MADEBACK Festival 2026

Three days dedicated to circular fashion, textile experimentation and new cycles for materials.

From 15 to 17 October 2026, the Fashion & Textile Living Lab of the Design Department at Politecnico di Milano will host the second edition of MADEBACK, the festival dedicated to circular fashion, textile experimentation and the processes that transform what already exists.

The second edition expands the network established last year, bringing together 18 organisations from across Italy, designers, design studios, companies, craftspeople, researchers and businesses working on innovation in the fashion and textile sectors. It is an encounter between different areas of expertise, bringing new approaches to circularity to Milan and creating a dialogue between research, design culture and production practices.

For three days, Campus Bovisa Durando becomes an open laboratory for experimentation: workshops, installations, talks, live demos and a Swap Market invite the public to explore processes, discover transformation techniques and see how a material, garment or product can acquire new meanings through design and making.

MADEBACK was created within the Fashion & Textile Living Lab as a research and experimentation platform dedicated to circular fashion. This edition grew out of a process that began in the months leading up to the festival. The Politecnico community contributed to the collection of more than 600 garments, which were catalogued and sorted according to their potential for reuse: some will enter the Swap Market as pre-loved garments ready to be worn again, while others will become project material for workshops and research activities.

The festival features workshops exploring different textile transformation techniques, from sashiko to patching, screen printing and block printing, alongside live demonstrations and repair interventions at the Clothes Doctor station.

The Gallery Il gesto sulla materia brings together contributions from designers, studios, companies, and startups along the journey of materials through three stages: Material, Process, Form. Among the participants is Arc'teryx, showcasing the Sperro SV jacket. Alongside it is a selection of projects developed during the workshop held with the brand in the previous edition.

On October 16 at 6:00 pm, the programme continues with the talk Circular by Design, during which Arc'teryx will present System 0™, the approach through which the company rethinks the entire lifecycle of its garments, from use and repair to regeneration at the end of their life. The session will be introduced by Valeria Iannilli and Alessandra Spagnoli, respectively Scientific Coordinator and Project Manager of the Fashion & Textile Living Lab. Speakers will include Dominique Showers, Vice President, Arc'teryx ReBIRD™, Alex Plante, Vice President, Advanced Concepts, Arc'teryx, and Nicole McLaughlin, designer and Arc'teryx Global Ambassador.

The programme is rounded out by the Swap Market, where collected garments and pieces transformed during the workshops are put back into circulation, as well as a series of talks dedicated to circular fashion, material innovation, and the transformation of supply chains.

More information and the full programme are available on MADEBACK's Instagram channel.

Scientific Curatorship
Valeria M. Iannilli, Alessandra Spagnoli

Project coordination
Francesca Bonfim Bandeira

Gallery coordination
Gabriela Fabro Cardoso

With the participation of
a.d.d.o.s.s.o/Sara De Poli·Arc'teryx·Canto Primo/Lola Català·CDC Studio·CosquilLab/Giulia Picciotto·ebe collective/Allegra Rusconi e Angelina Quiroga·Elena Campa·Fashion Green Hub/Lucas ThivoletConde Salazar·Ginevra Consoli·Impact Studio/Leonardo Plebani·LCH/Lucia Chain·Motomi Maekawa·Nazena·Raffaella Zurlo·Readymade·Redesign the Planet·Rifò/Niccolò Cipriani·Silvia Di Napoli·Simon Cracker·Spazio4 Como/Andrea Angeloni