Reshaping from Within: Italian Fashion at the Intersection of Heritage, Circularity and Digital Transformation

The special issue RHITA. Reshaping Italian Fashion gathers reflections, contributions and research outcomes from the PRIN 2022 PNRR project RHITA. ResHaping made in ITAly, which investigates circular and digital transitions for Italian fashion heritage and manufacturing through a consortium of five fashion design research universities: University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Politecnico di Milano, University of Florence, IUAV University of Venice, and University of Siena. Italian fashion operates today at the intersection of two interconnected transitions, circular and digital, that must be negotiated without sacrificing the territorial specificity, distributed knowledge, and craftsmanship excellence that define Made in Italy. RHITA frames these transitions not as external pressures to comply with, but as an opportunity for an endogenous process of reshaping in which design mediates heterogeneous forms of productive, relational, cultural and digital knowledge, turning fragmentation into a systemic resource. The project is structured around three interconnected priorities: the valorisation of human capital and collective intelligence; the affirmation of cultural and productive identity through recognition of local differences; and the implementation of circular and inclusive models through digitally-mediated stakeholder collaboration. The methodological approach is grounded in a design-driven perspective, combining cross-disciplinary convergence, participatory co-design, and a dialogic model of cooperation.