12TH OF MAY 2026

WORKSHOP @ NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Campus di Roma, Via Ostiense 92

10.00 - 18.00
Session 1: RENEWAL & RECOVERY

• Colour Lab - The Art and Science of Natural Pigments in Sustainable Textile Practices 
  Hands-on Dyeing Workshop with Christina Dörfler, artist, researcher and educator, Vienna
  
  

10:00 – 18:00
Session 2: INTERACTION

• Coded Biophilia: How soft living matters are shaping the way we perceive other bodies? 
  Workshop with Giulia Tomasello, interaction designer and researcher, Rome

13TH OF MAY 2026

CONFERENCE @ MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome, Via Nizza, 138


14.30 - 15.00 [Auditorium]
Introduction and opening of the conference by Dobrila Denegri

15:00 – 16:00 [Auditorium]
Session 3: DEMATERIALISATION/REMATERIALISATION

• Fashion as a Radical Act of Collaboration Shaped by War, Identity, and Hope
  Adi Gill, threeASFOUR’s Founder / Creative Director / Fashion Designer, and Professor at Parsons School of Design, in conversation with Gloria Maria Cappelletti and Dobrila Denegri

16.30 - 17.30 [Auditorium]
Session 4: DEMATERIALISATION/REMATERIALISATION

• METASENS TRILOGY - From Hybrid Reconstruction To Digital Integration
  Lecture + Q&A with Jens Laugesen, Creative Director / Founder of JENS_LAUGESEN DESIGN and KONsensX Advisory Collective, introduced by Dobrila Denegri

17.30 - 19.00 [Cinema Hall]
Session 5: RENEWAL & RECOVERY

• The Rome premiere of Yuima Nakazato’s award-winning documentary Dust to Dust (2024)
  Directed by Kosai Sekine, the film follows a Japanese fashion designer to Kenyan landfills to examine the environmental impact of textile waste. It highlights the journey towards socially responsible fashion and features the creation of Nakazato's innovative, sustainable materials for his Paris Haute Couture presentation of the collection “Inherit”.

14TH OF MAY 2026

TALK & CONFERENCE @ MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome, Via Nizza, 138

12.00 - 13.00 [Auditorium]
Session 6: RENEWAL

• Prosperity Fashion: Nature as Material Agency
  Talk + Q&A with Paolo Franzo, Researcher in Fashion Design at the Department of Architecture of the University of Florence, moderated by Dobrila Denegri

14.00 - 16.00 [Auditorium]
Session 7: DEMATERIALISATION, RENEWAL & RECOVERY

• The Digital Turn in Fashion Education: Experimentation, Heritage and New Perspectives
  Curated by Romana Andò, Associate Professor of “Sociology of Communication and Fashion” and “Audience Theory and Analysis” at Sapienza University of Rome Brainstorming and discussions with lecturers and professors teaching fashion at NABA, IED, RUFA, ILA, and Accademia della Moda e Costume:
  - Guenda Cermel, Head of Fashion, RUFA, Rome University of Fine Arts
  - Ivana Conte, Director, ILA, International Luxury Academy, Rome/London
  - Viviana Damiano, Head of “Fiamma Lanzara” Library, Accademia Costume e Moda, Roma
  - Colomba Leddi, Fashion Design Area Leader, NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milano
  - Diego Manfreda, Course Leader, BA in Fashion Design, NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Roma
  - Romina Toscano, BA Coordinator of Fashion Styling and Art Direction course, IED, Istituto Europeo di Design, Roma

16.30 - 17.30 [Auditorium]
Session 8: RENEWAL & RECOVERY

• Fashion & Technology
  Lecture + Q&A: Ute Ploier, designer and professor at Fashion & Technology, University of Arts Linz and Anna Breit, photographer, Vienna

17.30 - 18.30 [Auditorium]
Session 9: DEMATERIALISATION/REMATERIALISATION

• All about SOLL
  Talk, Silvio Vujičić, artist and fashion designer and Miro Roman, architect and researcher, moderated by Dobrila Denegri

15TH OF MAY 2026

EXHIBITION OPENING @ NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Via Ostiense 92

11.00 - 12.30 [Gallery]
Session 10: RENEWAL & RECOVERY, INTERACTION

• Opening of the exhibition showcasing the work of Christina Dörfler and Giulia Tomasello, as well as the outcomes of workshops with students led by them

CONFERENCE @ MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome, Via Nizza, 138

14.30 - 15.30 [Auditorium]
Session 11:  INTERACTION

• Wearable Futures: Fashion as Interface Between Body, Environment, and Technology
  Lecture + Q&A: Galina Mihaleva, Fashion Designer, Researcher, and Associate Professor, FIDM ASU (Arizona State University)

15.30 - 16.30 [Auditorium]
Session 12: DEMATERIALISATION

• From Self-Expression to the Uncanny Self
  Lecture + Q&A: Gloria Maria Cappelletti, Lecturer and Subject Advisor New Technologies for Fashion, NABA; Editor-in-Chief, RED-EYE Metazine; AI Contributor, d La Repubblica

17.00 - 18.00 [Auditorium]
Session 13: RECOVERY

• FASHIONCLASH — Fashion Makes Sense: Social Design in Practice
  Lecture + Q&A: Els Petit-Carapiet and Branko Popović, Founders & Business and Artistic Directors @ FASHIONCLASH, Maastricht

18.00 - 19.00 [Auditorium]
Session 14: RECOVERY

• Presentation of the project Our Rags Magazine
  Elisa van Joolen, visual artist, Programme Director of the BA Fashion Department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and member of the critical fashion platform Warehouse.

ALL SESSIONS WILL BE HELD IN ENGLISH, AND THE ENTRANCE IS FREE

BRIEFS WORKSHOPS

Christina Dörfler - Colour Lab - The Art and Science of Natural Pigments in Sustainable Textile Practices

This workshop explores natural dyeing as a hands-on method for artistic research and contemporary textile design. It focuses on colour, materiality and the transformation of textile surfaces through direct engagement with matter, time and process.
Drawing on references to historical dyeing practices from Hallstatt, Austria, colour is approached as a way of connecting material exploration with cultural layers of making. This approach serves as a starting point for developing new design ideas and opens up connections between material exploration and cultural layers of making.
During the studio sessions, students work with plant-based dyes, mineral pigments and resist techniques to develop their own tactile and visual language. Inspired by landscapes, erosion processes and organic forms, they explore textile surfaces as fields of transformation shaped through layering, traces and physical interaction. Students develop a series of experimental textile samples that translate these processes into contemporary textile design strategies.

Giulia Tomasello - Coded Biophilia - How soft living matters are shaping the way we perceive other bodies?

Technology is getting closer and closer to our skin. What we wear today will soon be forgotten and replaced by biological technologies that are not only changing and challenging the way we consume and experience design and fashion, but also how we relate to and work with nature rather than against it. Coded Biophilia is a workshop designed to teach the basics of soft wearables and explore biological textiles. A space designed to explore the potential of living matter for textile futures, creating speculative scenarios for second skins and adaptive responsive structures. A way to envision how biotechnology and new materials will shape our bodies and our environment, as well as an opportunity to rethink the relationship between technology, fashion and nature.

BRIEFS CONFERENCE

Adi Gil / threeASFOUR - Fashion as a Radical Act of Collaboration Shaped by War, Identity, and Hope

For Gabriel Asfour, Angela Donhauser, and Adi Gil – founders of threeASFOUR – fashion has never been simply a way of dressing, but a way of seeing the world. Hailing from Lebanon, U.S.S.R, and Israel, this ‘United Nations of fashion’ combines cutting-edge technologies with couture craftsmanship to promote international, intercultural, and interspecies unity. From the primordial topologies of glaciers to the nano-vibrations of the quantum realm, threeASFOUR’s signature codes – curvilinear shapes, fractal structures, formal biomimicry – draw inspiration from the natural geometries that connect the architecture of the individual human body to its universal, cosmic contexts. By using pioneering production methods – especially 3D-printing and the creation of digital fashion and virtual environments – threeASFOUR inhabits the confluence of timeless, transcendent themes and futurefacing innovation. The spirit of community motivates threeASFOUR’s dedication to ongoing collaboration.

Jens Laugesen - METASENS TRILOGY: From Hybrid Reconstruction To Digital Integration

Jens Laugesen presents METASENS TRILOGY, an innovative digital and “phygital” (physical + digital) fashion project launching during London Fashion Week from September 2022. The project explores fashion through a 50/50 hybrid model, collaborating with experienced digital artists from Style Protocol and VZNZ to create experiences that merge physical design with AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), and metaverse environments.

Yuima Nakazato - Dust to Dust

Renowned Japanese fashion designer Yuima Nakazato is a key figure in the ethical manufacturing movement. As the second Japanese designer ever invited to Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week, Nakazato is dedicated to merging his unique artistic vision with sustainable, green technology. Kosai Sekine's film DUST TO DUST chronicles Nakazato's journey towards socially responsible fashion, from the landfills of Kenya to the Paris runway. Through his ethereal designs, Yuima Nakazato offers a radical reimagining of the fashion industry, emphasising a future where creativity and care for the world go hand in hand.
https://dust-to-dust.jp/

Ute Ploier - Fashion & Technology

The internationally oriented program “Fashion & Technology” of the University in Linz is aimed at people who think, act and research in an experimental and sustainable way. Through design and critical reflection, they explore emergent areas arising from the combination of traditional fashion techniques and technologies with new technical disciplines, and develop projects under the guidance of international experts in design, research, art, and business.

Silvio Vujičić & Miro Roman - All about SOLL

Soll is a fashion designer, an artificial intelligence, a sub-brand of E.A. 1/1 S.V., a search engine, a cloud of images, and is on his way to becoming more. Soll is conceptualised by architect Miro Roman and fashion designer and visual artist Silvio Vujičić. Soll lives on the internet but manifests physically through his fashion brand, E.A. 1/1 A.I.

 Paolo Franzo - Prosperity Fashion: Nature as Material Agency

This talk examines the notion of “prosperity fashion” as a critical response to the environmental and social limits of the contemporary fashion system. Moving beyond growth-oriented models based on GDP, it adopts a relational understanding of prosperity grounded in ecological, social, and cultural interdependencies. Drawing on post-human and new materialist perspectives, the contribution reconsiders fashion as a field shaped by the entanglement of human and non-human agents.
Focusing on recent developments in material and textile research, the talk explores how design practices can decentralise the human and reposition nature as an active material agency. In this view, materials are no longer passive resources but dynamic participants that challenge established notions of production, consumption, and temporality.
Ultimately, the talk argues that rethinking fashion through material vitality and interspecies relations can open up new pathways toward more sustainable and meaningful forms of prosperity.

Gloria Maria Cappelletti - From Self-Expression to the Uncanny Self

Gloria Maria Cappelletti's lecture will examine how artificial intelligence is transforming fashion as a form of self-expression. As AI-generated images and algorithmic systems increasingly influence aesthetics and identity, the concept of the “self” is no longer singular or stable, but becomes multiplied, displaced, and partly externalised. In this context, fashion shifts from merely expressing identity to navigating an uncanny form of selfhood, which feels both familiar and alien. The talk introduces the idea of the uncanny self to describe this change, where human and machine imaginaries intersect, creating new aesthetic and psychological tensions in modern fashion.

Galina Mihaleva - Wearable Futures: Fashion as Interface Between Body, Environment, and Technology

The lecture examines fashion as an interactive and interdisciplinary system that mediates relationships between the human body, environmental conditions, and data. Through a series of projects integrating wearable technology, responsive textiles, and sustainable material experimentation, the work positions garments as interfaces capable of sensing, processing, and expressing both physiological and environmental information. The presentation will also consider fashion’s evolving role within education and research, advocating a shift from object-based design towards systems-based and socially embedded practices that address sustainability, wellbeing, and future human–technology interactions.

Els Petit-Carapiet & Branko Popović - Fashion Makes Sense: Social Design in Practice

Founders and Artistic Directors of FASHIONCLASH present their program line, Fashion Makes Sense — an ongoing series of social design and co-creation projects that explore fashion's role in addressing sustainability and broader societal challenges. Rather than treating fashion as just an industry, Fashion Makes Sense approaches it as a cultural force with genuine capacity to connect people, provoke reflection, and contribute to community wellbeing. The talk will showcase two examples of this approach. One example is People Carry People (Mensen dragen Mensen), a large-scale performance created for the Heiligdomsvaart Maastricht 2025 — a centuries-old pilgrimage tradition. Over 100 participants, ranging in age from 3 to over 70, co-created costumes, flags, and objects from discarded textiles collected through a local waste management partnership. The outcome was a procession through the city that wove together themes of community, vulnerability, and recovery — both environmental and human. The second is TexTiles, a participatory art project developed for Maastricht Year 2026, in which hundreds of residents create individual textile tiles that together form a large-scale collective artwork covering Plein 1992. Inspired by the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, the project brings together newcomers and long-established residents, weaving a contemporary 'treaty' in textile. It demonstrates how fashion can foster social connections across communities. Collectively, these projects illustrate how fashion can serve as a medium for recovery — of materials, communities, and collective meaning — and how this work connects to wider questions about the future of the creative industries.

Elisa van Joolen - Our Rags Magazine

Our Rags Magazine (ORM) is a fashion magazine that turns discarded garments into paper. Each did a handmade issue is a speculative proposal for a magazine set 400 years in the future—a time when transformation and reuse are no longer ethical choices, but absolute necessities. The pages do not just depict clothing; they are clothing.
ORM is a collaborative project by artist Aimée Zito Lema, Elisa van Joolen, and graphic designer Elisabeth Klement, all based in Amsterdam. Launched in 2021, the magazine is made entirely—both in content and form—from recycled clothing, exploring the transformation of discarded textiles into experimental paper. It challenges established norms within the fashion industry while demystifying production processes.
Bringing together artists, fashion professionals, writers, students, and schoolchildren, ORM explores transformation, collective making, and the creative potential of reuse. The transformation of materials and ideas runs throughout the project: how can centuries-old paper-craft techniques, shared knowledge, and alternative production methods respond to a world where natural resources are depleted, and reuse becomes the only option?

BRIEFS INSTALLATIONS

Jens Laugesen - XXL JACKET

XXL JACKET is an installation that has been toured to date at various museums and fashion events in the UK, Germany, and Denmark. The piece for the author is a perfect example of how mistakes become art, as the grader, by mistake, produced the jacket pattern incorrectly twice, ultimately resulting in an art installation.

Anna Breit & Gerald Brandstätter, Peter Fellner, Lena Haslinger, Marilies Luger, Max Menschhorn, Hannah Pekarz, Mia Trotz, Sookie-Celeste Simair

Anna works across fashion photography and artistic projects, focusing on people and relationships, particularly those within families and among friends. She shoots exclusively on film and often uses a bright, powerful flash, retouching her photos very little. She took photos of student collections from the Fashion & Technology courses, and the selection is printed on tencel and displayed on the display structures designed by Supervoid.