Uniform.: Order and disorder

Does the uniform - with its ability to captivate a wide range of people - unite or divide individuals? Is it reassuring or troubling? The uniform blends functional and formal qualities in industrially-produced garments, offering the possibility of making people look the same, regardless of distinctions of class or demographics. Through contemporary eyes, the contributors to this volume reinterpret the uniform as a prototype of male dress, revealing the extent to which the technical and formal perfection of military clothing has become an advanced reference point for modern fashion. The analysis focuses on the communicative character of the uniform and its mythology once removed from the military context and devoured by the creative processes of fashion and the violence of all the "counter-cultural" utopias from the postwar era to the present, or absorbed by pop culture and utilized in a critical manner by artists. Uniform unfolds in a continuous flow of images in which art, fashion, cinema, music and popular culture coexist in parallel, tangential spaces. In an operation of "cultural cannibalism", Bonami, Frisa and Tonchi, the editors of the book, utilize and transform a wide range of materials, including fabrics, advertising, icon-garments, symbol-images, uniforms themselves, records, comics and films that document the cultural transformations and use of the uniform as an instrument of order or a subversive signal. The itinerary moves inside and outside the system and symbolism of fashion, crossing the realms of contemporary art, aesthetics and pop culture. The book, conceptualized and promoted by Pitti Immagine, contains a striking selection of images and texts with different, detailed and complementary approaches to the theme by scholars, writers and journalists.