Performance Art for Fashion

Course Features

The programme includes lectures and practical exercises, the design of performative outfits, and the creation of site-specific actions, culminating in a final performance.

It offers a unique opportunity to experience the fashion capital as active participants, blending art, fashion, and performative experimentation into an educational and sensory journey that combines gesture, aesthetics, and contemporary identity.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Understand the intersection between fashion and performance art as a creative practice
• Explore the body as a medium of expression and clothing as a narrative tool
• Analyse historical and contemporary case studies in fashion and performance art
• Develop conceptual and material strategies for creating performative outfits
• Design and perform a site-specific or studio-based performance integrating acquired techniques
• Engage critically with Milan’s art and fashion institutions as contexts for performative practice

The content and activities proposed may be subject to change depending on educational requirements.

Introduction: Fashion as an Embodied Practice

• Presentation of participants: backgrounds, creative interests, and relationships with fashion and performance
• Discussion: what does it mean to “embody” fashion?
• Key concepts: gesture, ornament, corporeality, presence, ritual
• Viewing and discussion of examples of wearable art, live interventions, and experimental runway shows
• Group exercise: performative gestures with garments—exploring the body as a stage and clothing as a language
• Workshop: initial development of sketches, mood boards, texts, or prototypes for a garment or performative element to be used in the final presentation

Stories, Politics and Fashion Iconoclasts (Part I)

• Screening and discussion: historical and contemporary intersections between fashion and performance art
• Case studies: Leigh Bowery and Alexander McQueen—spectacle, transformation, and the politics of the body
• Group discussion: fashion as an expression of identity and resistance
• Reflective writing and sketching: exploring how museums construct narratives around clothing, identity, and the self
• Workshop: ongoing development of sketches, mood boards, texts, or prototypes for the final performance

Stories, Politics and Fashion Iconoclasts (Part II)

• Case studies: Rick Owens, Carolee Schneemann, Nick Cave, Yoko Ono
• Focus on ritual, repetition, and vulnerability in performance and costume
• Discussion: transgression, rebellion, and the erotic body in fashion
• Workshop: finalisation of sketches, mood boards, texts, or prototypes for the performative garment or element for the final presentation

Radical Ornament and Final Preparation

• Lecture and discussion: transformation of the body through material, gesture, and ornament
• Artists studied: Narcissister, Boychild, Eva & Adele, Rebecca Horn, Marcia Farquhar, Hannah Wilke, Vaginal Davis
• Key concepts: masking, layering, distortion, and excess
• Workshop: full rehearsals and final preparation of performances
• Collective feedback session to refine gestures, materials, and performative structure

Final Performances and Reflection

Presentation of final performances.

External Visits

During the week, the Academy will organise external visits such as (depending on exhibition schedules): Armani/Silos, MUDEC – Museo delle Culture, Fondazione Prada, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Palazzo Morando Costume Moda Immagine, and Fondazione Sozzani, depending on the exhibition calendar.

The course runs in two intensive summer sessions:

• 20 – 24 July 2026
• 27 – 31 July 2026

Classes take place from Monday to Friday, with an indicative schedule from 9:00 am to 5:00/6:00 pm.