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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

02 →

October

07

October 2025

Meeting
Expo@Polimi – Iran

02

October 2025

Conventions
Cloud tra AI e sovranità: strategie e politiche industriali per un nuovo ecosistema digitale

05

October 2025

Other
PolimiRide 2025

06

October 2025

Shows
SHAME CULTURE

07

October 2025

Conventions
B2b Digital Commerce & Experience: connettere dati, costruire relazioni

07

October 2025

Conventions
Blame Attribution when Crowdsourced Delivery Fails: Consumer Perceptions in Tetradic Arrangements in Online Grocery Shopping

08

October 2025

Conventions
Venture Clienting: vantaggi ed ostacoli delle imprese che credono nelle startup

09 →

October

12

October 2025

Shows
UNLOCK THE CITY! WORKSHOP “Politecnico as a common territory”

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”

21

October 2025

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

27

October 2025

Conventions
Convegno dei risultati di Ricerca dell’Osservatorio Cybersecurity & Data Protection

28

October 2025

Conventions
Convegno dei risultati di Ricerca dell’Osservatorio Smart Working

29 →

October

16

November 2025

Exhibitions
Dedicato a Federico Bucci

30

October 2025

Conventions
Change. Inside out. Outside in.

31

October 2025

Conventions
Convegno dei risultati di Ricerca dell’Osservatorio Innovative Payments

04

November 2025

Conventions
Convegno dei risultati di Ricerca dell’Osservatorio Big Data & Business Analytics

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
Convegno di presentazione dei risultati della Ricerca 2025 dell’Osservatorio Contract Logistics “Gino Marchet”

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