The launch of Danilo Venturi‘s new book, Momenting the Memento, is relevant in many aspects.

Danilo Venturi, the  author of Luxury Hackers, writer, lecturer, consultant and Head of Department Business & Communication at Polimoda (International Institute of Fashion Design and Marketing, Florence), is specialised in Art Direction and Strategic Branding for Fashion and Luxury. Known for his contagious passion for connecting the dots and for his interdisciplinary approach to fashion, Danilo Venturi creates new languages to define fashion phenomena today, inventing new contexts for discussion and debate.

Momenting the Memento: Fashion, Education & The City is closely connected to an eponymous event – the IFFTI CONFERENCE 2015, which will be held from 12 to 16 May in Florence. Gathering many artists, designers, journalists, curators and opinion leaders, and open to professionals and students in the fields of design, fashion, art and architecture, the conference will host various debates on fashion and design in relation to six key-terms: BODY, SPACE, IMAGINARY, CALLIGRAPHY, CRAFT and DRESS.

The ideas discussed in the book are highly relevant in the context of contemporary fashion movements, outlining the need for shifting perspective in our way of thinking fashion, teaching fashion or building the future of fashion. In Danilo Venturi’s words:  Momenting the memento means to give life to archi[textures], new memories of habitus meeting the habitat, instead of archiving and celebrating the previous ones. Quit recycling the past and start upcycling the future. So, let’s take fashion out from its reliquaries, let’s Renaissance shine again out of the current multi-clustered, conflictual [but also convergent] spirit of the time. Let’s education be writing instead of only be reading. Let’s the statues come out from the colourful postcards and walk like alive humans, let’s give to Florence a Renai[chance] before the posthuman is going to be reduced to the postman, and our so modern isms are becoming obsolete wasms.

The book is prefaced by Linda Loppa and contains never before published interviews by Filep Motwary with designers, journalists and opinion leaders, from Tim Blanks to Christian Lacroix, Bruce Pask, Robin Schulie, Diane Pernet and Rick Owens.

Book info:

MOMENTING THE MEMENTO : Fashion, Education & the City/ edition – Skira/ author – Danilo Venturi/ introduction and curation – Linda Loppa/ cover artwork – Yeong Win-Ni/ photography and interviews – Filep Motwary/ artwork and illustrations – Karolin Schran/ editing – Abigail Rands/ digital – Gianpaolo D’Amico