MILAN — There is finally a new address in town for fashion students at Istituto Marangoni.
The fashion and design school — which throughout the years has extended its reach to art, beauty and hospitality, while expanding its global physical footprint — on Saturday cut the ribbon to its new campus in the city.
Leaving both its historic location on Via Verri, strategically located a few steps from the Golden Triangle luxury shopping district, and its more recent San Babila outpost, Istituto Marangoni has relocated to the neo-Renaissance Palazzo Turati, a historic building in Milan’s chic Via Meravigli area.
The school occupies 96,875 square feet, with more than 10,764 square feet dedicated to laboratories. A charming colonnade and social areas to encourage networking among students are also part of the layout, including a 2,153-square-foot cafeteria overlooking the Milan skyline.
Starting next week, about 2,500 students hailing from 110 countries will relocate to the new campus. Istituto Marangoni’s other location housing design courses on Via Cervais will remain open.
Inside the new Istituto Marangoni Milan campus.
Mario Cinquetti/Courtesy of Istituto Marangoni
Following the official opening, the school hosted a fashion show inside the Galleria Meravigli parading the collections of its 10 best fashion design students selected by a jury.
The new campus opening coincides with the 90th anniversary this year of the Milan school.
Marking the milestone, the fashion institution plotted several celebratory initiatives including an exhibition titled “Futures Archive,” developed with the school’s students, tasked with “retracing the past 90 years of fashion across the nine decades of Istituto Marangoni,” said managing director Stefania Valenti.
The Milan school’s fashion design students created outfits that were each inspired by a different decade, delving into the Vogue Italia archives for inspiration. The exhibit, mounted at Palazzo Turati, is aimed at spotlighting also the evolution of the Istituto Marangoni method over the years as the fashion industry was also changing.
“The exhibition is a real tribute that Istituto Marangoni wants to leave to the city of Milan. It signals how the past can inspire research to create new semantic and semiotic lexicons in fashion,” Valenti said.
A look featured in the “Futures Archive” exhibition mounted by Istituto Marangoni.
Courtesy of Istituto Marangoni
In addition to the exhibit, Istituto Marangoni’s second anniversary initiative is the publication of an essay titled “Il Profumo della Bellezza. Leonardo da Vinci tra moda e stile,” or “The Scent of Beauty. Leonardo da Vinci between fashion and style,” in partnership with the Marsilio Editore publishing house.
The publication, curated by researcher Maria Pirulli, sheds light on da Vinci’s contribution to the fashion, textile, beauty and luxury industries, depicting the artist as an ahead-of-his-time champion of Made in Italy and branding. It retraces some of his lesser-known discoveries and inventions including sequins, fragrances, hair colors, lipsticks and faux leather.
“His work is a memento to keep pushing the boundaries of innovation and overcome the limits imposed by science,” Valenti said. “The book as a whole spotlights Leonardo’s contribution to beauty and good taste. He masterminded the concept of ‘academia’ where painters, sculptors and alchemists gathered to discuss and promote innovation in a multidisciplinary approach,” Valenti said.
“I wanted to overcome the segmentation of studies on Leonardo,” Pirulli said. “Arts and crafts were intwined in the [Renaissance] workshops,” she said.
The book will be available on Oct. 17.
The “Il Profumo della Bellezza” essay by Istituto Marangoni and Maria Pirulli.
Courtesy of Istituto Marangoni
As reported, earlier this year Istituto Marangoni also relocated its Paris campus to a new site in rue Boissière, in the 16th arrondissement. In late August it officially opened a new outpost in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which marks Istituto Marangoni’s 11th school globally, adding to those in Milan, Florence, Paris, London, Mumbai, Shanghai, Miami, Dubai and Shenzhen, China.
A 12th outpost — Istituto Marangoni’s virtual one — was also launched earlier this year. Dubbed Istituto Marangoni 12, it’s conceived as a separate, virtual-only unit, with students offered the chance to attend courses through their computers or VR goggles for an even more immersive experience.
