Video of the Month. A Contemporary Venus de Milo: Sofia Sereir

Every month, a new video is selected and commented on by the Editorial staff of I’M Firenze Digest to showcase new visual languages and moving image applications for artists, designers, and stylists.
We are excited to showcase a new video project this month, created by Sofia Sereir, Fashion Design & Accessories Alumna from Istituto Marangoni Firenze.
For her recent collection Momento, Sereir chose the topic of empowerment related to women’s bodies, drawing inspiration from contemporary art and classical sculptures.
This month’s video displays the apparel from her collection, created and put together using 3D fashion design software, to translate the message conveyed by the title Momento: we are now witnessing a virtual showcase of how women’s status, as well as their garments, are transforming into new monuments and idols. 

by Viktoriia Stanieva. Cover image: still from Sofia Sereir, Momento, 2021.

Sofia Sereir is a fashion designer who always finds creative and innovative ways to interpret tailoring in her projects. She specialises in pattern making, tailoring and sewing, and pushes her work to meet the highest quality standards in the industry. 
Her Momento collection is a great example of how you can bring together fashion and art. Sofia Sereir has interpreted her perception of the contemporary woman, who keeps evolving and strengthening her position in society. Made with three-dimensional modelling software, the video gives us a 360° view of her creations, as they rotate on the same plinth.
Sofia Sereir also used her knowledge of how to connect her ideas with the new macro trends of the 2021 Fall-Winter season. First, she took the aesthetic of the 1990s, representing the fashion that surrounded her and formed her fashion taste from childhood.
She evoked the trends of the time, like oversized jackets and shoulder pads, denim and formalwear elements, which bounced back to the runways this season, but with a totally new and modern perspective on tailoring.

Secondly, she applied her best textile manipulation skills to add an interesting spin (at first sight) to bold, minimalist garments. This shows the designer’s vision of modern women – strong and straight-forward, yet playful and creative – “who have come a long way up to now, carrying a clearly visible awareness on their shoulders, shouting the message to the new generations,” as the designer says.
Each outfit is elevated on the statue’s pedestal, making the apparel look weightless as if there was a loss of gravity, yet the composition looks finished and complete. Sereir is putting her contemporary feminine character on a pedestal by interweaving her new monuments with the unconventional, irregularly shaped appearance of contemporary statues. 

The video also recalls 1990s aesthetics through vintage visual effects, like blurry glitches on top of the images, while a bouncing text animation adds a dynamic element to it. Finally, the dark red background aptly contrasts the garments and adds depth to the scenery, intensifying the 3D effect. The soundtrack composed by Droxo & Sofia Sereir herself uses distinctive electronic sounds and beats to reproduce a specific runway show atmosphere, suggesting a new approach to virtual presentations of new designer collections. 

Sofia Sereir is an Istituto Marangoni Firenze Alumna. She graduated from the Fashion Design & Accessories undergraduate programme in 2021.
Viktoriia Stanieva is an undergraduate student in Fashion Styling & Creative Direction at Istituto Marangoni Firenze.