Tesi e Portfolio in Textile & Fashion Design

1. Gemma Ascoli
PORTFOLIO

2. Index
1 Development of a Social Campaign
for Lovever
“Free to love whatever we want”
2 Trends Research
"Red of Pain"
3 Trends Research
“DNA”
4 Innovation Processes
“Take your hands off me”
5 Communication Design
“Persefone”
6 Product Design (Styling)
“Your Own Demon”
7 Digital Pictures Editing
“The Society Demon”
8 Visual Research
“Legami”

3. Photoshoot with
relative styling research,
developed for the
look book and social
campaign of Lovever
1
Free to love whatever we want

4. Women, from youngest to oldest, are the camera main subjects, in
their own homes, in their intimacy, during their daily work.
As a voyeur’s watching eye, the lens explores them in their nature,
caring and relentless. Unaware of being watched, self-confident
and comfortable in their own body and their own sexuality and
sensuality, they feel no discomfort. They never look to the lens;
they can be totally free from prejudices, with no boundaries
and no taboos, as everybody should feel, with no shame nor
inappropriateness. It is a journey through their sexual and emotive
intimacy, where the voyeur is the one desiring them, who wants
to really know their being and to understand them, as differently
shown from everybody’s eyes. Women are really free, with their
fantasies, their ambitions, their joys, their own cure.
Preconceptions given by society are left out of home, so depicted
women are not ashamed of their own being, their own desires.
They live their sexuality with no limits, following their needs.
They express themselves with no pressure required by society,
making them feel inadequate or immoral. It is the human nature
that I’m showing, which cannot be repressed, which each one
should be free to live, starting from sexuality, driven either by love
or pleasure. Through the shots, I would like to represent an instinct
which cannot be discussed. Sex, in the same way as reading
and listening to music, is a everyday life wellness, thus why don’t
we conceive it as it is supposed to be, with all the well deserved
wholesomeness?
Individual graduation thesis with:

8. Red of pain
Drawing inspiration from
a native population
combined with the
artpices of an
artist, I developed a
trend research.
2

9. Nenets
The “Nenets” are a nomadic Russian indigenous
population distinguished by the usage of furs to
cover up their whole body. In order to survive they
breed reindeer, an incredible animal by which
these people feed themselves; since the imperative
importance of the reindeer, nothing of it shall be
wasted: they also drink the blood.
Yung Cheng Lin
Yung Cheng Lin is a Taiwanese photographer who
is able to capture the female body, trapping its
ethereal beauty, not leaving out the most intense
and dark nature of it: the hellish combination
of sexuality and eroticism, naturally followed by
sufferance. A red thread pierces the bodies sewing
the skin, symbolizing in this manner the pain, that
forces women to be prey of their own image.

10. Fitted black latex suits inspired by the fetish world, entirely cover the body as a second
skin. A red merino wool thread runs through them, branching out into several areas,
representing several wounds inflicted on the body, passing from the head, to the heart,
to the woman’s mouth. Black polished latex
Red merino wool

11. DNA
3
Starting from the theme
of the ego, the identity
of the individual, a
knitwear collection was
created, in order to
embody the concept
of DNA.

12. Speaking of identity, we
often imagine it as a
structure, subjected to
change, to the construction
of it, to a mutation.
There is nothing that better
than the DNA, present in
each of us, can describe
our identity, as the minimum
unit that carries the
personality of an individual
and that carries the genetic
code.
This double helix structure
is subject to mutations,
changes and unions, each
time building something new,
in contact with the outside
world and in need of
comparison.
It relates to the phenomenon
of change, allowing itself to
be changed by everything
it encounters and by
assimilating new traditions,
ready to replace the
past, leaving room for future
genetic makeup.

13. Imagining the contact
with the outside
world, new surfaces
characterized by
empty and enveloping
spaces came to my
mind, networks that
surround the body,
leaving the naked figure
below visible.
The colours that emerge
are absolute black and
white, neutral colours
that pass from one
extreme to the other,
leaving the individual
the nuance of a mean.
The apparently simple
garments reveal
actually complex
knitting processes that
fall on the bare flesh,
that is concealed from
the outside, but it is in
the continuous research
of a dialogue with the
outside world.
Tied up by crumpled
threads and worn
fabric, imprisoning the
individual, entangling it
in these covering fabric
chains only the most
intimate identity.

14. 4
Take your hands off me
Starting from the theme
of sociophobia, an
inspirational text was
written and an icon-
dress was made.

15. You would like to cross the threshold of your home, but you
are forced not to.
The nightmare of people, of the crowd, the people watching
all over you.
But this is nothing, you are afraid to interact with those you
know.
The heart starts a dance of its own, a sadistic dance, it seems
to come out of your chest.
It rises up in your throat, your hands sweat and the only thing
you feel in that moment is anguish.
Here is the moment so hated their eyes are scanning your
body from head to toe.
You can feel them on you, you are feeling them going up,
get inside, almost as if they are enjoying your own pain. You
must greet them, they are your colleagues, you spend more
time with them than with your friends.
Why aren’t you able to do it? She just punched you in the
stomach, it starts twisting itself.
You are choking, it is a torture, you would like her hands to be
taken off your neck.
But it is your fault, you are the one who allows her to have all
this power, you ought to fight, you must get rid of it.
“Hello”. A hint of a smile. Someone did not hear you, you
whispered it between your lips.
What a shame.
Here she comes again, she surrounds you, she clings to you,
a huge weight.
A wave of heat passes through your face, it is very strong,
red spreads like wildfire all over your face.
Oh no, now everyone will notice that you have turned red.
You need to hide, you need to sink.
And here she is again starting to play with your heart,
dribbling it like a basketball ball.
You feel it almost coming out of the chest, resonating up to
your ears, warm, red as blood.
Finally you find a place of your own, you can stand by
yourself for a moment, because if the other are gone, she
leaves as well, she runs away, disappearing into thin air.
Her hands cannot even touch you with a finger now, you
finally feel free.
But this is only for a second, you cannot stay concealed
forever, she shall continue to touch you, day after day, her
hands will slowly kill you, an endless pain.

16. The phobia is represented as a
tremendous weight carried on
the shoulders.
Through the diverse ribbons,
it wraps the whole body, as
if some hands cling onto it,
creating knots, just like the
knots in the stomach. The
colours used are black for
the fear, and red symbolizing
shame.

17. Persefone
5
Creation of a brand,
starting from the
product, passing
through the mission, to
the target, to the logo,
to the labeling and to
the store.

18. Persefone
The mission of my company is to create dresses for
business women in career, allowing them to feel elegant,
but at the same time comfortable. This enhances
the femininity of my woman, maintaining the proper
professionalism, suitable for the workplace.
“If you’re a strong female,
you don’t need permission”
My woman is successful, she is a strong business woman in career,
she knows what she wants. She is not satisfied, she always aims for
best. She is a free, independent woman, which does not need
permission.

19. What better than the pomegranate, can we use to represent
the goddess Persephone, the fruit that made her the queen
of the underworld. The symbol of the possessive love of Hades,
which in order not to be separated from Persephone, uses the
pomegranate seeds.
A font with elegant and rounded shapes, but that hides
a certain professionalism. Suitable for representing my
line and my woman. A strong, important font, but in its
gentle sinuosity sensual and delicate.
Persefone

20. 6
Your own demon
From the creation of an
accessory, I designed
the styling and the
photo-shoot

21. The accessory is composed of
a crown and a veil, inspired by
the headdresses of the nuns. The
crown is formed by two horns
with the addition of horse bridles.
The background story shows an
apparently pure girl, the outfit
and make-up refer to a nun, in
fact she wears only a part of the
veil with the jewel.
When the girl goes to sleep, her
inner demon takes over, slowly
invades her, she is possessed by
lust.

23. When the demon has completely came out, the jewel is finally
complete. Indeed both the most obscure part of herself, symbolize
by the horns and the bridles, and the purest, represented from the
veil, are shown.
Admiring herself in the mirror, with confident air, she is ready to be
tamed and dominated. She is ready to prostrate herself to every
vice of her desire.

24. 7
The society demon
Editorial of 5
photographic
snapshots, with a
theme of a tropical
metropolitan
fable.

25. The editorial concept is a critique to the fashion world,
that develops itself from the inspiration for the film
“The Neon Demon” by Nicolas Winding Refn.
A young model arrives in a city and everyone falls in love
with her, this will trigger the envy of the colleges, one in
particular.
The young, pure soul that could save the world made of
sins and vanities, allows herself to be bribed by lust, pride
and greed, that come to life in the antagonistic. The
reference to the three deadly sins arises from the three
beasts of the “Divina Commedia ” by Dante Alighieri.
The antagonist model, driven by desperation and
madness, will eventually end up killing her rival, in order to
have a beauty that will disappear from her hands
again. The happy ending has bitter tones: although
the young woman is dead, she will remain young and
beautiful forever, she will not need to go crazy to
please society’s expectations anymore.
The macabre image of the model that feeds on her
victim dates back to a cultural phenomenon present in
some cultures of Oceania, we find indeed evidence of
this in the tribes of Melanesia.
This phenomenon is called exocannibalism, the belief
that eating parts of enemies, will allow the eater to
acquire the qualities and strength of the dead. In
the same way the model eats her young victim, aiming at
her beauty.
All of this will eventually turn in a violent fight to get the
“golden apple”, the label of the most beautiful. But in this
case there is no referee to choose the winner: they are
barehandedly fighting for that label, getting their hands
dirty with warm and young blood.
The criticism to the world of fashion is finally built, not
keeping out the competitiveness and what we are willing
to do to have success and beauty. An unhealthy world
where one is convinced that “beauty is not everything, it
is the only thing.”

28. 8
Legami
Editorial of 6 photographs,
inspired by the style of
Numéro Magazine

29. Numéro
30
legami
n over reason
intrappolano. Donna che
Eleganza. Sensualità.
Styling:
Gemma Ascoli, Carola Dalpasso
Make-up and Hair Styling:
Chiara Gario
Models:
Camilla Leone, Giada Michelassi
Photographer:
Cecilia Chiaro

31. gemmaascoli@gmail.com
ig: @gemma_concept_photos
+39 3319389136
Contacts
Pictures by:
Atlas Of Humanity
PhotoEmozioni
International Photography Magazine
Yung Cheng Lin
Seb Janiak
Nick Knight
Steven Klein
Lindsay Adler
Seiji Fushimori
Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library
Keywordbasket
Rei Kawakubo
Paolo Roversi
Daniel Vazquez (American Ghoul)
Jamool
Comme des Garçons
“Il Ratto di Proserpina” Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Saint Laurent Store
“The Neon Demon” Nicolas Winding Refn