Costanza Barbieri and Giulio Censori win the prize awarded by the event’s main sponsor. Gaia Karabits is also among the six finalists for the Fashion Design Award.
Date
28 September 2026
An outfit in which fastening accessories play a key role, from the A Metabolic Method collection (pictured), impressed the jury of the 2026 edition of Milano Moda Graduate, earning Costanza Barbieri and Giulio Censori the YKK Prize, promoted by the leading Japanese company and main sponsor of the event.
Also taking to the runway at Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana’s competition dedicated to students was Gaia Karabits, one of just six finalists in the main Fashion Design category selected for the annual runway show during Milan Fashion Week. Here, Gaia presented a collection in which volume – conceived as a form of protection – becomes its defining feature.
THE YKK PRIZE-WINNING PROJECT
Nothing here is definitive: this is the mantra behind the collection by Barbieri and Censori, graduating students in Shoes & Accessories Design and Fashion Design respectively at IED Milano. Inspired by modernist design and the Japanese Metabolism architectural movement, the designers behind A Metabolic Method envision garments and accessories as open systems, capable of evolving through use. Modular elements can be separated, combined and reconfigured, while transparent details reveal the relationship between each individual part and the whole. Clean lines and durable leather make function visible and allow each piece to change over time. Like an eternal student, the project remains in motion: it learns, adapts and waits to be completed by the wearer, whose choices generate new forms, meanings and possibilities.
GAIA KARABITS’ COLLECTION
There are moments when reality can feel like a difficult place to inhabit. Moments when we feel the desire to step away, even if only for an instant, and seek refuge elsewhere. The collection by the IED Milano graduating student stems from this need. Here, escape takes place through a childlike imagination, unfolding into a narrative shaped by memories, emotional needs and the desire to find a place to belong.
An unsettling tension runs through the narrative, as the boundary between refuge and prison begins to dissolve. The materials follow this transformation: soft, protective surfaces are altered through textile manipulations. What once offered comfort begins to hold us back. What protected us becomes a constraint. Fashion offers the possibility of a temporary escape: clothing becomes a place in which to pause, imagine and dream, but also a space that leaves us with an open question: can imagination ever truly replace our need to feel part of reality?
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