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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

From to

Location

Campus Bovisa Durando

Organizer

Politecnico di Milano

Events

11 →

November

11

December 2025

Exhibitions
LABORATORI POLITECNICI departments | territory | teaching | technology

11 →

November 2025

13

March 2026

Exhibitions
Life on Campus | People and places

11 →

November

16

November 2025

Exhibitions
Dedicato a Federico Bucci

11 →

November

23

December 2025

Exhibitions
Food&City

11 →

November

24

November 2025

Meeting
The Vitality of the Archive

18

November 2025

Conventions
Software & Digital Native: trasformazione in atto, il futuro è adesso!

18 →

November

20

November 2025

Career Day PMI

19

November 2025

Conventions
Next-Gen & Wealth: La voce delle next gen sui patrimoni delle famiglie imprenditoriali

20

November 2025

From the Ivory Tower to Capitol Hill: Which Academics Get a Voice in Congress?

20

November 2025

Conventions
Osservatorio Innovazione per la Biodiversità – Biodiversity Event

20 →

November

09

December 2025

Exhibitions
Deepnude

22

November 2025

Other
Parasports for all

24

November 2025

Meeting
Presentazione del libro “Il prezzo della guerra”

25

November 2025

Conventions
Quantum Shift: the future starts now

26

November 2025

Save the Duck – The Award Ceremony

26

November 2025

Meeting
Deepnude e Deepfake: quando l’IA genera abuso

27

November 2025

Conventions
Purpose in Action: Ripensare la governance strategica e la leadership per un cambiamento reale

27

November 2025

Conferences
Pianta un'idea!

28

November 2025

Form and Essence of Warehousing Intelligence and Robotization

29

November 2025

Open Workshops
Robotics 2025

01

December 2025

Meeting
Il profitto e la cura. La sostenibilità e le voci che non abbiamo ascoltato

02

December 2025

Conventions
Digital & Open Innovation 2026: cosa serve a imprese e startup per un cambio di passo

02 →

December

03

December 2025

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

04

December 2025

Conventions
Omnichannel Customer Experience: si accelera con l’AI ma senza fondamenta solide

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"

16

December 2025

Conventions
Digital envisioning 2025: il futuro del Digitale

15

January 2026

Convegno dei risultati di Ricerca dell’Osservatorio Data Center