ITS Contest 2025

You can’t stop your mind from wandering - human imagination knows no limits. It explores freely, expanding and crossing boundaries, speaking no single language yet all at once. Embracing every culture, every idea, every vision. Making new ones.

Creativity has always been our domain, a universal land of perpetual motion and peace.
Now, more than ever, ITS Contest is BORDERLESS.

In 2025 ITS Contest finalists received financial support and joined a network of peers and industry experts that provided mentoring and career opportunities.

At the core of the ITS Contest experience lied a residency in Italy - an invaluable opportunity to learn new skills and make lifelong friendships at the crossroads of Europe.

A Word From Barbara Franchin

A border automatically creates a division between two spaces, between what is inside and what is not. And it demands a decision - are you in or out?

“Borderless” is how we all should like to feel: when it comes to create, when it comes to love, when it comes to dare, when it comes to dream.

I am all in. When I first stepped into a tiny designer's atelier in the '90s, I saw borders disappear. I realised that, through creativity, I could leave the port of Trieste and travel to the limits of my imagination. It resonated deeply with me and led me to create ITS Contest, where crossing boundaries is not just encouraged — it’s essential.

What you discover when borders disappear is that the real solution lies in the palm of your hand. You can finally look at problems from all angles and address them with all the perspective you need. Isn’t this the very essence of creativity — a boundless, limitless space of possibilities?

This is something the ITS Contest 2025 selected designers know well, and we are incredibly proud to present a new generation of borderless talents.

Join us, join in.

Barbara Franchin
President, Fondazione ITS – Founder, ITS Contest

The ITS Contest 2025 Residency

Discover how 10 visionary designers explored craftsmanship, innovation, and creativity in Friuli Venezia Giulia, from traditional Scarpetti shoes to groundbreaking workshops in ITS Arcademy.

Key element in the ITS Contest experience, ITS Residency offers up-and-coming designers a unique opportunity to develop new skills and build lasting relationships.

During their stay in Trieste, in the spaces of ITS Arcademy and in other iconic locations in Friuli Venezia Giulia such as the Villa Manin museum, the 10 selected designers took part in experimental workshops and discovered local craft techniques, such as those, hundreds of years old, related to the production of the traditional Scarpetti shoes, in a workshop organised jointly with the Michele Gortani Carnic Museum of Folk Arts in Tolmezzo.

In addition to practical learning, meetings with leaders and experts from the fashion industry, as well as with internationally renowned scientists and philosophers, were also planned.

ITS Residency was developed in cooperation with the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, in the year of GO! 2025 Nova Gorica and Gorizia European Capital of Cross-border Culture. A strong signal of synergy of the territory in an important year for the whole region.