Fashion As an Art Form, a Manifesto of Individual Freedom

The fashion shows in Milan differed significantly from the events in Rome and Florence of the previous decade. Many fashion shows were static, that is, without catwalks, tailors or models, a formula that would be used in the subsequent decades. The clothes were the real and only protagonists, displayed in specially prepared spaces in the city or at the Fiera Campionaria.

In the 1977 edition of Milanovendemoda Walter Albini caused a stir for his absolutely innovative character. He chose to exhibit in Via Manzoni in the gallery of Giovanni Anselmino, a young collector of contemporary art who had already hosted exhibits of major American artists (Man Ray, Andy Warhol, Christopher Makos and Allan Kaprow). His fashion show was static, made of panels covered in shiny white plastic on which masks made from a cast of Albini's face were applied. Furthermore, he did not present his own creations, but garments lent to him by Giorgio Armani, Basile, Fiorucci, Krizia, Missoni, Caumont, Miyake; it was the accessories and clothes combined with the collections that were his own. The aim was not only to present garments accompanied by the appropriate accessories, but to show the absolutely personal way in which he himself interpreted the works of other stylists. 

In the context of the 1970s, Albini's message was revolutionary: it challenged high fashion’s rise as arbiter of taste and trendsetter, while at the same time showing the consumer a way out of the standardization of tastes imposed by mass production. As an expression of freedom of choice, fashion thus became an exercise in democracy and a tool for education towards democratic values.