Milano Unica: Bridging Fashion’s Future with Industry Expertise

Milano Unica welcomed 700 exhibitors to connect and share their Fall/Winter 2025/2026 collections with over 5,500 attendees.

Material World: Forward-Thinking Textiles Shine at Milano Unica

But embracing future talent was also significant for the Italian textile trade show, held July 9-11 in Milan. The 39th edition of the show welcomed fashion schools and technical colleges from Italy and abroad to “underscore the importance of education and the connection between industry and young talent,” the organization said.

“[Italy has] a history in textiles so we can take care of them, our culture— European culture , Italian culture—is very, very important,” Simone Canclini , president of Milano Unica, said, noting that recruiting young people in every sector of Europe, not just textiles, is difficult. “We have to convince them to attract them. We have to change a little bit and attempt to explain that behind the window [display] in the street, there is a huge world of textiles; behind the famous brand, there is a value chain with a lot of opportunity.”

Botto Giuseppe shared the sentiment.

The heritage fine yarns and fabric producer said it “aspires to make manufacturing an ambition for young people, thus upholding and passing on the heritage of entrepreneurial culture and expertise.” As such, the international company partnered with the European Institute of Design ( IED )—a private design school in Italy organized into the four disciplines of design, fashion, visual communication and management—to provide young talent with a unique training opportunity as well as investment into the industry’s future.

“We went to different schools to explain our project and what we do in sustainability and what are, for us, the more sustainable materials ; I think this [project] is very important because . . . 80 percent of the impact of the product is the designer; if the designer has the knowledge to identify what are the [more sustainable] materials, it’s better,” Silvio Botto Poala, CEO of Botto Giuseppe , told Sourcing Journal. “I believe it is our duty to help them understand better because when you are a designer, they think about the shape, the touch, the look, the colors—but what is behind at the moment, what the school doesn’t teach, is the sustainability .”

On display at Milano Unica were two projects developed by students from the IED. Marianna Cannataro’s “Sinapsi” project “expressed the fundamental importance of relationship with others in order to understand ourselves and the world around us,” featuring a cropped jacket and pants inspired by medieval jester’s costumes as well as an oversized shirt with batwing sleeves.

Angela Gentile’s “Altra” project “aims to free women from the inferior status that obliges them to be man’s ‘other half,’ deprived of the right or opportunity to establish themselves as ‘other,’ namely the other key player, equal to men.” Gentile created a 100 percent Italian wool fabric (WV) red matte crepe satin dress with natural stretch and a structural cut. She also displayed a pinstripe flannel set consisting of a bodice and a pair of trousers, both utilizing bespoke construction.

European Cotton Takes Center Stage in Milan

“Some say sustainability is a choice; it’s not a choice, it’s a must. You need to go sustainable,” Botto Poala said. “ Young designers need to start to think about: what is the future of this planet?”

MinervaHub also took student collaborations to the trade show floor.

The Italian industrial company specialized in finishes, materials and processes for fashion and luxury accessories presented “Timeless: concreteness. Fusion between space, matter, nature,” a project signed by MinervaHub’s ornaments business group in close collaboration with fashion design scholars from IED Florence. This “synergy” saw the students tasked with making a series of prototypes employing the techniques and processes connected to companies within MinervaHub, including Goretti, Itttai, Jato 1991, Quake and Trapuntatura Belpunto.

“MinveraHub is a group that expresses production excellence at service of creativity in the manufacturing of the ‘Haut de Gamme’ accessory, thanks to a wide and unprecedented range of skills,” Matteo Marzotto , president of Minerva Hub, said. “MinervaHub is an innovative presence in the industrial panorama, not only in Italy, bringing together today 25 of the best companies in the sector from different supply chains . . . We deeply believe in the Italian capacity for ‘beautiful and well-made’ products that take on new, modern, sustainable interpretations.”

Each prototype created in the capsule collection represented a “positive exercise” of creativity combined with the technical solidity of the companies involved, resulting in garments that reflected the “avant-garde” of design interpreted by the “best” Italian craftsmanship tradition, per MinveraHub.

“The students of IED Florence, a new-generation of creatives and future professionals, with their contemporary vision, contribute to revitalize the fashion system and made-in-Italy, merging cultural heritage with a look toward the future,” said Andrea Nardi, academic manager of IED Florence . “Through a real and bold project, supported by companies of the highest level, they have shown how know-how and creativity can be a dynamic force, capable of renewing the deep roots of our culture and taking them to new horizons of excellence.”

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