“The Beauty of Sustainable Traditions": talent and sustainability on the catwalk at Bonaudo and IED Milan

The final event of the Fashion Design Contest “The Beauty of Sustainable Traditions” took place on May 27, 2025, in Cuggiono at Bonaudo’s headquarters. The event, promoted by the leather company in collaboration with IED Milano, featured eight young designers selected from the Fashion Design and Shoes & Accessories Design courses at the Istituto Europeo di Design. An exclusive fashion show showcased capsule collections made using high-quality leather provided by Bonaudo, aiming to portray a sustainable, traceable, and innovative fashion that merges natural materials, craftsmanship, and contemporary languages. Costanza Barbieri and Giulio Censori stood out among the finalists and won the top prize with Equilibrio Aureo, a collection inspired by the golden ratio that reinterprets leather in a modular and transformable way, imagining a wardrobe co-created by the wearer. Their vision was deemed the most coherent and innovative, awarded for execution, communication, feasibility, and adherence to the brief. The two winners will now have the opportunity to exhibit their collection in a dedicated space inside Bonaudo’s showroom, engaging with the creative teams of luxury and streetwear brands visiting the company.

The contest, whose subtitle – “Leather: a luxury leader in circularity and durability meets the new generations” – summarizes the project's philosophy, marked a crucial moment to reflect on the role of leather as a bio-based and long-lasting material, a cornerstone of responsible fashion. As Alessandro Iliprandi, CEO of Bonaudo, emphasized, the contest “celebrates the authentic and sustainable value of leather, as well as emerging talent.” A sentiment shared by Umberto Sannino, Head of Fashion School at IED Milano, who highlighted how the initiative reflects the institute’s vision: “a fashion that intertwines artistic identity, cultural responsibility, and artisanal awareness.” The capsule collections of the other finalists expressed a variety of visions aligned with the theme. The Rollercoaster of the Soul by Angela Gerundo celebrated the intensity of existence through visual and material contrasts, while Unveil by Arianna Semprucci turned clothing into a relational gesture, inviting us to rediscover vulnerability as strength.

With Ixchel, Daniela García-Salas Noack paid tribute to her Guatemalan roots, blending Mayan symbolism, craftsmanship, and spirituality, while Sunriders by Giacomo Sica deconstructed the codes of toxic masculinity to narrate a journey of emotional and identity liberation. Marta Preti proposed a journey through suspended childhood memories with Liminal, evoking poetic atmospheres between memory and sustainability, and Valentina Ambar Rovere explored with Lunfardo a multicultural dialogue between tango, Argentine folklore, and new inclusive aesthetics, where leather becomes a sensory and narrative medium. All the projects showcased a strong ability to interpret leather not only as a material but as a language and value: natural, durable, and transformable. The Fashion Design Contest by Bonaudo and IED Milano thus proved to be a generative platform for the designers of tomorrow, strengthening the link between education, industry, and the culture of sustainability.