongshan East 1st Road)

According to Wang Ruhui, the chief curator of the exhibition, an important feature of this exhibition on display is that it is not an exhibition that takes place in the White Box Art Museum, but rather presented in a building with nearly 180 years of history. How to make the narrative of this exhibition form an interesting intertextual relationship with all the scenes of the building is a question that they have been thinking about during curation and exhibition design.

Exhibition site

For example, although the time span of the exhibited works spans over a century, it is not carried out in a conventional linear curation method. Instead, the architectural space is divided into several independent fields, and the century old Italian fashion history unfolds step by step along the rooms and areas, starting from the first floor lobby with "legend", entering the "era of innocence" and "golden dawn", and crossing the atrium to appreciate the "goddess of praise", Encounter "Camellia Woman" on the corridor and stairs leading from the first floor to the second floor.