Explorations

Awakening: Social and Ethical Consciousness

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Exploring the impact of modern issues on personal responsibility and collective action


Awakening means developing your consciousness – ethical and social – in order to become a better human.

Awakening is an intentional choice. Indeed, it is the act of opening our eyes to realise what happens inside and around us. Once we understand the reality, the damage we have caused to other people and the environment, awakening follows.

Therefore, we become aware that acting without considering the consequences – in other words, acting without a long-term ethical vision – is not a worthy choice.

Awakening requires our eyes to see, our brain to think and pay attention, freeing our conscience to emerge. For instance, we reach a higher level of consciousness by reading books, essays, or newsletters. Following thoughtful leaders. Interacting and sharing ideas in a community. Perhaps we could list other ways, but honestly, meditation is not our field of knowledge.

Ultimately, awakening is free.
So, you can pay someone to turn on the light for you, but then the process is yours, and no one can do it for you.

How does it all connect to fashion?
Believe us, it does. Fashion, as a reflection of our society, is part of a system based on exploitation. Part of the world is living at the expense of others and the planet.

The result of awakening is that we are no longer satisfied with this system. We cann’t take it as it is. So, we want to bring about change.

How do we do it?


We do it by offering you a thoughtful selection. By intentionally choosing fewer items – only what we really need. Unique pieces. By no longer conforming to fashion rules but instead being active agents of change. By infusing our own vision and values. More is not the answer. Rather, less but better with more ethical choices.

How do fashion brands do it?
Smaller production runs, higher quality, and shorter and adequately paid work chain. No sales, just real, balanced value. No modern slavery serving fast fashion.

How do you do it?
Consume less. Choose wisely.

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Design Against Waste

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Innovative solutions for a sustainable future


Waste is a major issue in our culture–perhaps one of the biggest. It is undoubtedly a side effect of our lifestyle. Waste is the ignorant byproduct of our times, meaning the etymological non-understanding of what we leave behind.

In other words, it represents a blind and egoistic short-term vision. People simply don’t care. Their children will live in an open-air landfill, but that’s not their concern.

However, the problem is real, devastating, and we cannot ignore it anymore. There’s no way to sweep waste under the carpet or make it magically disappear.

Acknowledging the problem and the environmental cost it carries along, is the first step. But what is the solution?

Design is the answer.
An accurate design is at the core of solving the waste issue. Changing the way we conceive products is absolutely crucial. We need intentionally designed items in every single field and category–fashion, furniture, technology, and beyond.
Products made with eco, recycled materials taht can have multiple lives and eventually enter a circular pattern.
Items made to last. In other words, design against waste.

By the way, this was the standard in the past in terms of lifetime. Products were built to endure. Now, the life of a garment barely exceeds a couple of washes, and a mobile phone lasts less than a year.
Moreover, convenience culture played a significant role in exacerbating wasteful habits and proliferating a throwaway mentality. Buying a new item is cheaper than repairing it. So people throw things away and replace them—even if the new item lasts only a few months. And so, the never-ending cycle continues.

The point is that real designers make good designs. But fashion–like any other industry–is in the hands of people who are more attracted to marketing than design. So It’s unlikely that change will emerge from within the current system.

Unless a new generation of designers, aware of the issue and moved by it, steps forward to make a difference–to change for the better.
We remain optimistic!

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The Modern Migration

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From big cities to small villages


Modern migration from big cities to small villages is the key to sustainability and happiness.

Transformed by the pandemic wake-up call, we decided to spend our August holidays back at our roots. A tiny village in the Basilicata region of South Italy, immersed in nature and silence. The only sounds were cows mooing, dogs barking, or the wind.

Travelling in the middle of the night through the woods, we came across a family of porcupines crossing the road, their spines standing on end. What a marvel! We promptly stopped the car to savour the unique show that nature offered us. We let them cross, illuminated by the headlights. It’s a scene forever etched in our memory.

How different life is in small countryside villages! Healthier, for sure. You reclaim the value of time, space. You don’t feel trapped as you do in a city apartment. No matter how big it is, it’s still cement. So you come to realise that in exchange for fewer services, you might just be enjoying real life.

Reading the news, it seems that the migration from big cities to the countryside has already begun, a tangible effect of the pandemic. Indeed, the idea of a slow and sustainable lifestyle fits naturally into this context, accompanied by a different way of dressing–which we will explore further–and decorating our places. Undoubtedly, it is a way of living our life in tune with nature.

It has been proven that economic growth and environmental impact are directly linked. What we used to call climate change is now a climate emergency. Therefore, in order to reduce our impact on nature, we have no choice but to change our lifestyle.

To this end, modern migration to the countryside presents an opportunity. Our needs have changed, big cities are no longer the answer. What we need is more nature.

Therefore, we envision a future where people repopulate small villages, breathing new life into them. Intensive mass growth gives way to smaller communities, all interconnected so as to support one another.

Finally, progress and the web can be used not to dominate or exploit but to genuinely and deeply connect.

With this mindset, we can become part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

That’s the lifestyle for modern humans.

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Fashion & Music

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Exploring influences, inspiration, and intersection


Fashion is not only what we wear. Fashion involves the environment around us. Fashion is the music we listen to as well. In fact, there is a clear parallel between fashion and music. Both have developed precisely the same pattern.

What kind of music do we listen to today? What is popular?
DJs are sampling tracks from the 70s, 80s or 90s, remixing them, and then the singer of the moment adds the voice. So, here it is, the modern creative effort. Usually, this music is popular for a few months. Perhaps a year from now, no one will remember a single track.

Of course, there are always exceptions. Take, for instance, “Walk this way” by Run DMC. Well, as we said, exceptions do exist.

What kind of fashion do we see now?


DJs are the new fashion designers. They take designs from the past and add logos all over, following the above remix pattern.
In this world, design skills are no longer a necessity.

Some time ago, a TV show celebrated Fabrizio De André, the great poet-musician, and they interviewed his wife, Dori Ghezzi.
During the interview, singers who recently won the Sanremo Festival appeared in a clip, dressed up to promote fashion brands more than their music, but acclaimed as geniuses. Afterwards, they asked her: “What do you think?” So, she replied: “In my husband’s time, there was a lot of space, we have experimented a lot, and we did a lot. Now, perhaps, these guys don’t have much left. They are scrambling.”

Ads disguised as entertainment–that’s how marketing gurus refer to it, indeed.

The sampling of things already seen, stealing others’ ideas and presenting them for absolute novelties–this is the sign of our times. And in both fields, fashion and music, it’s marketing, not art.

But in the end, we do not have to accept it or conform. We have the freedom to differ, to think differently.

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Bikini Bottoms Controversy & Questioning The Rules

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Navigating sport regulations, clothing standards, and gender norms


The Norwegian beach handball female team got fined for wearing shorts instead of bikini bottoms in the European tournament match against Spain in Bulgaria. Yes, women must stick to standards which are quite sexist. Rules like these expose the deep-rooted inequalities that still shape the way women are expected to present themselves in sports and beyond.

In order to protest against the regulations of the sport, the female team wore thigh-length elastic shorts. Which, although not impeding any movement, were considered “improper clothing.” But what, then, is considered ‘proper’ clothing for women athletes?

The rules on ‘proper’ clothing for women athletes


Here is what the International Handball Federation regulations state. Straight to the point:

Tops: “…The women’s tops (a midriff design) must be close fitting…”

Bottoms: “Female athletes must wear bikini bottoms with a close fit and cut on an upward angle toward the top of the leg. The side width must be of a maximum of 10 centimetres.”

When it comes to gender stereotypes and sexism, there is no difference from one field to another.

In sports, they measure every centimeter of uniforms. Likewise, in fashion, designers are asked to make clothes that reveal more or stick to the body, under the assumption that this is what women want. And indeed, it’s what sells more. So, it must be true. In fact, after 25 years in fashion, we can confirm that there is a specific demand for this type of clothing.

People say, ‘that is what women want.’ And indeed, many accept it—after all, if they didn’t, they’d protest. 

But finally, someone did! The Norwegian women’s hand volley team, we thank you and stand with you!

The time has come to start questioning anything.
Everything related to society standards–involving sexism, gender stereotypes and equality–demands immediate attention. Challenging these norms is the first step toward building a more inclusive and conscious world.

Stop bla bla bla. It is time to take action.

Go, ladies. Brave!

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