No. 16

Formal harmony in the essence of Italian style

Florence — 2011
Formal harmony in the essence of Italian style

Fashion Design degree thesis by Giuseppe Luca Leonardo Morreale on the theme of the boot, for the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification.

Proportioned harmony. Foreword by Generoso Matteis.

(…) And indeed whatever exists in the universe, in essence, in presence or in the imagination, he has first in his mind and then in his hands, and these are of such excellence that they generate, all at once, a proportioned harmony in a single glance, as things themselves do. (…)

Leonardo da Vinci, Treatise on Painting, part one, 9

The project was developed to take part in one of the many competitions celebrating the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification, entitled “A talent for the shoe, in the shape of a boot”, evoking the geographical shape of the country. The research carried out in Giuseppe Luca Leonardo Morreale’s thesis required a careful study of the historical and formal development of boots and a demanding analysis of the state of the art, with a receptive eye on contemporary trends.

After the first phase, using the traditional pencil with skilful expressiveness, a series of sketches was developed in an evolving crescendo, in which the forms took shape through a constant formal analogy with the human body, becoming refined and concrete in emotional details. The expressiveness, closely tied to the original theme of the competition, led to the study of solutions in forms and materials brought back to practical feasibility and to a sustainable emotional and commercial impact: the rigour of the study of innovative detail results in the making of the object without falling into banal nationalistic quotation.

The design process leads to a flow of perceptual emotion that satisfies both the canons of formal harmony and the rigour of the object’s technical construction. The research was based on the intention of arousing desire for the object itself, as an “object of desire”, while respecting the rigour required by production. I must point out that it was not easy to guide a talent, in every respect comparable to the painter described by Leonardo da Vinci, with the design method so dear to industrial production.

Fact sheet

No. 16
Course
Degree in Fashion Design, Clothing curriculum — Faculty of Architecture, University of Florence
Supervisor
Prof. Arch. Alessandro Ubertazzi
Co-supervisor
Arch. Prof. Generoso Matteis
Student
Giuseppe Luca Leonardo Morreale
Year
2011

Images

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