Overconsumption, mass production, disregard for environmental impact. Everything today is created to be discarded. And we’re not just talking about trivial objects, packaging, or single-use plastics—waste has become the material of our time, shaping the landscapes we inhabit, the waters we pollute, the future we abandon. The ocean, once a sanctuary of life, now mirrors our excess. A growing ecosystem of discarded matter, a graveyard of forgotten choices. The feeling shared by today’s contemporaneity is one of urgency—what happens when there is no more space left to throw away the things we no longer value? What does renewal look like in a world drowning in what we no longer need?

C41 presents Ode of Renewal, a fashion editorial produced by students from Polimoda: Chiara Glionna, Laura Pavlovic, Zinam Klaas, and Giorgio Gracis. Produced in the context of LEONE’s course as part of the Master in Fashion Art Direction at Polimoda. Polimoda represents high-level training in the fashion industry and is an internationally recognised centre of excellence, located in Florence, the heart of one of the most important production areas of Made in Italy.

The mermaid—a being of both land and sea—embodies this duality. In Ode of Renewal, the mermaid becomes a symbol of the entangled relationship between humanity and nature, beauty and waste, survival and adaptation. Through this poetic yet urgent narrative, the editorial sheds light on ocean waste while imagining a future where discarded materials are not an end, but a beginning.

The editorial unfolds in three chapters: suffering, transformation, and renewal. It begins by exposing the scars pollution leaves on the ocean and marine life, revealing the weight of human negligence. Then comes the awakening—anger and frustration give way to hope, as nature’s resilience mirrors our own capacity for change. Finally, waste is reimagined as a resource, turning destruction into creation. Fashion becomes a tool for consciousness, challenging the industry to rethink materials, values, and sustainability.

Ode of Renewal is an invitation. To redefine, to reshape, to reclaim. To build a future where sustainability is not a choice, but a necessity. A future where waste is not an end, but a beginning.