Madison Pescini

A Yearning for Yesterday

Exploring nostalgia; a rational response to modern instability.

The 2022 ‘Reminiscence’ collection, is a series of garments of varied textures, details, and defining moods that explore the conversation of emotional tension that arises through nostalgia.

Deemed as a medical ailment in the 17th Century, in recent times, nostalgia has been unable to cope with the strange and unfamiliar present for both young and old. In its purest sense, nostalgia is personal and intimate; a touch of the heart appears as a romantic inclination. It seems irrational as we live-in societies orientated towards the now and tomorrow in a world obsessed with a complex, erratic, unstable present.

These garments explore and visually represent the provoked rational response to modern instability in a contemporary way. My designs are meant to capture this peculiar, odd and mysterious overwhelming feeling. However, in a romantic, poetic and lovely composition, this becomes the bittersweet immersion to the lack of control felt. The relationship between personal and historical nostalgia sheds light on individual and social identity interaction.