The works of “Future Makers” from the NABA x Mantero Archive project

Cultivating the talents of tomorrow means building a strong connection between the academic and production worlds, offering students the opportunity to engage with companies and gain firsthand experience in the textile sector. From this vision, the NABA Mentorship Project with Mantero was born, an initiative launched in 2021 for students of the Master’s Program in Textile Design at NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti. Through this collaboration, young creatives work closely with Mantero professionals, participating in design briefs, tutoring sessions, and hands-on work in the company, fully immersed in printing, weaving processes, and the company’s historical archive. Over time, the project has established itself as a meeting point between innovation and tradition, giving rise to visual proposals that reinterpret textile heritage with a contemporary perspective. Based on these foundations, the new chapter NABA x ARCHIVIO MANTERO takes shape, a multidisciplinary experience involving students from Textile Design, Fashion Design, and Set Design at the Academy. Among the participants are Chiara Ardoli, Cielo Fiordi, Gianluca Pizzicato, Alessia Quondamatteo, Riccardo Aggio, Simone Addamo, Giorgia Carrara, Martina De Michelis, Morena Milani, and Sara Scrosati, under the guidance of Gianmarco Porru, visual artist and NABA professor.

The Mantero Archive is one of the most prestigious textile collections in the world, boasting over 80,000 scarves, 10,000 books, 100,000 fabric prints, jacquard textiles, and thousands of hand-drawn designs. It is not only a guardian of the industry's historical memory but also a hub of new inspirations. Since 2024, the archive has become an independent branding project, promoting the annual reinterpretation of its collections by emerging artists. This synergy between NABA and Mantero represents a model of excellence, where education and textile expertise intertwine to enhance artisanal professions and support students' professional growth. The NABA Mentorship Project with Mantero has demonstrated that the exchange between education and hands-on practice can become a concrete springboard for the future careers of young designers. The multidisciplinary workshop led to the creation of six exhibited works, born from the fusion of visual and applied arts, inspired by the scarves from the Kimono Archive of Nancy Martin Stetson, designed by students of the Master’s Program in Textile Design under the supervision of Maria Nielsen, Textile and Fashion Graphic Design Consultant and NABA professor. Indeed, engaging with young creatives and exploring new trends are essential tools for business growth. 

The uniqueness of the workshop lay in the freedom to explore without predefined constraints, leading to unexpected and surprising results. Starting from the fabrics, a series of artistic projects took shape, free from commercial restrictions, where students experimented with different expressive languages, such as sculpture, installation, drawing, video, and performance, transforming the scarf from a simple accessory into a bridge between art, design, and textile tradition. The initiative culminated in an exhibition that celebrates the creative process and expressive research, coordinated by Colomba Leddi, Fashion Design Area Leader at NABA, Luca Belotti, Course Leader of Bienni and Master’s Programs in Fashion Design, and Academic Assistants Intissar Bouhi and Daniele Mattiuz. To complete the exhibition, eleven scarves made by students from the 2023/24 Academic Year, inspired by the Japanese aesthetics preserved in the Kimono Archive of Nancy Martin Stetson, were showcased. It’s a journey through the beauty of a textile heritage that, though deeply rooted in tradition, continues to engage with the contemporary worlds of fashion, art, and design.

This context sets the stage for the collaboration with NABA: through the mentorship project and the NABA x ARCHIVIO MANTERO workshop, textiles transform into an expressive language and a field for artistic experimentation. This path demonstrates that investing in young talents is not only a strategic option for Mantero but also a concrete learning opportunity for NABA students, allowing them to interact directly with the production world and its continuous evolution. Therefore, textiles confirm themselves not only as a heritage to preserve but as a constantly evolving universe, capable of blending tradition and creativity to envision new future trajectories.