Project UPALES

UPALES is an art project featuring UPA dresses. It is a project of 10 fairytales that invites you do dive into the deeper self, to question, to wonder.

Caressing

Have you ever touched a soul? Neither did I. How can you touch it, you ask? Well, I have a story to tell about a girl who did touch her soul.

Once upon a time there was a girl. She always wore her best dress, she always made her bed, she always smiled and most importantly, she was always kind to herself and all the world around her. Her little world had beautiful windows. She loved to dance.. until one day... when she realized that there is another world that she had no idea existed. And this world is not the one outside her big windows.

At that very moment she grew up. Just like that. She stopped dancing and went to look at what she found. It was another window- a window to her soul. It was such an exciting finding. The girl was shy in the beginning making first steps to the window. She was gently touching leaves and branches, hugging flowers of the soul. She took all the time she needed to sincerely tame her soul.

She sat there patiently hugging, listening, caressing, just being there, looking at her soul. She had no expectations. She wanted to surrender. She wanted just to know what is it there, within her soul.

And then she did. She did surrender. With all her love, with strength, with courage. She then became all one- a little girl with a big soul. She splashed and sang, she danced and laughed. Because she knew. She knew she is a girl with a big soul.

Featuring Amelia dress

Peculiar World

Once upon a time there was a girl and her little peculiar world. She felt safe there because everything she imagined was kind and beautiful. There was nothing wrong with beautiful in her world. It was so small it could fit into her head or a wheat field. She was very important there.
The girl could flip her world upside down. Then she could see stars growing out of soil. The moon rolling over the wheat field. Her laughter would make all the birds sing so loud you could understand the things they were saying. The clouds would tickle her feet. And always, always... her mother's arms hold her tight full of love and meaning. Because the little girl knew already then that a Mother is her spine.
She had all the love in the world in her little heart. Nobody yet made her promises they couldn't keep. Nobody yet made her cry for no reason. Oh, please understand, she did cry, but it surely were very important reasons. How can you not to cry if the little bird you were so interested in decided to fly off with other birds without saying 'goodbye'. How can you not to cry if your beautiful wheat field started changing colour. It was so unexpected. How can you not to cry if you laugh so hard at the jokes trees are whispering to your ear. How can you not cry out of joy living in this beautiful peculiar world.

Featuring Isolda dress

Fruits of thought

So a little weird world has happened. And so she was standing there, this girl Tullia, with watering thoughts of her own and a full suitcase of other's. And all of those thoughts started suddenly to come out. So many of them, so many words, so much water. What happened to the world?

It seemed the same. Apple trees full of fruits, earth under her bare feet, but all those thoughts... insanity. 

And there she was- Tullia. To make it work. She is the one. She wears a crown. She makes things work in her own little world. 

And so she pours all of the thoughts, mix in the song, she pours it back and rests all fall. She's standing tall, allows it all fall down on earth, make new sounds work and goes along.

And then she walks.

 Featuring Tullia Coat

What you think you become

...once upon a time there lived a girl. She was an explorer, a scientist and a whisperer.. or just a frog. She knew everything. Just sometimes her thoughts would disappear and hide in empty jars, or so they looked. But only she knew how to find the and store them back into her head so that when she speaks it makes the most beautiful stories. And only she knew how to identify which jar to open at the right time. And this was extremely important job. She would check the thought temperature, she would look straight into the eye, she would blow in all the air out of her lungs just to understand the thought.

And once.. this one time.. she got something different than just a thought. She got a frog!

..and in that minute, in that single minute she have met all the thoughts she ever had, all the stories she have ever told. And the girl became so big and so ready to be hugged by her own thoughts. She was so ready to accept the frog.

And this beautiful frog was not alone. She had a company- very special snails. Why were they special, you ask? Well, because they were so very fast. They were very fast to fill all these jars with new thoughts. The thoughts of a big girl. Oh they were so beautiful, full of curiosity and joy, full of beautiful smell of roses, wings of birds. Such a beautiful collection of thoughts..

So all of these thoughts started to mix with each other, making the most beautiful stories, making the most beautiful adventures, most beautiful memories, colours and smells. It was the perfect timing. The perfect time for what you think to become. THE END ... or the beginning.

Featuring Donatella dress