Each individual as a unique and unrepeatable subject is at the same time part of a community, a dot in a broader net of relationships. This tension between uniqueness and homologation is part of the concept behind Gaetano Stea (@oliosupena)’s project 1nd1v1du1 — meaning “Individui” (italian for “individual”) — a sharp and irreverent declaration of love for modular design, but also a personal and universal tale on annihilation and retrieving of individuality.

“Down with love, down with expression” says Stea. “Abandoned to the sense of the relativity of things, man takes refuge in a list of measures, a combination of modules that embrace his body, cancel it and geometrize it. Individual intentions creep into the calm of the lines, the subject withdraws into the self, expands into new forms, meticulously repeats itself.”

No longer a wearable object, Stea looks at the intimate dimension of the garment as the bearer of a renewed symbolism. 1nd1v1du1 is a narrative in three parts, each objectifying a phase of life: birth, homologation, the self — a collective plot line so anyone could feel reflected in it.

Born within his studies in fashion design, the collection twist the usual perception on fashion: the garment becomes object with its own structure and desires… a strange, slightly funny animism makes them explode like pop-ups, as if they had a life of their own and didn't really need human presence in order to exist.

Could you introduce yourself and how you came up with fashion design?

I am a young designer based in Milan. Before starting my studies, I had no real awareness of what fashion could be. Art was a late discovery to me… in my late teens I was into music, then cinema, photography and video-making… The interest in fashion grew out from discovering that it was the only art that could unite all these aspects. Studying and poking around, I learned about designers such as Hussein Chalayan or Issey Miyake who have made of modular design their greatest source of inspiration.

What is 1nd1v1du1?

1nd1v1du1 began as my thesis research in the last year of university. Initially hated, then well received despite the predominantly traditional context of Italian academic institutions. So I fortunately had the opportunity to develop a project that is so far from the typical well-known Italian product.

Inspired by the concept of modular design, 1nd1v1du1 combines some elements of object design applied to garment design and visual arts, which was a fundamental inspiration for me. 1nd1v1du1 is an autobiographical story but also a universal one. I didn't want to reveal any personal information, but I made sure that anyone who looked at the collection could see themselves reflected in it.

1nd1v1du1 is not just your first personal project within fashion studies but is also existing as a social inquiry archived on a website and social. What inspired you in the process of research?

The project research was almost entirely primary research, i.e. I did most of the iconographic and statistical research, carrying on a series of surveys going around the streets. I collected all these images of strangers and data in order to get a general picture of their personality and social scheme (inspired by a study of architect Ugo La Pietra). This conversation between me and these strangers opened up a world not only about understanding the other person but also about analogies with my own life, which inspired all the collection.

The collection is a sort of tale in three chapters, each corresponding to a different stage of an individual's life: a tragicomic process of self-discovery. Each life phase is embodied into an object. How do these aspects relate to the development of the collection?

As you said, I focused on three life-stages: birth, homologation and the self. In the first phase we find ourselves as part of a family nucleus, a small society with which we are forced to live with. I took the box as a symbolic place of protection but also a screen from the outside world. This “in-box” phase is objectively translated using modules extracted from the shape of a real cardboard box to build water-repellent structured garments. As soon as you tend to go out of the family nucleus you try to find another (false) identity in the others — this led to a second phase, the introduction to society, where what you are is defined by approval and homologation. To give shape to the loss of the self into society, I built up knitted tridimensional faces embedded into geometric shapes. Knitwear has the advantage of being very soft and adaptable, the garment is always the same but will always change depending on the wearer. Finally, the third phase is about finding one’s own individuality and understanding the purpose of one's life, with all the consequences that come. I built up these pop-up garments which open up and explode into a different shape, as if they had a soul of their own. I really loved the idea of building objects, that are not properly garments, that could live regardless of their human use.

Even the choice of colors and materials have symbolic quality, as they are different at each stage and sometimes at odds with each other: from being gray, heavy, rigid and impenetrable the fabrics go softer and lighter — a metaphoric clarity towards self-recognition.

Your research goes beyond the ornamental function of clothing to stimulate a more intimate reflection on individuality and relationships with the world outside the self and the body. Who are the individuals you address?

My whole project speaks to every single human being of all social forms and structures, individuals of all ages, genders and ethnicities, and this journey could belong to everyone's life, but at the same time to no one's life, which is why I will not have a real aesthetic target, but my target is any person who reflects on their life and their individuality, thinking about their role in society. In fact, my role models will be people who I have met and who have talked to me about their life, their individuality, who have shown me their ego, transcending even their aesthetics. The aim was to create a garment that not only has the function of being worn, but is also an object in its own right that contains a metaphorical message within it. It was a way to talk about my life but through the other. I am telling you about me through you.

Will 1nd1v1du1 have a future development?

I was convinced that this project had no future, that it was of no interest as it is not really a fashion project. But it didn't. I recently got published in an important fashion magazine and other platforms were interested in my work. I don't want to have my own brand. I would like to have the opportunity to try what is considered the real fashion, the wearable fashion.

If I have to hope for a future of 1nd1v1du1, I hope it remains an open project, something that other people can use or request for whether it's a shoot, an editorial, a video, a gallery exhibition, a performance, etc, and not just end up in fashion. I would like this kind of evolution where it is not necessary to adapt the product to a wearable version. But that it simply continues to exist as itself, freely.