IED thesis projects become “Unfold” vernissage A choral tale that transforms the act of dressing into an aesthetic, critical and poetic gesture

In Milan, the art of fashion meets design thinking in an event that marks the crucial transition between education and professional future: it is “Unfold”, the graduation show of Fashion Design students from IED Milano, which for the occasion transforms its campus into an exhibition space open to the public and to dialogue. The 55 selected collections are not merely final course projects, but authentic expressions of thought that take shape through garments. Each outfit becomes a narrative, a storytelling medium, a meeting point between memory and vision. This exhibition invites viewers to reconsider clothing not as a formal outcome, but as a living medium capable of reflecting personal tensions, collective dynamics, desires, and urgencies. The works on display are the result of an internal call, to which the designers responded voluntarily, bringing not only technical skills to the show but also the urgency to share a piece of themselves. The collections range across different aesthetic registers, from experimentation to memory, from theoretical reflection to the construction of visual identities, in an installation that unfolds through spaces and atmospheres. Completing the experience is the Spazio Teatro, an area that hosts an even greater number of works, thanks to the technical and creative support of partner Hans Boodt Mannequins, a leading company in the production of artisanal mannequins.

At the heart of the project lies a reflection on the garment as a device for thought: an expressive medium that not only dresses but connects, questions, and resists. Not by chance, the exhibition is accompanied by two publications, Unbound and Unqualified, which expand the visual experience through words, images, and theoretical reflections, extending the boundaries of the exhibition into editorial language. The approach is deliberately collective, as shown by the large tapestry hanging on the school’s façade, the result of a shared workshop between designers and visitors during a previous exhibition. A visual trace that gives meaning to the passing of hands and thoughts, to the work done together. Unfold is not just an exhibition but an open gesture, in continuous transformation. Each collection, each mark, each fabric offers a glimpse into the present, a hypothesis on how design can be conceived today as a tool for building an aesthetic that is also critical, poetic, and relational. In the interweaving of body and material, vision and gesture, the garment becomes charged with meaning: it turns into an organism, an archive, a threshold. A collective project that celebrates the power of making and thinking, within and beyond the boundaries of fashion.