Childhood memory as wearable matter
Stuffed
Thesis project by Erika Angeloro
Academic year
2025-2026
Stuffed stems from a reflection on memory as a fragile, fragmented process deeply connected to emotional experience. The project focuses on childhood memories: distant, often blurred images that do not resurface as complete narratives, but as sensations, isolated details and traces capable of influencing adult identity. At the centre of the research is involuntary memory, activated by objects, materials and sensory stimuli that bring fragments of the past back into the present.
The stuffed toy becomes the symbolic object of the collection: the first emotional companion of childhood, a repository of comfort, play and solitude, but also a surface marked by time. Tears, stains, visible seams, patches and replaced parts are not flaws, but evidence of lived experience. The genderless collection translates these traces through soft and deliberately worn materials, scratched denim, gabardine stained with coffee and black tea, casentino wool, velvet and recovered fabrics. Oversized volumes, padding, balloon trousers, drawstrings and blurred prints recall the fullness of the stuffed toy and the way memory resurfaces: incomplete, layered, yet still alive.
The thesis project guides students in the development of a complete fashion collection, transforming cultural and narrative research into a professional and sustainable product. Through artistic, social and stylistic references, each student develops an original concept that translates into material research, experimentation with fabrics, colours, prints and embroidery. The path leads to the creation of an 18-outfit collection, supported by physical and digital prototypes, photo shoots and communication tools, enhancing the entire creative and production process of the contemporary fashion designer.
Supervisor: Alessandra Montanaro
Co-supervisor: Simona Dell’Unto
Project from the courses of
