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MADEBACK Festival

Rethinking fashion through what already exists

When
From to

From October 15 to 17, 2025, the Bovisa Durando Campus of Politecnico di Milano will host MADEBACK, the first festival dedicated to circular fashion. The event is organized by the Department of Design as part of the Fashion & Textile Living Lab “Too Cool to Go Wasted”. The Festival marks the official opening of the Living Lab’s new space and is part of the initiatives promoted by the PNRR MUSA project – Multilayered Urban Sustainability Action (Spoke 3 and Spoke 5).

MADEBACK was created with the aim of going beyond the linear production paradigm—based on the continuous use of new resources—to promote an alternative vision: the "made-back," a rethinking of making that starts from what already exists. The Festival activates a system of collection, transformation, and restitution of used garments, experimenting with replicable circular models that combine design, practice, and community engagement.

For three days, the Campus opens its doors to the public and hosts a diverse range of designers, artisans, and local services, with the goal of fostering knowledge exchange and activating new collaborative networks. The program is structured around various thematic and operational areas:

  • 7 workshops – three of which precede the festival as moments to engage and activate the community, and four that take place during the event itself – focused on transforming garments collected through two internal collections within the Politecnico community;
  • 3 live demos by artisans and designers, showcasing techniques for repair, regeneration, and customization in real time;
  • Exhibition gallery with 10 stations, divided into four thematic areas: Reduce, Repair, Upcycling, End-of-Life, presenting materials, processes, and design visions;
  • Swap Market, where second-hand garments—regenerated or redesigned by workshop participants—are exchanged in an informal and accessible setting;
  • Daily talks that bring together academia, professionals, and public and private stakeholders, to delve into the festival’s core themes.

MADEBACK presents itself as a collective moment of reflection, dialogue, and inspiration, aiming to generate lasting impact on the local territory. The goal is not merely to add value to the product, but to refocus on making itself: a cultural and operational process based on shared, transformative practices capable of shaping new sustainability models for the textile sector.

For all updates, follow MADEBACK's Instagram profile: madeback_fest

Time

Time
From to

Location

Campus Bovisa Durando

Organizer

Politecnico di Milano

Events

13 →

May

09

November 2025

Exhibitions
INEQUALITIES | Lo spazio delle disuguaglianze

13 →

May

09

November 2025

Exhibitions
INEQUALITIES | Not for her. AI Revealing the Unseen

10 →

September

12

September 2025

Exhibitions
LABORATORI POLITECNICI departments | territory | teaching | technology

09 →

October 2025

13

March 2026

Exhibitions
Life on Campus | People and places

14

October 2025

Conventions
GenAI & Platform Thinking Come la GenAI sta trasformando il Platform Thinking tra internal platform, business transformation e pensiero critico

14

October 2025

Conventions
Osservatorio Innovazione per la Biodiversità – Terzo Biodiversity Making Meeting

15 →

October

17

October 2025

Other
MADEBACK Festival

15

October 2025

Conventions
Accordo ASI-POLIMI per “Attività di Ricerca e Innovazione”

20

October 2025

I formaggi a latte crudo in cucina

21

October 2025

Conventions
Critical digital infrastructure: an analytical perspective of the present and the future of Europe

27

October 2025

Conventions
Osservatorio Cybersecurity & Data Protection: Case Study Session

28

October 2025

Conventions
Lo Smart Working ai tempi dell’AI: opportunità e sfide verso il lavoro del futuro

29 →

October

16

November 2025

Exhibitions
Dedicato a Federico Bucci

30

October 2025

HumanTech | Unfolding Pathways for the More-than-Human Society

30

October 2025

Conventions
Change. Inside out. Outside in.

31

October 2025

Conventions
I pagamenti digitali in Italia nel 2025

04

November 2025

Conventions
Data & Decision Intelligence: pilotare l’AI per usarla davvero!

06

November 2025

Conventions
Convegno dei risultati di Ricerca dell’Osservatorio 5G & Connected Digital Industry

11

November 2025

Conventions
Convegno dei risultati di Ricerca dell’Osservatorio Digital Identity

13

November 2025

Conventions
Intelligenza (artificiale e umana) per il futuro della Logistica

18

November 2025

Conventions
Convegno dei risultati di Ricerca dell’Osservatorio Software & Digital Native Innovation

25

November 2025

Conventions
Convegno dei risultati di Ricerca dell’Osservatorio Quantum Computing & Communication

02

December 2025

Conventions
Convegno dei risultati di Ricerca dell’Osservatorio Startup Thinking, Startup & Scaleup Hi-tech e Digital Transformation Academy

02 →

December

03

December 2025

For the General Public. Architecture Between Debate, Dissemination, and Narrative Strategies

04

December 2025

Conventions
Convegno dei risultati di Ricerca dell’Osservatorio Omnichannel Customer Experience

10

December 2025

Conventions
Digital readiness and skills: a portrait of Europe’s large and super-large enterprises

11

December 2025

Conventions
Convegno dei risultati di Ricerca dell’Osservatorio Fintech & Insurtech

11

December 2025

Films
CAI-Polimi per CORTALP: il festival / concorso del cortometraggio di Montagna Milano con il Premio "Manlio Armellini"

15

January 2026

Convegno dei risultati di Ricerca dell’Osservatorio Data Center