How can we design garments with their next life in mind? On 23–24 May 2026, 24 emerging designers, creatives and textile professionals came together at Lottozero Textile Laboratories in Prato, Italy, to explore this question during the IMASUS Design Days workshop.
Led by Lauren Berardi and Arianna Moroder from Lottozero, alongside fashion designer Eva Di Franco, the two-day programme combined material exploration, collaborative discussion and practical design development, with a focus on design for recyclability.
Participants began by touching and examining samples from the IMASUS material collection, exploring how material choices influence a garment’s lifecycle. Through the project’s Imagineering approach, they also mapped the connections between designers, manufacturers, consumers and recycling systems, considering how individual design decisions relate to the wider fashion ecosystem.
Eva Di Franco brought these ideas into focus through real garment examples. By examining stitching, trims, labels, closures and fibre compositions, participants explored what makes clothing easier—or more difficult—to disassemble and recycle.
Working in groups with the IMASUS Design for Recyclability module and toolkit, participants developed four garment design proposals. Their ideas considered approaches such as mono-material construction, modularity and repairability, supported by technical drawings and material choices.
The atmosphere throughout the workshop was enthusiastic and collaborative. Participants particularly enjoyed exploring materials and exchanging ideas with designers from different backgrounds. The two-day format gave them time to develop their proposals, receive feedback and share their work in a final group presentation.
The workshop showed how bringing people, materials and practical design knowledge together can help turn circular fashion principles into concrete creative decisions—and inspire new ways of imagining fashion’s future.