Designer Profiles: Clara Garavaglia & Martina Minotti

Designer Profiles: Clara Garavaglia & Martina Minotti

Clara Garavaglia and Martina Minotti have both graduated from the Polytechnic of Milan with bachelor degrees in Fashion Design.  Clara Garavaglia is passionate about art, travel and above all, fashion.  Fashion plays a large role in Clara’s life, as she has started sketching in high school and both her grandmothers have been seamstresses.  Clara Garavaglia has explored the world of fashion from the perspectives of culture and planning.  Her five years of study at the Polytechnic of Milan and the additional work experience have enriched Clara educationally and inspirationally.  Martina Minotti describes herself as a “somewhere” designer.  She likes to live every day in a different style, whether it is to go back to her grandmother’s closet or to style her favorite trends.  Martina loves to express herself through clothing, accessories and jewelry.  Martina tries to live each day as a trip to “somewhere” through her own creativity.

“Les Empreintes” Fashion and art are two passions that have always brought Martina and Clara together. Every part of the design was influenced or inspired by an artist or a work of art.The main point of reference for them was Robert Rauschenberg, who incorporates everyday objects into his work."Les Empreintes" uses the concept of materiality, overlap and structural recovery. They used waste materials not only for decoration, but as the construction of the head itself. It is a contemporary reinterpretation de la petite robe noire, whose traditional elegance is played down by the use of an unusual material typical to sportswear, a Japanese men’s sweatshirt, a metal mesh crown caps used for the constructing side panels, the décolleté and the jewel-train. The motivation to use crown caps directly in contact with the skin comes from reading about the similarity between our body and the earth. In addition the cap will leave a temporary trace on your bare skin, but harming the environment leaves a permanent trace on the skin of the Earth.

Both Clara and Martina believe that ethical aspects from the perspectives of design and production should be heavily considered in the field of fashion.  They think it would be useful to create a network between the schools of fashion and companies over-produce materials so the students can recover these materials to make fashion.