Beautiful Italy Now Next: Alternative Ways of Teaching, Fashion and Trave

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Travel has long been a favorite social activity of people around the world. The last year has altered dramatically the way we travel and broadly connect with different cultures. But COVID has brought opportunities as well as challenges. In 2020 and 2021, three professors teaching about, in and from Italy have found creative ways to address aspects of creative travels, fashion and business, offline and online. In this conversation, Silvio Betterelli (FIT Milan), Erica Moretti (FIT New York), and Lorenzo Pirisino (FIT Florence and Polimoda) will introduce their work and also search for answers to questions: How will we have changed after the pandemic? How radically has Italy shifted towards sustainability? How can we connect to a culture, language, or more generally people from far away? The event will start with the reading of a poem, and is moderated by FIT Cultural Fellow Camila Quiroga.

Presenters:

Silvio Betterelli is a fashion designer in Milan where he opened his own label and atelier. After studying in Sardinia, Milan, and the UK, he received a residency research award from Les Ateliers de Paris and became the only Italian Finalist of the Tokyo Fashion Grand Prix. He was also awarded the “Who’s Next” prize of Vogue Italia. He won two prizes at the Mittelmoda international award in Gorizia, where he is now part of the Jury panel. Silvio is Senior Portfolio of Fashion Design at Politecnico for “FIT in Milan,” and chair at Nuova Accademia di belle arti (Naba). Since 2015 he is the Creative Head of ‚Bio Ethical Sustainable Trends (B.E.S.T.) in Cittadellarte, and since 2020 head of product and design development of the Italian brand Borbonese.

Erica Moretti is an Assistant Professor of Italian at the Fashion Institute of Technology-SUNY. She received a Ph.D. in Italian Studies from Brown University and a diploma in American Studies from Smith College. Her research — rooted in biopolitics, gender and sexuality studies, and critical theory — focuses on pacifism, refugees and displacement, and humanitarianism in Modern Italy.

Born in Italy, Lorenzo Pirisino studied Economics and Japanese at Reading University in England and Japan. After graduation, Lorenzo returned to Italy and started working in the world of fashion, travelling extensively around the world. Holding positions in Export Management, Marketing, Retail Operations, Brand and Product Development, Lorenzo has worked for renowned fashion producers such as Ratti and Mitsubishi Fashion, as well as fashion and interiors retail brands such as The Bridge, RCR, Signoria di Firenze, Devon & Devon. Since 2015, Lorenzo has been teaching Fashion Business Management courses at FIT in Florence, and more recently with Polimoda, a fashion school in Florence.

Moderator:

Cultural Fellow Camila Quiroga