Milan, February 2025 | The Waves is an innovative exhibition project debuting in the spaces of the 10·Corso·Como Gallery in Milan, bringing together five of the most radical and visionary brands and designers on the international scene. Enhancing and supporting the showcased creations is a selection of high-end Bonaveri tailoring mannequins, essential for highlighting the shapes, volumes, and structure of the exhibited garments.
10 Corso Como thus renews its commitment to fashion research and new visual imaginaries, following the vision set by Tiziana Fausti. The protagonists of this narrative—ALL-IN, Duran Lantink, Hodakova, Vaquera, and zomer—reinterpret fashion beyond clothing itself, evoking contemporary tensions and redefining the relationship between past, present, and future.
The exhibition’s title refers to The Waves, one of Virginia Woolf’s most fascinating and enigmatic writings, a metaphor for fluid and cyclical time, evoking the motion of waves. This concept is echoed by curator Alessio de’Navasques, who explains: “The collections of the selected designers seem to draw from the past to project it into the new, in that endless rhythm of citations and references that fashion can shape through what German philosopher Walter Benjamin described as the ‘tiger’s leap’: the continuous ability to reinvent the creative process.”
The mannequins used for the exhibition—20 Atelier bust forms and 7 Donna Sartorial mannequins—were chosen for their ability to adapt to different silhouettes and materials, emphasizing the richness of each brand’s experimentation. With some pieces created exclusively for the show, the sculptural fluidity of Duran Lantink’s designs and the innovative volumes of Vaquera find a perfect complement in these mannequins, enhancing their aesthetic expression.
“The Bonaveri tailoring mannequins featured in the exhibition are not just supports but true tools of creative enhancement,” says Andrea Bonaveri, CEO of Bonaveri. “Thanks to their fluid and eclectic shapes, they elevate the designers’ work, revealing unseen details and transforming the setup into a three-dimensional narrative.”
The exhibition highlights diverse languages and sensibilities, all united by a new concept of tailoring characterized by rich, experimental, and expressionist forms. These creations draw inspiration from themes such as sustainability, reuse, the relationship with nature, gender identity, and materiality.
Among the exhibition’s key figures:
- ALL-IN, initially launched as an independent magazine, transforms deconstruction and the reinterpretation of existing forms and objects into new hybrid archetypes.
- zomer, founded by LVMH Prize finalists Danial Aitouganov and Imruh Asha, develops a playful and chromatic aesthetic, blending heterogeneous materials to create unprecedented textile architectures.
- Hodakova, the Swedish brand by designer Ellen Hodakova Larsson—set to debut at Paris Fashion Week in March 2025—explores production and consumption dynamics through the use of humble materials, redefined with a sophisticated aesthetic.
- Duran Lantink, with his innovative approach to fashion and gender identity, presents two pieces from his Sistaaz of the Castle project, developed to support Cape Town’s transgender community.
- Vaquera, the American collective founded by Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee, dismantles conventional fashion standards, turning it into a medium for expression open to subcultures and avant-garde movements.
The spaces of 10·Corso·Como become the stage for a choral yet dissonant snapshot, where fashion emerges as a field of reflection and experimentation. In an ecosystem where cultural design, lifestyle, and aesthetic research intersect and influence each other, the tailoring mannequins become an integral part of the experience, serving as a bridge between creation and perception, amplifying the designers’ vision.
