Wake Up!. Design matchmaking" between students and young companies of the "New Made in Italy""

"Wake Up, Design Matchmaking" is a groundbreaking educational initiative spearheaded by Fiera di Parma, uniting 90 students from Politecnico di Milano with peers from two esteemed Chinese institutions, namely the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology and Jingyan University. Together, they collaborated with 15 emerging talents from "New Made in Italy" companies. Under the guidance of two professors of the Politecnico di Milano, along with two professionals from Fiera di Parma, and under the supervision of the Delegate of the School of Design for relations with companies, the primary objective was to bridge academia and industry, fostering innovation in fashion. The focus lay on nurturing a "New Made in Italy" ethos rooted in sustainability, cultural fusion, and contemporary craftsmanship. This collaboration aimed to facilitate a knowledge exchange between students and companies. Students tackled real-world market challenges, while companies absorbed innovations from the academic sphere. Key areas of exploration included upcycling collections and platforms, sustainable practices in fashion design, digital manufacturing in fashion, the creation of innovative retail physical and virtual models and the development of digital viral communication strategies for European and Chinese markets. This project stood as an extraordinary experimental creative forge, fostering collaboration and innovation in the "New Made in Italy" that transcended national boundaries. Students contributed tangibly to shaping this new paradigm, collaborating with small companies, creatives, entrepreneurs, and autoproducers committed to innovative, sustainable models rooted in Italian tradition. Within this collaboration, university-generated knowledge intersected with contemporary productive reality, transforming students into dynamic catalysts for change in the national production landscape. Design students and professors acted as mediators between diverse cultures, facilitating a global and interconnected reality where different heritages coexisted in the local design process. As a result, this initiative propelled a new creative wave, amplifying the global impact of the "New Made in Italy". The projects was completed thanks to the final exhibition held at the Parma fair, which was held together with two days of edutainment with talks and workshops on responsible fashion and the New Made in Italy. For this occasion, a practice-based publication showcasing the project’s results has been produced, defining the main aspect of the New Made in Italy movement and underlining a replicable model in the field of university-companies cooperation. This collaborative model holds potential as a replicable framework for universities in Italy and abroad. It applies across various design fields, connecting local companies with student innovations, fostering creativity and practical application. The main goal of this paper is to analyse this framework in order to explore their possible further developments such as the implementation of other pilot projects in other design fields and countries and the creation of a design toolkit in the field of design for local impact.