Top IED Milan graduates 2024 showcase collections in Milan city centre

Ten IED fashion designers took to the catwalk in the centre of Milan on June 26 and 27. ‘Ied Avant défilé 2024’ is the graduate event of the IED Milano fashion school, sponsored by the City of Milan and the National Chamber of Italian Fashion.

The young protagonists, selected from among the best graduating students of the current academic year, showed their thesis collections in a setting that was both personal and collective at the same time, through 10 static installations and repeated live performance moments, in which the outfits came to life. Various themes were explored in the projects, unified by the expressive power attributed to the garment.

Alessia Ferrucci explores gestures of cleaning workers and helpers

For example, the theme of work emerged in the collections: Alessia Ferrucci, a designer of Filipino origin on her mother's side, wanted to ennoble the gestures of the help. The act of cleaning, characterised by a repetitive gesture of rubbing and twisting, is impressed in the fabric through transparent and translucent coatings. The silhouettes are drooping, drawn downwards, appearing to dissolve and drip. This aesthetic is brought to life in layered garments inspired by domestic workwear, particularly the apron, with its lace-up closures.

Marco Servedio, on the other hand, emphasised the safety of blue-collar work and risk prevention, including through uniforms.

"For the second time, we are in the heart of Milan to launch a challenge to our graduating students: that of opening up with courage and responsibility to a wide audience, of acquaintances and others, explaining, each with their own language and aesthetics, what it means to design and what lies behind the thought that is transformed, through design, into action," Olivia Spinelli, head of fashion school Ied Milan, who also curated the artistic direction of the event, said, commenting on the graduation show.

Emma Baroni presents genderless collection ‘Je vois encore’, embraces the theme of remembrance linked to place of birth

Among the designers, Emma Baroni, with her genderless collection entitled ‘Je vois encore’, also embraces the theme of remembrance linked to one's place of birth. Twenty-two years old, from Brentonico, in Vallagarina, Trentino, Emma graduated from the High School of Human Sciences in Rovereto and during her studies in fashion design she became passionate about everything related to the research preceding a collection, iconographic and fabric design, but also knitwear design and textile manipulation.

Davide Casadei, with his menswear collection ‘Indossando la pioggia’ (‘Wearing the rain’), invited a shift in perspective on the world, recalling the subversive potential of clothing. Faced with banality and conventionality, garments become tools of dissent against conformity and conditioning, opening new paths to one's own truth.

His pieces serve as a kind of armour against the outside world: the man who wears them has a perpetually dreamy look and a noble yet tormented soul. He wears comfortable trousers and crumpled blazers; the overly long cuffs slip over the hands, almost preventing the use of a smartphone; he favours large bags that conceal the body, providing additional protection to face the present.

This article was originally published on FashionUnited.IT. Translation and edit from Italian into English by Veerle Versteeg.