Diventa fashion designer is the dream of many: Draw collections, see them parade on the catwalks, collaborate with the maison. But behind creativity there is a complex path made of trainingvision, technical skills and a lot of work. And often, those who dream of this future do not know where to start: which fashion schools attendhow to build a portfolio, what opportunities to seize. Why not follow, therefore, the footsteps of those who have succeeded.
Matthieu Blazy And Demna, Today at the helm of Chanel and Gucci, they have gone fromIts Contest of Triestean international competition that selects young talents every year and accompanies them in the first real step within the fashion industry. THE’2025 edition It was held in Trieste from 10 to 21 March, culminating with the presentation of the final collections, the awarding of the winning designer and the inauguration of an exhibition dedicated to the ITS Arcademy – Museum of Art in Fashion.
Its Contest: the revolution that wears the future
Unlike other competitions, the ITS contest is configured as a real one transformative experience: ten designers from all over the world are selected for a creative residence in Friuli Venezia Giulia, culminating in an exhibition, a award ceremony and entry into an international contact network. At stake, not only a recognition, but a real support system: scholarships, mentorship, visibility. A promise of the future concretized in the format 10x10x10: ten finalists, ten days of work, ten months of exhibition.
Not only fashion schools: the finalists of the ITS contest 2025. Ph. Giuliano Koren
To guide everything, as always, there is Barbara Franchin. With the same passion on the first day, he continues to redesign the rules of the fashion system. “Today more than ever fashion needs creative talent,” he said. «But for many young people, The path is dotted with obstacles. Offering everyone the opportunity to grow together is the most ethical and contemporary answer that we can give ».
Fashion, Culture and Research: the new frontier of contests
From 27 March, the creations of the finalist designers will be the protagonists of the exhibition Borderless – Clothes Beyond Bordersedited by Olivier Saillard and Emanuele Coccia at the ITS Arcademy in Trieste. A museum born to keep and share contemporary fashion as a cultural and social act, with over 15,000 pieces in the archive. Next to Borderless, too Fashionlands widens on the expressive potential of the dress. Because today A fashion contest does not reward only talent, but builds narrativesactive connections, teaches to think.
From the collection Manor for Heaven by Maximilian Raynor, winner of the ITS contest 2025.
New voices, new worlds to imagine
Each finalist of ITS 2025 brings a unique story, a personal poetics, a narrative urgency. There is Maximilian Raynorwinner of the edition, who told the social exclusion through a theatrical imagination inhabited by souls waiting to enter a paradise that does not want them. Deleted tweed, sounds that move with the body, disordered knitwear, already worn by Lady Gaga And Chappell Roanthey become symbols of a silent protest. “I don’t want to be a name on a showcase. I want to continue building worlds, “he says.
From the collection Neuroblastome by naya el ahdab.
There is Naya el ahdabwho spoke of body, accessibility and beauty from an unprecedented perspective, without ever wanting to be a symbol, but only a designer. “I don’t draw to send messages. I make clothes. And it is the clothes that speak for me, “he says about his collection carved in the Jersey and inspired by Madame Grès. And then there is Macy Grimshaw, who transformed the memory into fragile clothes such as paper, cooking a generational bond in his hands and those of his grandmother, suffering from Alzheimer’s. «It is as if between his hands and mine there had remained a suspended thread. And with this collection, that thread found its shape. “
Next to these three protagonists, seven other designers have traced new routes between sustainability, experimentation, identity and poetry. From the cappelli-cistern of Mijoda Dajomi to the vegetable skin of Qianhan Liu, from the emotional knitwear of Patrick Taylor trendy-military of the fashion brushes of Cindy Zhaohan There. Different voices, united by a certainty: The future of fashion is not only in ideasbut in the tools to make them.
Not just fashion schools. Build the future, one opportunity at a time
Form, inspire, accompany. This is how the foundations of a career in fashion are built. The ITS Foundation understood it before many: he chose to support the new talentsto give them voice, space to grow and, above all, the concrete means to do it. But it’s not the only one. Here is a photo gallery dedicated to training courses, fashion schools, Initiatives and opportunities designed for those who dream of transforming creativity into a profession. Talent is only the starting point: what really needs is to know how to use it.
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