Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) is a higher education design school teaching creative disciplines across design, fashion, visual arts and communications. Since opening its doors in Milan in 1966, the institution now welcomes around 10,000 students on average per year on 11 campuses across Italy, Spain and Brazil. The IED alumni network includes Pierpaolo Piccioli, creative director of Balenciaga, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior’s creative director between 2016 and 2025 and luxury shoe designer Amina Muaddi.
Boasting undergraduate and new postgraduate programmes across fashion, interiors, product and jewellery design, as well as filmmaking and visual arts, IED is training the next generation of creatives. Notably, IED equips its graduates with a critical and forward-thinking approach by exposing them to emerging industry discussions and providing the skills to tackle today’s challenges.
In 2025, outside of its usual educational curriculum, the institution is hosting a series of panel conversations entitled “IED Tomorrow”, designed to introduce the audience to thought-leaders with opinions and a vision for the future of the industry. Current and prospective students are invited to events with leading industry practitioners — including former executive editor of Teen Vogue Danielle Kwateng and founder of the jewellery brand Sole Studio, Maria Sole Ferragamo.
Hosted at Milan’s prestigious concept retailer, 1o Corso Como, the discussions delved into timely topics such as sustainability, overconsumption and AI, while providing insight to prospective students on the areas covered across IED’s courses. The series’ inaugural talk examined retro-futurism in creative innovation and how designers can balance emerging technologies with creative vision.
“It’s about thinking where you can enhance something with the use of technology … but it’s [also] remain[ing] thinking humans with deep-rooted thought processes,” artist Anna Scalfi Eghenter shared on stage with the director of IED Milano, Danilo Venturi. Meanwhile, the second talk in the series examined how aesthetics, meaning and imagination shape modern fashion.
Upcoming sessions will explore other themes such as the evolving intersections of meaning and brand image, while others will tie in thematically with newly announced IED’s new fashion master’s programmes: fashion trend forecasting; fashion curation and fashion photography. These postgraduate courses, starting in February 2026, will be led by fashion photographer Rita Lino, curator Dobrila Denegri, strategic foresight expert Lizzy Bowring and director of MoMu Antwerp Kaat Debo.
The new master’s are designed to equip students with the necessary skills to navigate the shifting boundaries of fashion and explore how imagery and imagination can shape contemporary photography and curation.
The Business of Fashion sits down with Venturi to learn how IED is anticipating — and preparing its students — for emerging challenges across the creative industries.
Why is now an important time for IED to host the ‘IED Tomorrow’ series?
There are many pressing social, environmental and technological issues today, and it’s important to have a position on how the world is evolving — whether you are operating as a brand in fashion or as an individual.
The “IED Tomorrow” talks aim to give the audience foresight on what some of the most pressing — and soon-to-be most pressing — issues are, and what points of action can be taken to tackle the potential future scenarios. At IED, we are nurturing a new generation of creatives poised to make a positive impact on the world. This series provides a glimpse into our academic offerings.
What are the core challenges and emerging issues that fashion students need to know today?
Senseless overproduction and overconsumption. Nowadays, you see many products churned out without a reason for it. Many talk about sustainability, but few truly address it. People continue to purchase items without justification, pushing fashion — and other industries — toward unsustainable outcomes and perhaps leading the world down the path of demise.
This is one of the topics we are addressing throughout the “IED Tomorrow” series. We are encouraging current and future generations to think about what they consume, why they consume and how they can consume more consciously.
What can prospective students expect from the new IED Milano Master’s programmes?
IED prides itself on its forward thinking. We are constantly determining and anticipating future scenarios. Equipping our students with the necessary skills to navigate challenges before they occur is our driving force.
The school approaches teaching through an interdisciplinary lens, actively fostering a sense of cross-departmental collaboration.
IED’s new master’s programmes will give students the skills to consider their own position in the world of creativity and fashion, and how they can best tackle the most pressing issues of the industry. They will also learn to bridge the gap between imagination and reality — and draw from their own backgrounds to create tangible projects with meaning.
We also have skilled practitioners across a range of disciplines. For instance, our lecturer Elizabeth Bowring, the former head of catwalks at WGSN, is someone students can consult throughout their degree. She is skilled at helping students turn their dreams into reality.
How is IED equipping students with the necessary foresight to shape the fashion industry?
The school approaches teaching through an interdisciplinary lens, actively fostering a sense of cross-departmental collaboration. Yes, we teach fashion and design, but we also teach visual arts, cinema, communication and more. We encourage students to push the boundaries of their perceptions of what one industry is, and think about how they can apply new learnings to their industry of choice.
There has been a tremendous increase in cross-functional collaboration, with students from different departments coming together to brainstorm ideas that solve not just one issue, but many. We are replacing peer competition with a sense of community and support within the school. This is already turning up excellent results in idea generation and overall student satisfaction and engagement.
How is IED updating its programmes to keep pace with emerging issues?
We are evolving our courses to take into account a broader range of perspectives. We are thinking about what we do, how we operate, how we teach our students and how our students do impact the world at large. If we design, how can we do it in a way that is sustainable and conscious of the impact on other species? After all, this is a world we share with many other organisms, and what we do impacts many beyond our human community.
We emphasise learning through practice, and students across our school are encouraged to engage with their chosen industry as much as possible.
On top of this, as we saw in the first “IED Tomorrow” talks, we are examining how learnings from the past can be applied to anticipate and mitigate future ecological, technological and production challenges. As important as it is to think about what is coming in the future, it is also imperative that we continue to evolve with our learnings of what came before us.
What touchpoints do IED students have with the broader creative industry?
We emphasise learning through practice, and students across our school are encouraged to engage with their chosen industry as much as possible. In our new Master’s programmes , we encourage students to spend the last three to six months of their degree applying their learning to a business or industry they plan to join.
As we continue to encourage students to think outside the box, we ask questions such as “Can your learnings in textile be applied to industries outside of fashion?” Through this, we help create new pathways into different industries.
What are you most excited about for the upcoming academic year at IED?
The “IED Tomorrow” talks offer a preview of what’s in store for the next academic year, giving students plenty to look forward to.
The new line-up of lectures on offer is moulded on the expertise and industry insights of the multi-disciplinary professionals in our school. What is to come is a curated teaching experience that will ensure all students are equipped with the skillset required to impress employers today and tomorrow.
This is a sponsored feature paid for by Istituto Europeo di Design as part of a BoF partnership.