It actually has been a work in progress since last year but finally this month it becomes public and the news is now out: Moda Barga – a new fashion and modelling school opens in the city shortly.
It has been a phrase used often in the last 10 years or so that in Barga there is no competition but instead, collaboration.
The new school is yet another example of how this concept of collaboration between various groups of people can bring forward a flourishing new idea.
Vaina Continuati who after a long career as a model opened her shop,Vaso di Pandora with Alessandro Stefani in Barga Vecchia and drawing on her experiences started the very successful fashion event “Vaso di Pandora Show”, in the Piazza Angelio in Barga last summer (article, images and interview here)
She used local people as her models and after the show there was so much interest and enthusiasm shown amongst this group that the next logical step was to start a school of modelling which would include lessons on how to carry oneself with poise, elegance and style.
Moda Barga – Fashion and modelling school in Barga – Vaina Continuati – intervista in Italiano
Just a week later in the same Piazza Angelio, the Impermanence Dance Theatre, based in London were performing with Nicolao Valiensi and his group for what was without a doubt one of the finest shows of that summer
The costumes for that show were all designed by Kerry Bell who took inspiration for the fabrics used in the costumes from the knowledge that Barga has had a special relationship to silk manufacturing for centuries as expressed in the inscription on the plaque which hangs at Piazza Ser Barghesano (article here)
Moda Barga – Fashion and modelling school in Barga – Kerry Bell – interview in English
The two women have decided to join forces and offer to the area a new fashion and modelling school here in Barga with Kerry offering to the public her many years of experience in the fashion industry with particular emphasis on designing and making clothes and Vaina offering a 10 week course on poise, elegance and style and drawing on her experience in the fashion world in Milan and around the world as one of Giorgio Armani’s models.