The exhibition Gianfranco Ferré tra ragione e sentimento (in English “Gianfranco Ferré between reason and feeling”) curated by the Gianfranco Ferré Research Centre with the City di Legnano, celebrates the work of the Italian fashion designer in his own hometown, Legnano, in the province of Milan. Open from September 7^th to October 6^th, 2024, in the intimate Sala degli Stemmi at Palazzo Malinverni, the exhibition explores the constant study of the white shirt carried out by Ferré through his design principles.

The event falls into the program of the celebrations of the Centennial of the City of Legnano that, in a fortuitous and sentimental coincidence, happened on the same day as Ferré’s 80^th birthday, the 15^th of August 2024. Gianfranco Ferré was incredibly attached to his hometown, as this quote – found in his personal notes and preserved as bibliographical evidence in the Historical Archive – so beautifully describes:

“My roots are in Legnano. I, who infinitely love to travel – in reality no less than in imagination, for work and for pleasure – could not live without the certainty of a place, of a dimension to which one naturally feels at home, to which one naturally returns and finds oneself. A dimension as necessary and indispensable as strong and irresistible is the desire to discover and know others. It is the certainty of certainties, which somehow also helps to understand and decipher what life, with its different realities, sets before us. With my city I have a living relationship, far from being nostalgic. There I was born and raised; there is where not only my home is, but above all where all my family and my closest friends are; there I return every evening from Milan. It is a small, discreet, solid, liveable city.”

Starting from the title, and continuing with the setup, the exhibition aims to highlight this strong bond. The exhibition design, curated by architect Martino Berghinz and inspired by the typical codes of Ferré’s language, is based on clean lines and pure geometries accentuated by the black-and-white contrast, which counterbalances the visual opulence of the Sala degli Stemmi. Twelve shirts are displayed in the centre of the room, grouped on a circular platform that moves through rotating mechanisms. This gives the setting an ironic and light tone and permits the visitor to gaze at Ferré’s shirts from multiple angles. The dynamic play of the shirts is then contrasted by the linear rigour of the display of the drawings, neatly arranged on perimetral panels that frame the centre of the room in its entirety.

The drawing walls are divided in thematic groups that follow Ferré’s six seminal design principles, already studied and explored by the Gianfranco Ferré’s Research Centre in its first exhibition titled Gianfranco Ferré. Design Principles, in 2022. The principles are divided in the body, the matter, the colour, the detail, the volume, the movement, which are used to codify his approach to design. The exploration of the human body’s essence and its connection to space –expressed through the transformation of clothing into “volume” and “movement” – along with the investigation of the artificial realm, where “matter”, “colour” and “detail” shape the historical identity of objects, serves as a bridge between the past and the future, as noted by Rita Airaghi, Paola Bertola and Federica Vacca in the book Gianfranco Ferré. Design Principles (Corraini Edizioni, Mantova, 2023). These concepts are then materialised into the twelve selected white shirts, considered as the archetypal piece of garment that encapsulated Ferré’s design approach into every collection.

The space of the exhibition is virtually enlarged by a QR code that gives the visitor privileged access to the materials of the Gianfranco Ferré archive related to the twelve white shirts. Notably, the entire collection is protected by the Superintendence for Archival and Bibliographic Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and deemed as heritage of high historical and cultural value. Thus, in this digital platform, the visitor can click on any white shirt on view and admire it in a high-resolution 360° view. Moreover, the visitor can browse the multiple archival records related to that piece: from its technical description and drawings to materials sheets, fashion show drawings, advertising campaigns, editorial images and additional photos. In addition, the visitor is welcomed into the design exploration of the garment, which represents the main research carried out by the Gianfranco Ferré Research Centre. In this section, a digital twin of the shirt is worn by a moving mannequin, re-enacting how the shirt would move and act on the human body and the visitor can access the exclusive assemblage of the shirt on the CLO3D software, understanding the intricate pattern and construction of Ferré’s seminal designs. The guide is easily consulted remotely by scanning a QR code with a smartphone.