Free event open to the public, booking required: 09:00 AM – 06:00 PM
La Nuvola – Viale Asia, 40 – 00144 Rome.
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On 8 and 9 May 2026, within the spaces of the Centro Congressi La Nuvola, RUFA will take part in the second edition of FORMA, the festival dedicated to the creativity of fashion academies in Rome and Lazio.
Promoted by Roma Capitale and Regione Lazio, with the support of the Ministry of Tourism as part of the “Roma Smart Tourism” project, FORMA 2026 unfolds around the theme “Contemporary identity: clothing, communities and belonging”, positioning itself as an open forum for discussion on the new directions of fashion.
RUFA AT FORMA – Fashion as a living ecosystem
RUFA’s participation in FORMA is not merely exhibition-based: it is a statement of method and vision. The BA in Sustainable Fashion Design brings to the festival a space that rejects the logic of the polished showcase, instead becoming an open laboratory, a visual and conceptual ecosystem, a fragment of an evolving creative city.
The guiding thread of RUFA’s proposal is fashion as subculture: a universe born from the street, from arte povera, from the authenticity of the design gesture, far removed from the grammars of the conventional fashion system.
In the academy’s vision, practising ecodesign means thinking in a circular way — imagining the entire life of a garment, from fabric to its second or third existence through upcycling, up to the responsibility of producing no waste. A sketch can become something else, a reclaimed piece can evolve into something unexpected: sustainable creativity is not a constraint, but a form of open thinking.
Visually translating this philosophy is the collage-panel curated by Simone Botte (alias Simon Cracker, fashion designer and RUFA lecturer), the central installation of the stand, which encapsulates RUFA’s transdisciplinary identity as a metaphor for an urban forest: an ecosystem of interconnections between languages, bodies, materials and knowledge. At RUFA, the fashion designer is never just about fashion — from the very first year, students engage in dialogue with cinema, gaming, performance and music. The arts listen, merge and transform.
The RUFA space at FORMA reflects this fluidity through four levels of experience:
A selection of garments displayed on racks and mannequins narrates the course’s aesthetic, combining material research with conscious design. The short film Fashion Persona introduces the narrative and visual dimension of students’ creative processes. An Augmented Reality station allows visitors to explore the carbon footprint of a garment, making sustainability tangible and interactive. Completing the installation is an interactive book created for Forma Faber, together with selected materials from the Franco Annoni archive — a bridge between textile memory and contemporary design. Within a festival that explores fashion as urban identity and a language of communities, RUFA brings the voice of those who shape that community from within: students who learn by doing, who make mistakes and refine their work, who envision the future of a sector starting from its contradictions. A proposal that does not celebrate fashion, but questions it — and, in doing so, renews it.
Browse the photos from the event
Discover the RUFA BA in Sustainable Fashion Design
This will be an opportunity to discover the RUFA BA in Sustainable Fashion Design, the first course in Italy to adopt a transdisciplinary approach based on integral ecology, applied to the design of the entire fashion supply chain. The programme integrates technical, design and digital skills with a critical reflection on the cultural and production models of the contemporary fashion system, placing at its core themes such as sustainability, inclusion and circularity. Through a conscious approach to design, students learn to combine aesthetic research with environmental and social responsibility, developing innovative projects and processes aligned with the challenges of the ecological transition.
RUFA’s participation takes shape thanks to the joint work of lecturers and students, in a shared process that reflects the academy’s collaborative and workshop-based approach:
Exhibition Design
Aiza Baiyshbekova
Antonio Tedeschi
Benedetta Bertoncini
Davide Amato
Leonardo Messina / Elizia Cinquedita
Margherita Beritognolo
Mattia Siciliano
Sara Venturi
Performance
Aiza Baiyshbekova
Benedetta Bertoncini
Ege Youcel
Operations team
Margherita Beritognolo
Francesco Caruccio
Medina Sagayeva
Jules Hoornaert
Anna Monta Zalmane
Mattia Siciliano
Sara Gianforte
Styling
Sara Visconti
Ege Yucel
Medina Sagayeva
Ilaria Petrazzi
Coordination
Guenda Cermel – General coordination
Simone Botte (alias Simon Craker) – Stand creative direction
Vincenzo Verdesca – Workshop support
Alessandra Cortese – General operations
Andrea Mennella – Booth styling support