In recent years, the interaction between fashion and design has become increasingly strong. The two worlds are a source of mutual inspiration, but it is the first, with its constant need for change, to drive the market and provide stimuli for ever new hybridisations: Prada has invited famous designers and architects to create clothes and accessories, iconic buildings are used as settings for fashion shows and advertising, designers such as Stefan Beckman and Alexandre de Betak are now acclaimed icons in the field of set design for fashion shows, masters of Milanese architecture have inspired the collections of fashion designer Arthur Arbesse.

Due to the wealth of ideas and the chance of contamination between the two worlds, Istituto Marangoni – founded in 1935 as a school dedicated to fashion – has been offering courses on industrial design, interior design and visual design since five years.

“What differentiates Marangoni from other Milanese design schools? The innovative re-interpretation of the design discipline, the contamination with the fashion world, the confrontation with a fluid society, because it is clear that today you can’t design like 50 years ago” says School Director Massimo Zanotta.

“Refracted Future” is the theme of the exhibition that until July 20, 2019 presents the best degree projects by Istituto Marangoni, reflecting the variety of approaches of the school and the increasing interest in the impact that new technologies have in different areas of design.

For the Industrial Product & Furniture Design program, students Pei Haonan, Gao Kaiyuan and Sandra Turina worked on autonomous driving, a theme that will revolutionise the world of transport in the coming years. Renatta Cervantes, Sofia Strafinger and Anna Frison, from the Interior Design course, have rethought the spaces of a former steelworks, transforming them into a showroom for fashion houses. As part of the Visual & Multimedia course, students Su Zhiheng, Rachele Guarini and Lucrezia Velatta investigated the impact of the digital world on everyday life. A kaleidoscopic installation entitled Paths of Reflection was also created in the school garden in collaboration with the architect and professor Francesco Murano.