Alia Mascia

I come from Campania, near Naples, but around the age of eighteen I left my homeland to study fashion at the IUAV in Venice. During my second year I flew even further north for an internship at Haider Ackermann. I fell in love with northern Europe, where I returned after graduation for another internship, of a different kind, at the ModeMuseum in Antwerp. Here I had the opportunity to confront a different idea of design, more related to exhibitions, fashion film and how clothes inhabit spaces. During the same period I also had the opportunity to participate as a stylist assistant in a project with Showstudio. Despite the distance from home, I often feel the need to go back to the base, not only for affection, but because my research is extremely connected to a physical archive of countercultural ephemera, such as zines, vinyls and other paper materials, which I keep in the hometown. In my work, graphics play an extremely important role in the textile surfaces of the garments. Conveying themes, messages and symbols visually is, for me, a need and an ongoing exercise. The focus is on making a page, a piece of counter art, wearable. I find the possibility of three-dimensionalising a page, creating ‘readable garments’, extremely interesting.

THE CONCEPT OF YOUR COLLECTION?  

Cabbage is a collection made entirely from pieces of second-hand clothing, scraps and remnants recovered from the warehouses of textile companies. Each garment is made by manipulating these scraps, some of which are defective, broken or torn. I decided to work in the opposite way, starting from the material and shapes of these scraps, rather than from a sketch or moodboard. The garments are made on a mannequin, without using any kind of pattern but instinctively following the folds and drapes of the fabrics at my disposal. This way of working has given me great freedom, as I am not constrained by a concept, moodboard or design restriction.