In a 90 minute performance during men’s fashion fair Pitti Uomo in the Italian city of Florence, British actress and fashion muse Tilda Swinton has put into question the relationship between clothing and its wearer. To pillory ‘fast fashion’, she sniffed jackets and talked to a vest provided by personal shopper brand Cloakroom. The show was devised by fashion critic and historian Olivier Saillard – not a stranger to Tilda Swinton as they often work together. The audience was invited to leave pieces throughout the play for Tilda to contemplate and interact with, from licking a jacket to throwing herself full force on top of a coat or burying her face in a hood, in an attempt to bring out the poetry in ‘ordinary’ clothes. Saillard and Swinton’s performance asks us to press the pause button on the endless stream of products that – both fast and high-end – fashion churns out. We should appreciate what we already own as Olivier Saillard pointed out: “The collection takes life, built up on what’s acquired and not on novelty, wandering the opposite path to that which was constructed by fashion.” Watch an excerpt from the performance below along with a short interview with Tilda Swinton.

A Fondazione Pitti Discovery project staged in the gilded Saloncino at the Medici-commissioned Teatro della Pergola – the oldest opera house in Italy that now focuses on drama productions – it is the third installment of the duo’s Impossible Wardrobe (Swinton showcasing fashion archive pieces in a performance inspired by Saillard’s position as director of the Palais Galliera in Paris) and Eternity Dress (the making of a dress on Swinton’s body) and the result of a three-year collaboration.