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Why I Chose to Study Fashion Writing as a Post-Grad in Italy

By Alex Olivo (University of Colorado, Fashion Communications summer course at ISI Florence with Dr. Mark Bernheim, Professor Emeritus/Journalist)

 

“What brings you to Florence?” is one question that I answer seemingly daily while here in Italy. I reply that I’m studying, but the whole story is a bit more nuanced than that.

I’m in Florence, 5400 miles from home, living as a non-traditional student and studying abroad in a city that I previously had no connection with. I’m here for the same reason I moved to every other place in the past 4 years: fashion. It all began with fashion, and with a class called Professional Fashion Communications and Blogging.

 

Images of Italian lifestyle

One week before my graduation from University of Colorado Boulder, I sat in the Dean’s office. I was talking with her about my post-graduation plans and career goals. She wanted to know how I might use my degrees in Advertising and English to move forward. I explained to her that I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do yet, but that I had always loved fashion and had interned in various facets of the industry. I wanted to find a way to connect all of these interests and skills, but I had no idea what that meant. In fact, I explained, I was mostly focused on traveling through Europe for a few months during the summer following graduation.

“You should take the fashion writing in Florence course!” She crossed the room swiftly and in a moment was looking at her computer. “The email came through earlier today about a fashion blogging course in Italy,” she explained, “I passed it on to a few students who I thought might be interested. It could be a great experience for you, especially if you’ll already be in the area.” She forwarded me the email before I even left her office.

A few days later, the email sat unopened in my inbox, but was still on my mind. I knew that I wanted to travel around Europe, but I hadn’t finalized any definitive plans, only that I wanted to go for three or four months. Even though the idea of class seemed contradictory in spite of my impending freedom from academics, a structured 6-week program in a new city with students similar to myself was definitely intriguing. It seemed like it might be the perfect way to add a bit of intention to an otherwise shapeless European adventure.

Plus, I’ve always been a bit of a fashion-bloggerphile. While I don’t always read the blogs daily, I’m familiar with the big names and faces. I follow them on Instagram and Snapchat, and I get excited when I see them in magazines and street style photographs. When I worked at a couple of shows during New York Fashion Week following an internship in the city, it was the bloggers that I was excited to greet and to work with. It felt like I was meeting old friends; I knew everything about them, but they were just normal girls. Well, normal girls who receive invitations to every major fashion show.

I always thought that one day, I might put my creative writing degree towards a blog. In many ways – timing, location, subject matter – the fashion blogging class seemed like the perfect way to continue figuring out where my skills and interests would lead me.

So, I opened the email. I contacted the creator of the program, Dr. Mark Bernheim, and inquired about taking the class as a post-graduate. He assured me that while it was unprecedented, it was entirely possible. After several months of correspondence with Dr. Bernheim, and many tireless hours of travel planning, I finally had a finalized itinerary for my summer. The fashion blogging class was the cornerstone around which all my other plans were based.

I arrived in Florence with little expectation of what lay ahead. I didn’t know any of the girls in the program, and I had signed up for an additional class (History and Culture of Food – an excellent choice) to fill my days. I had seen fashion from a production standpoint, from a public relations standpoint, from a consumer standpoint; now I was ready to study fashion from the viewpoint of a blogger. I just didn’t quite know what that meant.

I soon found out that the course was not only on the basics of writing like a blogger (née fashion journalist), but an immersive look inside the fashion world of Florence. I hadn’t realized – though perhaps I should have – that some of today’s biggest names at every fashion week have begun in this City of Lilies. Milan might have the hype, but Florence has the history: Emilio Pucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Gucci, Roberto Cavalli, Emilio Cavallini, and many others began and remain headquartered in the city. Less storied, but revered nonetheless, leather legends Il Bisonte and The Bridge also call Florence home.

The course examined all angles of the fashion of Florence. Taught by Dr. Bernheim and his assistant, fashion blogger Alessandro Masetti, the class is composed of both writing instruction and an insider’s look at some of the greatest workings in Florence fashion.

We met with budding designers and established designers. We were invited to pick their brains about anything we wanted – a privilege reserved for very few people. We visited the Salvatore Ferragamo museum for a private tour of iconic shoes and a history of fashion. I saw an early Commes des Garçons dress, and the famous lobster dress by Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali. I saw iconic YSL and Prada shift dresses. I saw an Alexander McQueen dress from the final collection that he designed and cut himself, which was shown shortly after his passing. It was somber and exquisite, and, needless to say, a bucket list experience.

We visited the Museo Gucci, another remarkable experience, where dresses that I recognized from the red carpet hung like glittering bodies in a dark room, and I witnessed Alessandro Michele’s additions to the Museo employee uniform. We took a trip to an atelier of local designer Michele Chiocciolini and not only spoke about his creative process but witnessed it in the form of a true artistic space.

 

Clutch by Michele Chiocciolini

Through each of these experiences, we wrote. I tried to write as though for a larger audience, as though I was already a blogger. I learned new things about my writing; accustomed, for many years, to writing either analytic essays or poetry, I was faced with the prospect of writing about my own experiences. I even learned some new grammar rules, which I thought 4.5 years as an English major had inoculated me against. Apparently not.

Above all, I was able to once again live in the world of the fashion, the very thing that brought me to Los Angeles, to New York, and now to Florence. One of the greatest things about fashion is that it’s pure fantasy. Like art, it creates a world that encapsulates it. In this case, an insular community of designers, models, editors, and bloggers. But the fantasy becomes real every time you get a glimpse into the inner workings of this world. And when you glimpse inside, as we did over the past 6 weeks, you realize the difference between the shops on the street and the world of fashion. And that world is unlike anything else — it’s nothing short of intoxicating.

 

Our group at Pitti Uomo with the world’s handsomest bicyclists! 

This week, Pitti Uomo, an annual fashion showcase for menswear, has overtaken the city. The streets this week have been conspicuously flooded with impeccably dressed men and women, even more so than usual for Florence. We have been assigned designers to interview and given full access to the otherwise private events. We are, in essence, attending the show as bloggers. I have worked fashion events and I have interned in studios, but I have not attended an event of this magnitude as a guest. The idea is quite thrilling.

 

Scenes at Pitti Uomo

Reflecting on this experience, I realize now, is that I wasn’t lying when I told the dean at my alma matter that I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my career. The truth is that I spend much of my time talking about clothing, looking at blogs, and reading fashion commentary. I believe that part of me might have always wanted to be a fashion blogger but wasn’t sure I could do it. Having taken this course, I realize that just as fashion is fantasy, so is one’s relation to it. You can wear anything, write anything. You can be anybody. I’ve been pretending to blog for so many weeks that maybe, in a sense, I’ve already become a blogger.

 

Me, when not blogging!  

So, maybe I will start my own. Perhaps this will be my first entry.