Stelio Crise and The Loved Garment: Weaves of History and Culture at ITS Arcademy

From March 28, 2024, to January 6, 2025, ITS Arcademy - Museum of Art in Fashion will host “The Many Lives of a Garment”, curated by renowned art historian Olivier Saillard and philosopher Emanuele Coccia.
Clothes may often be taken for granted, yet they lead countless lives. Every garment narrates the story of the body that inhabits it, and every wardrobe serves as a personal archive, a sort of museum. The exhibition will guide visitors through an exploration of the profoundly subjective value we assign to garments at various stages of their lifecycle and within different contexts: in a shop window or a museum archive; in fashion, even if momentarily, or forever linked with an iconic wearer; abandoned, or loved, as in the case of Stelio Crise’s coat now on display.
The Loved Garment
The loved garment doesn’t concern itself with labels and logos. It isn’t the most beautiful or the most sophisticated. It stands in contrast to the overly arrogant fashionable garment, even though it may derive from it. The loved garment is a set of circumstances and situations, committing to memory the virtues of an embroidery finer than a gold thread. It can be ours, that of a relative, or of a loved one that we cherish or pass on to others. Garments are also this: showcases and hieroglyphs of love for our own and others' bodies, displayed openly.
The citizens of Trieste are invited to exhibit the garment they have an emotional connection with. A memento that the fashion industry denies, each person's garment restores the enduring poetry that binds the piece to its owner, beyond trends, beyond labels, beyond tastes.
Stelio Crise’s coat
Currently on display is the coat of Stelio Crise, librarian, writer and literary critic who was a tireless driver of Trieste's cultural life in the 1950s.
A renowned critic of James Joyce, Stelio Crise (1915 - 1991) was in contact with writers Umberto Saba, Anita Pittoni, Claudio Magris, Fulvio Tomizza, and had strong friendships with poet Biagio Marin and sculptor Marcello Mascherini, among others. His work as a librarian, a role he passionately embraced, contributed to a modern vision of the public library as a place centered around the reader, “who is always the revitalizing yeast of a book.” Trieste has honored him with the naming of the “Biblioteca Statale” library, a reading room at the University of Trieste, and a room at the “Biblioteca del Seminario Vescovile” library.
Many remember Stelio Crise wearing this coat with a beret (which he had purchased in Paris). Following his death, the newspaper Il Piccolo published a beautiful article in his memory that included comments from his dear friend, journalist, critic, and writer Geno Pampaloni. "I will miss his beret, his tight coat," wrote Pampaloni, "his figure that used to meet me on the slabs of Piazza Unità." That coat has continued to live on, becoming a symbol of filial love through the generations.
Originally, it belonged to Tancredi Biondi Santi, son of the creator of the Brunello di Montalcino wine (Tancredi later established the DOCG, making it famous worldwide) and Stelio Crise's main mentor, having married Stelio's aunt. Stelio spent many of his university years as a guest at the “Il Greppo” estate in Montalcino.
Upon Tancredi's death, the bond was such that Franco, his son, invited Stelio to choose some of his father's clothes to keep as a beloved memory. Stelio chose this coat, which he wore from 1971 until his death in 1991. The coat continued its emotional journey by passing to one of Stelio’s sons, Stefano, who wore it until its donation to Fondazione ITS, agreed upon with his brothers Alessandro and Lorenzo.