How Isabella Manfredi’s New Show Wardrobe Invites Us Into The Importance Of Clothing

By Cole Hersey

In fashion today there seems to be an obsession with the vintage 90s look, or at least something close to it. Big graphic t-shirts are in along with baggy pants. Styles come back because enough time has passed for us to forget all the horrible aspects of that era and we can live with the good leftovers from that time. But today people talk a lot more about how well those old clothes hold up. 

People in and out of the fashion world are often interested in vintage clothes, especially older workwear, because of how long they last. It’s not like Zara or Shein, where the clothes are made to appear on trend only for the majority of it to end up in a garbage heap somewhere. And so, to design good clothing that stands the test of time, that is made with care for others to enjoy and wear for as long as possible is truly rare these days. But Isabella Manfredi, an artist and clothing designer based in San Francisco, makes clothes with care and attention, without letting go of her own artistic experiments. Her newest show, Wardrobe, open now on Market Street at 1599fdt gallery, which showcases clothes made and worn by the artist exclusively this summer, is a testament to care, detail, and longevity in clothing. The show is open until December 21.

The works presented in Wardrobe really didn’t start out with a gallery show being the express end-goal. Really, according to Manfredi, it was supposed to be a personal experiment: for the entirety of summer she wanted to make and wear her own clothing and journal about it. She wanted to see how the clothes aged. For the first month she spent most of her free time in the studio, making what she needed to wear—hoodies, pants, chore jackets, dresses, t-shirts. Everything. Once she had what she needed to wear, Manfredi wore it from then on until the summer’s end. 

Wardrobe is a presentation of Manfriedi’s experiment. As viewers are allowed to flip through the pieces of the summer wardrobe, the walls sprinkled with bits of notes and rambles from the journal she kept at the time, Manfredi invites us in to see how integral clothes are to our lives.

Entering the gallery, viewers immediately see a large wardrobe, made from salvaged redwood Manfredi built. In it you’ll see clothes with Manfredi’s distinct patchwork of black and white silk-screened images covering many of the pieces. Looking at the pants or jackets in the wardrobe, viewers can see the clothes have stains, the look of wear clearly present on the crew necks, jackets, and shirts that Manfredi lived in for the summer. 

Going to the back you’ll see a rack of clothes on redwood hangers, all of which Manfredi made, which are new recreations of the clothes in the wardrobe, only unworn. At the table are stacks of screen-printed t-shirts, a cheaper option for those who want to support her work but don’t have hundreds of dollars to throw down.

Interspersed along the walls are diary entries from when she conducted this personal experiment. One is an entry about how difficult making a pair of pants had been that it literally left her in tears, another talks about the power of clothing and how integrated and necessary for so many things it is for our lives, and yet another is a log of what she had made and wore up until that point. These entries bring the viewer closer to the work, showing that it was a journey in and of itself to create everything, and that the making of it was the point. The clothing that she designed had a purpose in her own life, a reason, however big or small, for being made.

This show is in many ways not only a presentation of the works made by Manfredi, but also a presentation of herself. What we wear inevitably will reflect on how the world sees us and how we, at the moment, are seeing ourselves. It is the first bit of visual presentation we have to indicate, in so many ways, who we are or want to be. And so, while this work is no longer a part of Manfredi’s personal wardrobe, it still remains a reflection of who she is. In other words, upon meeting Manfriedi, you’ll see these clothes are fitting for her character. 

Speaking on the quality of Manfredi as a person, Facundo Argañaraz, the owner of gallery 1599fdt, said, her work’s authenticity lies in the fact that it is a reflection, to an extent, of who she is as a person. “She’s quiet but the force of her is so engaging,” he described. Most of the cuts of the clothes are not anything special. They are quiet in their simplicity, but clearly made with care and thought. These simple take on traditional, workwear influenced patterns, combined with her screen printing, make something unique that is hard to look away from. And I’m sure, as the clothes age, people will only want her work more, admiring how it holds up, much like the vintage clothes that we can’t get enough of these days.

Lived In: How Isabella Manfredi’s Wardrobe Invites Us Into The Importance Of Clothing

Open Until December 21st.
Instagram @bella.bitmap
https://isabellamanfredi.net/

1599fdt
1912 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

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