ITS LIBRARY
You’re now looking at around 9,000 of the nearly 15,000 portfolios we’ve received over more than 20 years.
The remaining 6,000 — including oversized formats and particularly delicate projects — are stored in dedicated spaces within the building.
For us, the LIBRARY is a magical place. It’s a temple of design, a celebration of creativity shaped through infinite ideas. Every project is stored in a custom case, and you’re literally surrounded by them. If you’re wondering how we keep track of them, each project is identified by a barcode—not on the spine and therefore hidden from view —that links up to our database, which also records its precise location in the library.
WHAT IS A PORTFOLIO
But what is a portfolio? A portfolio is the bridge between the artist’s idea and its realisation. Take a look at the central display case, where a video explains how a portfolio is structured. The creation of a portfolio usually unfolds in five key phases:
The Idea: every project begins with an idea the artist wants to express. It must first be written down— translating thoughts onto paper.
The Research: this phase represents the process of fine tuning and expanding the idea. The artist collects images and visual references that illustrate the initial concept—anything that reflects the essence of the idea—to explore colours, techniques, and shapes.
The Development Journal: all the “creative material” collected is then developed and arranged in a way that the artist feels best suits the project: photos, poetry, books, and images are thoughtfully assembled into a coherent mood board of inspiration.
Sketching: here, the designers begin assembling the pieces. Through sketches (by hand or digitally) or techniques like collage or draping, they start giving shape to the initial concept.
These phases often overlap and influence each other. Up to this point, the process is a free-flowing journey without limits or constraints.
Materials and Final Creation: this is the most hands-on phase, involving the choosing of fabrics and other materials. The designer envisions the final object and how it will be produced. Once completed, the project is often contextualised within its imagined world through a photoshoot that enhances its features and rounds off the story.
As you can see, a portfolio is much more than just paper and fabric. It’s the story of a journey—one driven by passion and hard work to seek out new perspectives on beauty. Some of these creatives have built up careers starting from these very projects, turning their passion into a profession. Among them are Demna, Creative Director at Gucci, Matthieu Blazy, Creative Director of Maison Chanel, Nicolas di Felice, Artistic Director at Maison Courrèges, and designers with their own eponymous brands such as Chopova Lowena, Craig Green, Peter Pilotto, and Richard Quinn.
Take a look around—you’re actually surrounded by portfolios, not just on the shelves. You’ll find them displayed in niches, in the central showcases, and in the Library’s multimedia resource, which offers you the chance to explore them further.
THE DIGITAL BOOK
Now, let’s move towards the back right corner, where you’ll find an extraordinary digital book. Try flipping through it and let yourself be carried away by its magic. We’re particularly proud of this tool, as it combines the tactile pleasure of turning pages with the enchantment of digital content coming to life before your eyes. You can choose from four different portfolios to explore—each one digitised, re-edited, and animated in high resolution.
To switch from one project to another, simply close the book’s cover.
One of the portfolios is by Tomohiro Sato, a finalist of ITS Contest in 2013. It’s a deeply personal and visionary journey that takes us into a surreal playground. A tribute to Tomohiro’s grandfather, who passed away after a long illness that caused him much suffering: the playground symbolises Tomohiro’s wish to give his grandfather a place in the afterlife where he can finally be happy and forget the pain.
The other portfolio you can explore belongs to Tom Van der Borght & Shalva Nikvashvili, finalists as a team of designers in ITS Contest 2015. This is also a highly personal project, telling the story of two individuals from different cultural backgrounds. They yearn for a life together, fighting to remove everything that stands between them and hinders their connection.
The third portfolio to explore is by Marius Janusauskas, a finalist in 2012. It draws inspiration from the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, horror movies, the work of Madame Grès, and the sculpture of Pablo Atchugarry. The result is a collection based on the concept of “deference” and outlines the story of his muse— a passive woman who doesn’t move, a “non-dead”: her skin tone fades, her only sign of life is the blood that flows through the seams of her garments. She is trapped in time, with pleats on the front symbolising the past and a cold, minimalist, clinical feel on the back.
The fourth portfolio is by Gabrielle Szwarcenberg, selected in 2025, who treats paper as a daily accomplice, a prototyping medium for ideas, secrets, guidance, and reflection. Her work revisits childhood pursuits as rites of passage, celebrating how boredom sparks creativity. Inspired by 1960s beatnik Harry Smith, who collected 250+ paper planes now in museum archives, she revived these artefacts using the coupé technique and treating fabric like paper. The resulting ephemeral looks form an unintended retrospective of 20th-century graphic anthropology.
Now turn around and head to the opposite side of the Library: the video mapping you see will take you inside a portfolio. You'll have the chance to delve into the details of several portfolios, guided by the words of the finalists themselves and of Barbara Franchin, President of Fondazione ITS and mastermind of everything you see here, from the creation of ITS Contest in 2002 to the ITS Arcademy museum, which opened in 2023.
At the end of each story, you'll see the portfolio close and magically return to its place on the shelf, while the next one emerges and opens to tell a new story. Fascinating, right?
PORFOLIOS ON DISPLAY
Before leaving the Library, let’s take a closer look at some of the portfolios on display, which are all from the ITS Contest designers who went on to collaborate with celebrities on the looks featured in the exhibition “Exposure - The Power of Being Seen, from Harry Styles to Lady Gaga” that begins around the corner.
We’ll start with Maximilian Raynor. Leaving the video mapping behind, you’ll find Raynor's portfolio right in front of you inside the glass showcase.
To step inside the world of Maximilian’s collection each look has to be considered as a costume for characters from a protest movie set in purgatory, which is running on the screen, where a cast of 'others' roam the misty grounds and rundown corridors of a manor house, awaiting entry to the patriarchal heaven they've been denied. Made from deadstock materials using zero-waste cutting techniques, the collection features an eclectic mix of shredded tweeds (inspired by the idea of Chanel being dragged through a protest backwards), glitching ginghams and supersized knitwear. Sound is an important factor too, as the viewer is asked to listen for the bells of “The Faustian Footman” character, or the jangle of “The Machiavellian Maid's” keys and the sweeping hemline of “The Film Star's” dishevelled gown.
Maximilian today is gaining increasing recognition with his eponymous brand, with designs featured in Vogue, Dazed and Confused, and Wonderland, and has collaborated with countless celebrities. Looks worn by Lady Gaga and Chappell Roan are on display in the gallery!
Let’s stay with the glass showcase. The other portfolio on display here is by iconic glovemaker Thomasine Barnekow, ITS Contest 2007 designer. After presenting a groundbreaking glove collection at ITS Contest that merged leather gloves with jewellery bangles via embossment, Thomasine went on to shape French luxury glove craftsmanship. Her home and atelier are now in Paris, from where she collaborates with maisons of the likes of Louis Vuitton and Schiaparelli, as well as with movie and theatre productions, and celebrities. The unique Schiaparelli black gloves with golden nails worn by Beyoncé during the Grammy’s - on display in the gallery - are among the countless creations that have established her as a designer.
Facing the exit, and right in front of you, is a niche dedicated to ITS Contest 2024 designer Daniel Bosco.
Daniel’s proposal stood out among the hundreds received for many reasons. A singular and cinematic approach to fashion, art, video and storytelling, a sense of humor and of irony - very rare in the fashion industry - which is very refreshing and also very necessary.
In his project, Daniel ponders the concept of personal value, emphasising its significance over material wealth. This principle guided Bosco in exploring fashion through an artistic performance, played in the video you can see by a performance artist friend of Daniel, rich autobiographical memories, depictions which ironically portray significant individuals and moments in his life: an aunt with her eccentric wig, friends struggling with uncomfortable heels, and his mother's unmistakable faux jewellery. The mundane, Bosco’s project, is magnified with irony.
If we now move to the right of Daniel, again towards the videomapping, go past the exit and look left in the niches on our side; this space is dedicated to ITS Contest 2014 designer Maiko Takeda.
When we met Maiko in person at her school back in early 2013, a year before being selected for ITS Contest, we witnessed the inception of the structural idea for the pieces in front of you. Maiko was struggling to find a way to “recreate the effect of a cloud”, in her own words. She cracked it the following year with a groundbreaking headwear collection that caught the attention of the ITS Contest Jury as well as of everyone else. In particular artist, singer and songwriter Bjork, who fell in love with her work.
Maiko has collaborated on countless pieces from this collection for Bjork’s Biophilia World Tour, and for the otherworldly look worn by Bjork on the cover of her album Vulnicura, on display here in the exhibition you are about to discover.
So let’s continue towards the Gallery, leaving the Library and turning right, where you will find the next audioguide QR code near the introductory video to the exhibition.