In an era where art and fashion are increasingly expected to advocate for ethical, environmental and social values, Istituto Marangoni Milano has launched an initiative to address the crucial challenges of our time. The project, titled I’M Conscious, is a contest involving second-year students from Fashion Design, Styling, and Business. Its purpose is to raise awareness among the upcoming generations of managers and creatives, transforming design and creativity into tools for meaningful change. 

The guiding principle of this project is activism. Leading the students on this visionary journey was Sara Sozzani Maino, Creative Director of Fondazione Sozzani and a prominent figure in the Italian cultural and fashion scene. The project invites students to reflect on the role of fashion as a catalyst for social transformation, encouraging them to develop ideas and projects that successfully combine aesthetics, substance, and responsibility.  

Communicating a Message 

It’s a challenge that opens up new horizons. Today, practising a creative profession requires a commitment to building a better world. 

«Fashion activism is a way of affirming and visualising values, while passing a message on to future generations. It needs to be tangible. It’s a powerful word, one that implies culture and education,» explains Sara Sozzani Maino. «Young people have the power to lead change, and both institutions and older generations have a responsibility to support them,» she concludes. 

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A Three-Part Challenge 

Students engaged in activism by expressing their creative visions through one of three available options: they could design graphics and slogans to create mock-ups that feature powerful activist messages; develop impactful social media campaigns, using fashion imagery to highlight urgent global issues, aiming to create engaging and shareable content; or design a garment or outfit that conveyed a strong activist message, aligning their creations with pressing social or environmental causes. 

Three Projects: a Generation in Motion 

The three winning projects from this challenge reflect the tensions, dreams, and urgent concerns of a generation raised amid environmental crises, instability, and a desire for social justice. These students also chose to give voice to those who have often been marginalised. For these young fashion activists, the past serves as both motivation to create new rules and as inspiration to make heritage a living force that embodies their values. 

Nomadivani, by Edoardo Sandrin, uses the evocative power of a short film to tell the story of a girl wandering the streets of Milan. Her journey is a quest for identity amidst contemporary fears and unanswered questions. 

Matrici, by Margherita Budroni, reveals the overlooked paths of women who shaped Italy’s history but were omitted from the history books. These women made significant contributions to the development of the Constitution and the evolution of modern political thought. Their faces and names are revived on tote bags, t-shirts, and murals, becoming the “matrices” of a new, more conscious and inclusive society.  

Ninamadonna, the project by Dana S. Trentin, celebrates the bond among women, creativity as a shared language, and fashion as a medium for connection. In a collaborative space where people talk, sew, and create together, couture is liberated and becomes a lived experience. Clothes are exchanged and transformed, becoming tools for connection, as creating together is also a form of resistance and reinvention. 

Three visions, three voices, all pointing in the same direction: using fashion as a lever for a better society.