PhD Projects, Fellowships and Scholarships

Does Culture Pay? Le strategie di comunicazione del Gruppo Finanziario Tessil dentro e fuori Pitti Uomo

Supervisor: Ines Tolic
PhD Student: Giulia Caffaro
Period: 01/11/2017 to 31/01/2021
 
ABSTRACT
The research investigates the case of the Gruppo Finanziario Tessile (GFT) to detect changes and transformations among fashion and design cultures in Italy during the last decades of the twentieth century.
In particular, shedding light on the unexplored work of Turin's Marketing Communication Department of the company, the analysis of the countless institutional exhibitions held during the Eighties aims to demonstrate the relevance of Arts and Design Cultures in the development of a multidisciplinary language to legitimate and diffuse fashion products as vehicles for individual expressiveness.

The research is based on the comparison between unpublished sources from different Italian and European archives, contextualized through the use of emerged studies about the global challenges of the Made in Italy brand.
It intends to stimulate new studies and research about the origins and the growth of the communication system which underlies today's Cultural and Creative Industries.

Le celebrità teen italiane nella produzione televisiva e cinematografica italiana contemporanea

Supervisor: Roy Menarini
PhD Student: Ylenia Caputo
Period: 01/11/2019 to 31/01/2023
 
ABSTRACT
The research is focused on the relationship between Media Studies, Celebrities Studies and Teen Studies. In particular, subject of analysis are the representative modalities and the socio-cultural function of teen celebrities emerging from contemporary Italian film and television production. Italian teen celebrities are a phenomenon that is still little studied and explored, albeit of significant value considering the growing prestige they are acquiring in recent years, thanks to a renewed interest of the Italian media towards teenagers. Using research methodologies such as virtual ethnography, interviews and the use of traditional paratexts, the research aims to define new categorical models for teen celebrities, providing a further point of view to the field of celebrities studies.

Supervisor: Simona Maria Segre Reinach
PhD Student: Nadica Maksimova
Period: 01/11/2020 to 31/01/2023
  
ABSTRACT

Taking into consideration the significant disproportion and lack of research regarding the relationship between fashion and sustainability in the fashion media segment, and in the light of the green-washing problem and devaluation of the term sustainability, the research aims to understand the sustainability discourse developments in one of the most influential fashion magazines – Vogue Italia. The first stage, an in-depth content analysis of the entire Vogue Italia Archive, from its first publication in 1965 till the latest 2020 issues, is focused on individualisation of the salient fashion-sustainability contents. Were there any sustainability-related topics before the ‘sustainable’ was even used as a term? Which were those topics, and how can we read them from today’s perspective? What can be learned from the historical data? The second part of the research focuses on the delineation of the sustainability discourse, contextualisation of the individualised crucial contents and putting them in correlation with the latest developments of the sustainable fashion research.

Supervisor: Simona Maria Segre Reinach
Co-Supervisor: Mariella Lorusso
PhD Student: Flavia Piancazzo
Period: 01/11/2020 to 31/01/2024
 
ABSTRACT
The research examines global fashion, focusing on cultural appropriation and inspiration in the contemporary fashion industry.

In its early stage, the project considers new perspectives on the analysis of fashion production with a multidisciplinary approach. By collecting and studying material from international frameworks, the research aims to understand how the concept of appropriation develops: the author collected and cross-checked factual information to understand how cultural appropriation and appreciation developed from 2010 to 2020, in the established structure of global fashion, mapping the global fashion industry with a data-driven approach to evaluate the general landscape of cultural appropriation in the fashion industry and its impact.

By outlining an approach for a conscious production process, even connecting this database and cooperating with other international realities, the present work might be of help in decentralizing the market.

Supervisor: Gustavo Marfia
PhD Student: Lorenzo Stacchio
Period: 01/11/2020 to 31/01/2024

ABSTRACT
The research focuses on the adoption of Augmented Reality and Deep Learning paradigms for the fashion Field chain of production in collaboration with Aeffe S.p.a.
The expected outcomes are articles and chapters in international journals and conferences about Application of Deep Learning and Augmented Reality methods.
The final thesis is expected to be comprehensive of all the methods and activities developed during the indicated period, laying the path for future research.

Dall’abito alla città. Progetti, spazi e architetture per il sistema moda (ITA)

Supervisor: Ines Tolic
Fellow: Chiara Monterumisi
Period: 01/02/2022 to 31/01/2023

ABSTRACT
In the Italian aftermath of the second world war, besides acclaim for prêt-à-porter and the industrial production of clothes, the connections between fashion and design culture strengthened. Fashion soon turned its attention to procuring suitable spaces and architecture, commissioning projects for exhibitions and shows, boutiques and showrooms, museum exhibitions and also large-scale urban events. Starting from these premises, this research aims to make a critical selection among some key projects belonging to this wide realm of production (via analysis of unpublished materials from private and public archives), and then historically explore their design features and dynamics. The analysis of case studies will also provide insights into certain innovative communication and enhancement strategies concerning fashion products that have been broadly adopted in recent times: from the commercial and museum setting to numerous digital opportunities like virtual or augmented reality. While recognizing the importance of a multidisciplinary and open method of investigation as generally applied in the fashion field, the research project will favour the architectural viewpoint and, consequently, employ a solid historical and critical method of analysis. Papers, conference presentations and a one-day seminar will comprise the project outputs with a view to circularizing them at a national and international level.

Supervisor: Monica Sassatelli
Fellow: Enrica Picarelli
Period: 01/11/2019 to 31/05/2021

ABSTRACT
The research focused on sustainability in fashion with a special focus on cultural sustainability and decoloniality in the Global South. The outcomes were articles and chapters in international publications and edited volumes looking at case studies from Senegal, Nigeria-U.S.A. and South Africa. It also led to several presentations at international conferences and seminars at Italian university, as well as the elaboration of a proposal for an international research project on Black fashion designers in Europe.

L’efficacia sensibile: sensorialità e presenza nei media Audiovisivi (ITA)

Supervisor: Gianpaolo Proni
Fellow: Lucio Spaziante
Period: 01/06/2016 – 31/05/2017

ABSTRACT
Audio-visual media contribute to making the agenda of the main media events concrete and sensory, and become an essential instrument for the construction of realities. Thus, we could speak of a true and proper sensory efficacy in reference to that dimension that is activated by the production and experience of audio-visual media, which is able to provide “presence effects”, with a very advanced, way more pervasive and significant than the past sensory outcome.
The research will take into account new perspectives on media analysis of social events of historical relevance by documenting those situations in which audio-visual media played a key role in the representability of reality; in which the role of testimony has emerged; where the function of documentation and media witnessing has been central.

Moda tra Heritage e Turismo. Studi/Modelli e strategie per la valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale e del sistema locale territoriale in Romagna (ITA)

Supervisor: Daniela Calanca
Fellow: Gianluigi Di Giangirolamo
Period: 01/03/2016 – 31/01/2020

ABSTRACT
The project aimed at collecting and studying bibliographical and documentary material from both international and national frameworks, the in-depth analysis and development, both practically and theoretically, of new models and strategies concerning the formula “Fashion between Heritage and Tourism”. The following contents have been developed in a transdisciplinary way:
The relationship between Fashion and Tourism within the field of Cultural Heritage;
Fashion and Cultural Heritage in Italy and France;
The relationship between Fashion and Cultural Tourism: creativity and local development;

L'archivio come dispositivo di comunicazione per le imprese della moda (ITA)

Supervisor: Antonella Mascio
Fellow: Elisa Tosi Brandi
Period: 01/12/2013-30/11/2014

ABSTRACT
The year-long study concerned the analysis of the communication strategies adopted by fashion companies, based on their own archive and aimed at the reinforcement of the brand’s identity and the cultural value of the company itself.
Goal of the research was the study of fashion companies which belong to the districts of S. Mauro Pascoli and S. Giovanni in Marignano, in order to emphasize the cultural and communicative strength of their archive, by both analysing advertising campaigns where terms such as “archive”, “heritage”, “vintage”, or objects inspired by past collections, or openly vintage were used, and by displaying these materials in shop windows and exhibitions.
These case studies have been compared to other companies located in Emilia-Romagna, and to better-known Italian companies such as Ferragamo and Gucci.

La qualità della vita a Rimini. Una prospettiva storica (ITA)

Supervisor: Alberto Malfitano
Fellow: Andrea Giovannucci
Period: 15/10/2013-14/08/2015

ABSTRACT
The research aimed at the historical analysis of the concept of well-being in the Province of Rimini in the aftermath of WWII.
The specific focus of the research was on the modalities with which the post-war growth phase was perceived by local people in terms of collective well-being.
Due to a lack of a clear definition of well-being in historical terms, the research had an experimental connotation, by taking into account the ways in which the concept of well-being has been declined in the time span here analysed but, at the same time, by assuming “the state of health of a territory and of its inhabitants” as a valid parameter for the quantification the quality of life of a city as today as in the 40s or 50s.

La teoria della moda nell’epoca dell’esteticità diffusa (ITA)

Supervisor: Giovanni Matteucci
Fellow: Stefano Marino
Period: 15/03/2013-31/03/2016

ABSTRACT
The research was aimed at discovering the existence – despite what several scholars have so far maintained – of a real tradition of philosophy of fashion from the late 18th century to now. This investigation led to the publication of a few short works and above all to the selection of a set of contributions by various thinkers who are active in this field of study, in order to realize a collection of papers in English on the philosophy of fashion. It will also lead in the next future to a monograph in Italian on the same subject. In order to achieve this goal, a publication proposal was developed and submitted to various important publishing houses. After a meticulous peer-review process an agreement was reached with Bloomsbury Publishing: the book is going to appear in December 2016.

Fashion Device. La rappresentazione e la comunicazione della moda italiana dagli anni Sessanta a oggi (ITA)

Supervisor: Federica Muzzarelli
Scholar: Chiara Pompa
Period: March-August 2015 / May- July 2016

ABSTRACT
The project aimed at filling the gap that exists on the web through the creation of a portal dedicated to fashion, which is able to allow the access to scientific contents systematically organized and punctually updated, thanks to latest generation technology solutions. Its goal was also to provide a multimedia channel through which both Made in Italy crucial steps and the intersection moments between the Fashion System and the Mass Media System could be grasped.
In order to achieve all this a glossary has been realized. Each entry is accompanied, thus substantiated by the support of a selection of various typologies of documents i.e. essays, brief reports and timelines.

Archivi della Moda. Una ricerca socio-culturale in progress (ITA)

Supervisor: Simona Segre-Reinach
Scholar: Mariafrancesca Stella
Period: May-October 2015 / June-November 2016

ABSTRACT
Goal of this project was the analysis, with an interdisciplinary methodology, of the artistic, historical, social and economical value of a cultural and/or industrial reality, its role in the field of fashion broadly speaking – hence meant as an intersection between body, dress and culture – and the in-depth consideration of various dimensions that involve productive and/or service levels.
The project also aimed at the study of the classification methodologies of already existing fashion items, in order to develop a new classification standard which could be applied to Archivi di Ricerca “Mazzini”. The project thus had a local valence, that is to say the valorisation of the territory, but also had a theoretical relevance in terms of Fashion Studies.