From the 21st April, Centro Culturale Santa Maria della Pietà in Cremona, Italy, will host ‘Gianfranco Ferré. Moda, un racconto nei disegni’, an exhibition dedicated to the sketches and drawings by Italian fashion designer Gianfranco Ferré.

Silk taffeta and silk velvet cape with topstitching. Silk velvet dress. Alta Moda, Fall/Winter 1988. Pencil, fine black felt-tip pen, colored felt-tip pen on construction paper. Courtesy Fondazione Gianfranco Ferré, all rights reserved.

An architect by formation, Gianfranco Ferré has been one of the greatest name of Italian fashion. With his sapient use of sartorial construction, materials and decoration, he introduced a new sensibility in fashion, frequently represented by his iconic creations.

Silk grisaille trench coat. Prêt-à-Porter, Spring/Summer 1988. Pencil, fine black felt-tip pen, colored felt-tip pen on construction paper. Courtesy Fondazione Gianfranco Ferré, all rights reserved.

The exhibition ‘Gianfranco Ferré. Moda, un racconto nei disegni’ is curated by Rita Airaghi, Director of the Fondazione Gianfranco Ferré, and was developed with the collaboration of the Municipality of Cremona. While including some of the garments he designed, it will focus on his hand-signed sketches and drawings, one of the most fascinating artefacts of the designer’s creative process. Quoting Gianfranco Ferré himself: “For me drawing means jotting down on paper a spontaneous idea which I can then analyse, check, verify and finetune, reducing the basics to precise concise lines set on diagonals and parallels within geometric shapes and figures… as both a fashion designer and an architect I see fashion as a form of design…”; either elaborate and detailed or more essential and instinctual, the selection of over one hundred sketches on show in Cremona tells the history of the vision, passions and ideals of the poetic fashion creator, as well as unveiling to the public a part of his unique creative process.

Printed silk and lurex caftan with embroideries and sequin appliqués. Prêt-à-porter, Spring/Summer 1990. Pencil, fine black felt-tip pen, pastel crayon, gold powder on construction paper. Courtesy Fondazione Gianfranco Ferré, all rights reserved.

While fixing on paper the necessary information to turn the fashion designer’s ideas into material creations, these drawings are also greatly evocative artworks; they show the idea of beauty, harmony and style that the designer developed and improved during his prolific career both at his own brand and as the creative director of the Maison Christian Dior, where he worked from 1989 to 1997. More than instruments, these drawings are a statement of Gianfranco Ferré dedication to fashion design, an important working method and an indispensable key to comprehend the work of Gianfranco Ferré both in its materiality and his aesthetics.

The exhibition will be open until the 18th June.