NABA for Borbonese: the Academy meets the Made in Italy craftsmanship excellence
The protagonist of the project most recent edition is the student from the BA in Fashion Design of NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Lucia Clerici, with her project of the “Portami Via” bag, realised thanks to the artisanal mastery of a Made in Italy excellence: Antica Fabbrica Passamanerie Massia Vittorio 1843, a historical manufacturer from Turin, as Borbonese is.
The challenge of fashion design and communication for NABA students
Reinterpreting the Borbonese creative codes, the collaboration with two BA specialisations, Fashion Design and Fashion Styling and Communication, was developed in two phases over two academic years. In the first step, ten Fashion Design students, led by NABA lecturer Francesco Ballestrazzi, tackled the creation of a new bag, while in the second phase, another ten students from the Fashion Styling and Communication specialisation, under the guidance of lecturer Annie Lerner, conceived and produced a digital campaign for its launch.
In the merge of the historical traditions of both Borbonese and Antica Fabbrica Passamanerie Massia Vittorio 1843, the winner turned out to be the student from the BA in Fashion Design Lucia Clerici thanks to her “Portami Via” bag. Designed and produced as a limited and numbered edition, on sale for Pre Fall 2024 in selected Borbonese boutiques and online, the bag is made entirely with archival trimmings from the Antica Fabbrica Passamanerie Massia Vittorio 1843, in a fusion, through the innovation signed NABA, of heritage, craftmanship, and excellence.
The winning project: the “Portami Via” bag;
The “Portami Via” bag designed by Lucia Clerici was conceived as an evolution of the Borbonese Strapcycle project, with its items made of upcycling materials, and it is a woven basket decorated with long fringes, inspired by the geometric curves of Santiago Calatrava's architectural designs. For the weaving, Lucia Clerici used a special hand-woven acetate ribbon from the historical archive of the Antica Fabbrica Passamanerie Massia Vittorio 1843.
