Elisa Toffoli’s Loved Garment

Currently on display is singer-songwriter Elisa Toffoli’s loved garment: a jacket from the collection she designed in 2001, the same year her song “Luce (Tramonti a Nord Est)” was born.

Just like the song, the collection embodies a catharsis following a pivotal and painful chapter in Elisa’s life — the end of a relationship. This profoundly formative moment led Elisa to bring her story on the stage of Italy’s most prestigious music festival, Sanremo, crafting the song’s lyrics in collaboration with Zucchero Fornaciari. “Luce (Tramonti a Nord Est)” symbolises a rebirth, light emerging from pain and self-awareness.

Elisa’s connection to the song was so personal that she could not perform it wearing someone else’s designs. Every detail was deeply intimate and the outfits became an extension of the song itself.

She chose raw fabrics to reflect the unrefined ongoing shaping of her femininity, and to echo her deep bond with the wild and the natural. The garments, reminiscent of medical gauze, embodied the wounds and trauma waiting to be healed.

Her colour choice was white, after discovering its significance in Asian cultures as a symbol of mourning, loss, and grief. For nearly a year, during this period of transformation, she only wore white.

The collection was a one-time dive into fashion, driven by the need to create a second skin to mirror her identity at that precise moment in time. This jacket is partially a narrative tool, a profound and personal expression that Elisa hopes to share with ITS Arcademy’s guests.