To date, 2025 at ITS Arcademy has been nothing short of extraordinary. Our museum, dedicated to contemporary fashion but deeply rooted in creativity in all its forms, has once again proved to be much more than an exhibition space. It has become a stage, a classroom, a playground and a meeting point – a place where ideas come alive and where people of all ages and backgrounds rediscover that they were born to create.
You will find it written on our T-shirts, explained by Daphne Guinness in the video introducing all visitors to the museum, repeated by our guides during your visits. Born To Create is our philosophy. Think back to when you were a child, picking up colours and sketching shapes without ever asking yourself why. Creativity came naturally, spontaneously and freely. Somewhere along the way, many of us set it aside – but it never truly disappeared. At ITS Arcademy we believe that spark can always be rekindled, whether through fashion, design, scent, performance or storytelling. All it takes is the willingness to try, to open up to new perspectives, to get your hands involved in the process again.
This is the spirit with which we approach every activity, developed and designed as an invitation for participants to explore, to play, to learn, to look at the world a little differently. And you, our public, responded with enthusiasm.
During this year’s events you filled our rooms with questions, laughter and curiosity. You became part of the creative process itself and, for that, we cannot thank you enough: your participation gave shape and meaning to this remarkable season and fuels our plans for the next one. Here are some of the highlights.
BORDERLESS – a Photo Exhibition
2025 opened in January with the Borderless Photo Exhibition, created with the support of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional Authority and in collaboration with the City of Trieste. Ten international fashion designers, selected during ITS Contest 2024 for the GO! 2025 Borderless Award – in partnership with GO!25 Gorizia Nova Gorica European Capital of Culture – developed an outfit translating the theme of the dissolution of borders into their clothes. In striking photographic works by Massimo Gardone, this exhibition marked the first time we stepped out of the building and brought the museum directly into the streets. Each project is enhanced by QR codes offering exclusive digital content to dive deeper into the designers and their creations.
This exhibition transforms the heart of Trieste into a vibrant and interactive space, where art and fashion converge in an open dialogue with the city.
The installation – which will be on show at least until June 2026 – also invites interaction with its benches, as we have seen citizens, tourists and passers-by using them to rest, make a phone call, simply wait for someone, or even change their babies’ nappies. Every day it is a pleasure to see everyone experiencing it in their own way.
An Evening with Urban Scents
We had been dreaming of an event dedicated entirely to scent and perfumery for as long as we can remember. And finally, we made it happen in May. With Urban Scents, we invited the public on a unique sensory journey devoted to contemporary perfumery. Guided by Marie and Alexander of Urban Scents Paris–Berlin, participants experienced fragrance not simply as something to wear, but as a total artwork – where the nose becomes the brush, the skin the canvas, and the air the colour. A limitless act of creation, leaving unforgettable impressions.
In a world where boundaries dissolve and identities shift, fragrance emerges as an immersive, avant-garde medium – as invisible as it is unforgettable. It crosses disciplines, cultures and eras, weaving together art and science, nature and alchemy, memory and vision, past and present.
It was fascinating to uncover false myths – for example, the belief that heavy smokers cannot be professional noses, which is completely untrue – and to discover historical reasons for phenomena such as the connection between scents and religion.
Through the exploration of experimental compositions, rare materials and reimagined traditions, perfumery revealed itself as a radical space of emotional resonance and artistic freedom – an immersive language that speaks directly to the unconscious, defying borders and categories. A truly unforgettable evening, which we hope to repeat soon.
ITS Arcademy × KIDS
Every month we welcome children to the museum for a whole day dedicated to a one-of-a-kind, playful treasure hunt through our galleries. We shift perspectives and reveal the magical side of accessories, uncovering fantastical creatures and garments made from unexpected materials – a reminder that curiosity and imagination truly know no age.
Exploring ITS Arcademy becomes a guaranteed adventure: each child is provided with a map and pencil, and along the way they uncover unexpected details, surprising clues, and riddles to solve (with a little help from our guides, of course). Sharp observation, curiosity, and imagination are the keys to unlocking the magical power of creativity within our museum’s halls.
It’s a way to nurture the ability children already have to view the world from another perspective – a fantastical one. A rhino and a donkey painted on a dress, a Room of Wonders filled with hats that collect rain, and a non-brush designed to mess up your hair. A library holding thousands of creative projects, made of paper and fabric, and a glowing book that writes itself. Disappearing outfits, shimmering dresses made from potatoes, and a bag crafted from kitchen sponges and utensils. Puffy jackets that fit together like a puzzle, semi-snails, half shells and half trash… a creative eye can turn reality on its head.
For children aged 6–11, it’s a truly fun family activity you’ll want to book..
ITS Arcademy for Schools
Once again, our doors opened to hundreds of students over the past few months, such as those from ISIA Florence, whose workshop explored uniforms as signs of belonging and collective identity.
We partnered with ISIA Florence, the first state university-level institute in Italy specialising in design, to create a fascinating workshop with their fashion design course, which this year focused on the theme of uniforms.
Less oriented towards practical functionality than workwear, uniforms serve as a visual representation of an institution – or of that “something” we wish, or feel, we belong to. Tracksuits, particularly those associated with a university or a gym, are uniforms too – garments that create a sense of unity. (And the tracksuit is, by the way, among the iconic everyday pieces featured in our exhibition Fashionlands – Clothes Beyond Borders.)
The students shared their projects with us, each one born from reflections on the idea of the uniform and of “uniforming”, under the eyes of Fondazione ITS President Barbara Franchin, who spoke with them about passion and vision. It was a day of food for thought for us and, we hope, for them as well.
The same spirit animated the ITS GO! 2025 Borderless for FVG Schools project, which brought together students from seven secondary schools across Friuli Venezia Giulia:
Istituto Professionale di Stato “Giacomo Ceconi” – Udine
Istituto Professionale Statale “R.M. Cossar – Leonardo da Vinci” – Gorizia
Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “R. D’Aronco” – Gemona
Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “Lino Zanussi” – Pordenone
Liceo Artistico “Max Fabiani” – Gorizia
Liceo Artistico “Enrico e Umberto Nordio” – Trieste
Liceo Artistico “Sello” – Udine
Material Visions with Andrea Cammarosano
In June, we welcomed back Andrea Cammarosano, designer, artist and educator, and the only Trieste-born finalist of ITS Contest in 2008. He returned with a workshop-event at ITS Arcademy dedicated to exploring the relationship between body, form and matter.
How can we “read” a fabric with our eyes, our hands and our bodies? This was the fundamental question Andrea posed to the participants. Through a journey of sensory exploration, he invited them to investigate the relationship between visual form and material construction, and between body and textile object. It was an interactive experience engaging perception, gesture and thought, through tactile installations created by Cammarosano in collaboration with Gruppocinque, a high-end textile company renowned for its innovative and experimental spirit.
Matter and colour became tools of observation and invention, opening up new possibilities for interpretation and creation.
Anita Pittoni
Perhaps the most moving event we have created to date, “I need affection and the city is harsh” was a special evening at the end of June dedicated to Anita Pittoni, a multifaceted artist, publisher and tireless cultural animator of 20th-century Trieste. A theatrical evening, and a gathering to rediscover an iconic figure of the city’s cultural heritage, the event intertwined words, memory and theatre, restoring voice and presence to one of the most original personalities of Trieste’s cultural scene.
One hundred years after her birth, ITS Arcademy paid tribute to Anita Pittoni on the very street where she lived and created for over thirty years. The evening opened with a dialogue with those who had known and loved her – artists, poets and scholars who continue to keep her memory alive – moderated by journalist and writer Alessandro Mezzena Lona. This was followed by the staged reading “Anita at the Typewriter”, a theatrical homage written and directed by Gioia Battista and performed by Giustina Testa and Ariella Reggio, giving voice once more to Anita Pittoni. An intimate tale, set during the artist’s final days, retraced a life marked by courage, inquiry and art – and moved many to tears.
During the evening, ITS Arcademy’s multifunctional hall was officially named after Anita Pittoni. A symbolic gesture, rich in meaning: a space for meeting and creating, exchanging and discovering ideas and readings, just as her cultural salon once was. A heartfelt passing of the baton between a woman who embodied the beating heart of 20th-century Triestine culture and a place that today gathers, nurtures and promotes the creativity of young design talents from all over the world.
A new tourist itinerary, developed by PromoTurismoFVG and ITS Arcademy, was also presented. Beginning and ending at ITS Arcademy, it pays tribute to Anita alongside other cultural giants such as James Joyce, the Wulz Sisters and Leonor Fini.
I See Something Else
In collaboration with Area Science Park, this September we offered two one-of-a-kind guided visits to the museum, pairing our own guides with scientists and researchers from the city’s leading scientific institutions. For those who may not know, Trieste is one of the world’s scientific capitals, particularly in the field of theoretical physics.
For the lucky few who managed to book a ticket, it was a mind-blowing opportunity – forgive our scientific enthusiasm – to dive into the minds of creatives from a scientific perspective. For instance, participants explored the neurological processes that occur when we create, or discovered what physics actually tells us about the possibility of teleportation while looking at a teleportation-inspired outfit in Fashionlands – Clothes Beyond Borders. Other outfits, also in the Borderless exhibition, became the occasion to hear scientists explain the chemistry, structure and wonders of specific materials used by designers, as well as to reflect on the philosophical dilemmas posed by AI – a tool increasingly embraced by the new generations of designers.
A New Exciting Season is coming
And if this is only a non-exhaustive account of what we have experienced so far, rest assured there is still so much to look forward to. Currently underway – it began at the end of September – is a course organised with Cinecittà in Rome. Bottega Artigiana is an intensive 260-hour programme combining theory, workshops and a final project, bringing professionals and students from across Italy to Trieste. Funded by Cinecittà under NextGenerationEU, the course involves partners such as the FVG Film Commission and two of the city’s main theatres, Teatro Verdi and Politeama Rossetti, and features international tutors who have created costumes for Star Wars, Maleficent, the Paris Opera and celebrities such as Beyoncé and Rihanna. A unique opportunity to train the creatives of tomorrow right here, in the very spaces that support the new generations of talent, safeguarding the future of fashion and costume.
2025 is not over yet, and it has already confirmed once again that creativity does not run out – it multiplies. Thank you for taking part, for supporting, for sharing and, above all, for creating alongside us! We cannot wait to welcome you back for our next season of events at ITS Arcademy, to keep discovering, imagining and shaping new visions together.
Since we were Born To Create, let’s do it together!