Rhapsody

A Fall/Winter womenswear capsule developed at Istituto Marangoni under an industry brief from Stella Jean, blending Andean heritage, contemporary Italian fashion, and Maasai traditions into a vibrant “visual rhapsody.”

Womenswear

Textile Design

Cultural Research

Collection Development

Vogue

2016 Vogue Talents

200 Emerging Designers

Only

Only designer representing

the school in Vogue Talents

In-house

In-house workflow

modeled on Milan brands

These cultures speak in resonance.
Each asks the same question:

How can wearable forms encode identity, community,
and our place in the cosmos?

For me as a designer,
the harmony of cloak, color, craft, and geometry
revealed how distant cultures can speak in parallel,
weaving shared human truths into material form.

Background

Stella Jean is an Italian-Haitian designer on the Vogue Runway brand list, recognized for blending Italian tailoring with multicultural storytelling.

This project was produced during my Master’s at Istituto Marangoni in Milan, a leading industry-oriented fashion school. The program was structured to replicate the front-end workflow of an Italian fashion brand’s design team: brand orientation by Stella Jean’s team → design brief → research → textile development → style drawings → lineup → brand critique.

The collection was independently developed by me, following the same process expected of in-house designers.

Design Brief

Design a six-look Fall/Winter womenswear capsule that extends the brand’s cross-cultural philosophy by merging three cultures:

Andean heritage (assigned)
Contemporary Italian fashion (assigned)
One additional culture of the designer’s choice

Design Concept

This collection aligns with Stella Jean’s ethos of fashion as a cultural bridge. Alongside Andean heritage and Italian fashion, I chose the Maasai because their vivid color, draped forms, and symbolic ornamentation echo the same languages found in Andean textiles and Italian style.

These cultures speak in resonance.
Each asks the same question:

How can wearable forms encode identity, community, and our place in the cosmos?

For me as a designer,
the harmony of cloak, color, craft, and geometry revealed how distant cultures can speak in parallel, weaving shared human truths into material form.

Cultural Research

01. Draped Forms

Andean poncho and lliclla, Otavalo (Ecuador)

Andean striped poncho, Yanahuaya (Peru)

Maasai draped cloth, East Africa (Kenya/Tanzania)

Renaissance pageantry costume, Palio di Asti (Italy)

Maasai shúkà, East Africa

(Kenya/Tanzania)

Large draped textiles in these cultures carry the same weight: visually an act of covering, and symbolically a way of granting identity and protection.

02. Vivid Color

Maasai beadwork adornment, East Africa (Kenya/Tanzania)

Maasai warrior hairstyle,

East Africa (Kenya/Tanzania)

Maasai beaded necklace,

East Africa (Kenya/Tanzania)

Rainbow Mountain and llamas,

Cusco (Peru)

Quechua woman spinning wool,

Cusco (Peru)

Andean textile dyeing and weaving,

Cusco (Peru)

Andean textile dyeing and weaving, Cusco (Peru)

Quechua woman spinning wool, Cusco (Peru)

Rainbow Mountain and llamas, Cusco (Peru)

In Andean culture, red symbolizes life and vitality, yellow the sun, and black the earth and rebirth. For the Maasai, red stands for courage and unity, blue for the sky and rain, green for the land, and white for purity and milk. Contemporary Italian fashion embraces bold, high-contrast palettes to express brand identity. Though distinct in context, all three use vivid color to express vitality and collective values.

03. Craft: Weaving & Beadwork

Quechua backstrap weaving, Cusco (Peru)

Maasai beadwork adornment, East Africa (Kenya/Tanzania)

Andean loom weaving,

Cusco (Peru)

Maasai beadwork adornment, East Africa (Kenya/Tanzania)

Maasai beaded necklace,

East Africa (Kenya/Tanzania)

Andean textiles are among the most complex pre-Columbian crafts, with fabrics serving as records of cosmology and social order. Maasai beadwork uses line and rhythm to communicate identity and meaning. Fiber and technique become cultural language, weaving meaning beyond material function.

04. Geometry as Language

Ancient Andean textile, Peru

Andean woven textile, Peru

Maasai face painting, East Africa (Kenya/Tanzania)

Maasai market woven baskets, East Africa (Kenya)

Maasai face painting, East Africa (Kenya/Tanzania)

In Andean textiles, step motifs and symmetry reflect a vision of the cosmos. Maasai beadwork arranges circles and bands as symbols of connection and belonging. Across cultures, geometry becomes a shared language, linking people to each other and to the world.