Milano Moda Graduate 2026: Matilde Bonechi Wins as Italian Fashion Schools Take the Runway
Milano Moda Graduate’s twelfth edition brought finalists from Italian fashion schools to the Rotonda della Besana in Milan on September 27, 2026. Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana’s official results name Matilde Bonechi as the CNMI Fashion Award winner, Giulio Censori and Costanza Barbieri as the YKK Prize winners, and Corinne Zanini as the recipient of a special mention.
Matilde Bonechi: Clothing as Protection
Bonechi, an Istituto Marangoni Firenze graduate, developed La Forma del Sentire around the relationship between dress, body and identity. Her official project notes connect historical menswear with enlarged proportions and protective knitwear. The research brings a firm outer silhouette into contact with softer, more enveloping surfaces.
Istituto Marangoni describes a handwoven textile made with wool yarns to evoke denim. That experiment links the collection’s interest in familiar workwear with a different material character. Rather than treating historical reference as a finished costume, the project uses it as a structure that can be altered through scale and texture.
The YKK Prize: A Metabolic Method
Costanza Barbieri and Giulio Censori, graduating students in Shoes & Accessories Design and Fashion Design at IED Milano, received the YKK Prize for A Metabolic Method. IED describes a system of garments and accessories whose parts can be separated and recombined. Fastenings become an active part of how the project works.
The school links their research to modernist design and Japanese Metabolism architecture. Its emphasis is on clothing that can change through use, with the wearer participating in the final arrangement. The selected photograph below shows the project within the competition runway.
Gaia Karabits: Volume and Refuge
Gaia Karabits, also from IED Milano, was one of the six Fashion Design finalists. The two selected runway images make volume particularly clear. One pale silhouette expands into a rounded, densely textured form; another places a much quieter upper half above an irregular cluster at the skirt. The contrast allows the lower volume to change the proportions of the whole outfit.
A Collective Competition
Corinne Zanini of IUAV University of Venice received the special mention. The other Fashion Design finalists were Lorenzo Erbetta of Istituto Secoli, Sonia Torracchi of LABA Firenze and Cecilia Marchesini of Accademia Costume & Moda. Their presence places the awards within a collective presentation rather than a single seasonal collection.
Participant Film
Milano Moda Graduate 2026 highlights published by Accademia Costume & Moda. The film documents the institution’s participation; the photographs above are a separate selection supplied by Istituto Marangoni and IED.
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