Modateca: The International Centre for Fashion Documentation
May 17, 2005
Deanna Ferretti had a dream and has spent a most of her life making it come true: experimental research in fashion. During the 40 year history of her knitwear company - Miss Deanna, the most celebrated fashion designers of the 20th century passed under her nose/wing. Her company supported the visions and creative madness of some of the icons of the fashion system, from Correggiari and Por Toi (history of fashion) to Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, Prada, Kenzo, Gucci, Versace and Yamamoto, passing through to the modern idols Martin Margiela, Dries Van Noten, Julien Macdonald and Matthew Williamson, amongst others.
This passion becomes Modateca, an International Centre for Fashion Documentation, a multidimensional fashion archive in the heart of Italy.
Being that Deanna is a crucial member of the ITS# Jury, we wanted to pay tribute to her initiative. Straight from the mouth of Sonia Veroni, Deanna’s daughter and head of the Modateca:
Hello Sonia! How would you describe the Modateca?
It is important to look back at how it was conceived. Modateca is the result of 40 years work of the knitwear company Miss Deanna, founded in the 60’s by Deanna Ferretti herself. By the 70’s Miss Deanna was already one of the leading knitwear companies. Designers such as Kenzo, started their careers here. Kenzo was experimenting with the mix between Japanese and European culture that epitomized his style: these creations were extremely complicated to produce. He did 20 years of experiments with my mother!
Now Modateca is divided into two sections: a library and a knitwear archive. The library contains all the books collected by my mother during her career, sometimes very rare pieces that you cannot find anywhere else. The knitwear archive is a unique selection of knitwear examples produced by Miss Deanna, probably the only one in Europe of its kind.
Organising 40 years of work must be a considerable job. What was the starting point?
When the company was sold to Armani, the archive, together with the library, was kept by us. In 2003 we decided to follow the ongoing inspiration of my mother: supporting young creatives. The material should become a tool for developing and studying, an archive of historical memory.
How does Modateca show Deanna Ferretti’s professional development?
The fundamental role of my mother was to recognise real talents and to fight from inside the strict rules of the fashion system in order to support and finance them. Deanna knew how to choose them: Martin Margiela, Julien Macdonald, Matthew Williamson and Angelo Figus are only a few. The company Miss Deanna was a key point of experimentation. It is not a coincidence that my mother’s favourite expression is: "the word impossible does not exist".
Furthermore, Modateca archive is a filter to recognise different styles in different decades in different countries: Miss Deanna produced the most varied things and throughout the archive it is possible to track the development of styles and tendencies in the history of fashion.
Who are the people that visit the Modateca?
It is open to a selected range of people: students and professional fashion people. They can borrow books or garments. It is not a "proper" museum, this definition is too static. It is a dynamic archive; we like to call it "International Centre for Fashion Documentation".
Modateca is located in Via del Corno 29/a, in San Martino in Rio (RE), Italy.
For more information: www.modateca.it
A big thanks to Sonia Veroni for her kindness and all information provided and to Deanna Ferretti for her commitment in supporting talent, with her company Miss Deanna and with all the initiatives behind the scenes. Now, thanks for the Modateca!
