MILAN — Francesco Murano, Institution by Galib Gassanoff, Lessico Familiare and Moja Rowa are the recipients of the 2025 grants bestowed by the Camera Moda Fashion Trust, the nonprofit organization established in 2017 to support young Italian or Italy-based talents in developing their businesses with financial aid, as well as business mentoring programs and tutoring.

Revealed during a gala dinner at Milan’s Villa Necchi Campiglio on Thursday night, the winners were selected by a committee from among 10 finalists, shortlisted from 80 applicants.

They included a mixed panel of up-and-coming designer brands at various stages of development, including some previous grant finalists, such as Giuseppe Buccinnà, Cavia, Federico Cina, Victor Hart, Saman Loira, Domenico Orefice, and Moja Rowa, in addition to the winners.

Some of them have been regularly showing their collections as part of Milan Fashion Week, including Cavia, Federico Cina, Lessico Familiare, and Institution, while others made their debut this year, such as Francesco Murano, and more have just recently started setting up distribution.

The four winning brands will receive 50,000 euros each in funding, as well as a business mentoring and one-on-one tutoring starting from June.

“The future cannot ignore the new generation of creatives, which is why Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana works alongside Camera Moda Fashion Trust to support them in creating collections that look to the future and to sustainability, and to help independent designers in their brand development stages,” said Carlo Capasa, president of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana and a trustee of the Camera Moda Fashion Trust.

Private equity fund Style Capital served as patron of this year’s grant, a role previously held by Max & Co., LuisaViaRoma, Fidenza Village and Scalapay.

“Throughout my professional career I have always tried to support Made in Italy and its industrial system,” said Roberta Benaglia, chief executive officer of Style Capital. “This new generation of talents represents the creative expression of the country, and I believe it is therefore a duty to provide these young people with a concrete opportunity for professional growth in partnership with Camera della Moda,” she added.

Since its foundation and including the 2025 edition, the Camera Moda Fashion Trust has donated over 1.17 million euros, supporting 35 designers overall.

Meet the 2025 Grant Recipients

Francesco Murano, who already won last year’s grant and is one of the eight finalists of this year’s LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers, had an unexpected boost of visibility when the designer was about to graduate from Milan’s Istituto Europeo di Design and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter requested some of his creations for her music video “Spirit.”

His aesthetics, hinged on draping, tailoring and form-fitting concoctions, as well as his business model have been informed by his serendipitous link with the celebrity world since the start. After working through the pandemic, he set up a made-to-measure distribution model, allowing for more flexibility. Last February, Murano held his debut runway show in Milan.

“This year things have changed significantly. I’ve stepped up the game so now the goal is to give the brand a more concrete structure,” Murano said ahead of the award ceremony. For example, he is seeking business advisory to set up a proper company and fuel his ambition of expansion.

The brand has garnered 13 retailers which will carry the brand’s fall 2025 collection. “It’s not a huge number but still I need structure to ensure timely and consistent deliveries,” he said.

Pragmatism informed the approach to the grant competition for Institution’s Galib Gassanoff, too.

Born in Azerbaijan but raised on the outskirts of Tbilisi, in Georgia, Gassanoff conceived Institution as a space for personal self-expression and “a socio-artistic organization with ethics in its fundament,” the brand has said.

It launched in late 2023, after the designer parted ways with Act N.1, the brand he had cofounded in 2016 with Luca Lin.

Defined by an intimate dimension, a focus on craftsmanship and a slow production pace, Institution is gradually building its footprint. Gassanoff said that he plans to channel the grant’s funds to expand his team and buy new machinery, in addition to setting up a proper e-commerce site to launch a direct-to-consumer and made-to-measure business.

“I want to keep the project very niche and sartorial, hinged on artisanship and quality of the creations. I don’t necessarily want to become a full-fledged company and I’d like to keep the atelier business model,” he said, while acknowledging there is room for more structure and growth.

After hosting its inaugural runway show last February in Milan, the brand is to make the retail debut of its fall 2025 collection at Milan-based concept store Antonia in September.

Lessico Familiare is the brainchild of Riccardo Scaburri, Alberto Petillo and Alice Curti, who had known each other from their earlier years as students of the NABA fashion, art and design school.

After taking different paths, in 2020 they decided to launch the brand, looking at what their domestic environment could offer. Hence curtains, mats and discarded clothes were upcycled to turn a “familiar lexicon,” which is what the brand’s name means in English, into new artisanal pieces.

Lessico Familiare made its debut on the Milan Men’s Fashion Week schedule in June 2022 with a bridal-inspired collection.

Sustainability has been embedded in the brand’s ethos since its launch and rooted in its artisanal pieces, which are developed starting from the fabrics the founders find around. The trio has always considered the label a domestic project rather than a proper fashion brand, as it follows no season but embraces experimental initiatives instead. 

To this end, Scaburri said that the grant’s fund will allow the brand to source entire deadstock, as opposed to the individual pieces that Lessico Familiare collections are currently built upon. Buying new machinery and improving the e-commerce site is also part of the goal.

“Our clothes need to be understood. People like them but don’t necessarily instantly get how to wear them,” given their complex architecture. “A great website would allow us to show them properly,” Scaburri said.

The label is available on its e-commerce due to its artisanal, handmade production, in addition to a few retailers in Japan and at Dover Street Market Paris.

Moja Rowa was established in 2022 by Vivienne Westwood alums Yelena Mojarova and Edward Benedikt Sittler after quitting their jobs in London and moving to Mexico as the pandemic was about to erupt. 

Once back in Italy after one year exploring the country, the pair — a couple in life — settled between the Marche and Emilia-Romagna regions and jump-started their project, hinged on exploring different printing techniques including their favorite: the tie-dye. Animated by a sustainable practice, the pair releases small drops and one-of-a-kind pieces. 

The jury panel of this year’s grant included Capasa; Benaglia; Umberta Gnutti Beretta and Warly Tomei, both Camera Moda Fashion Trust cofounders and cochairs; Marco Bizzarri, founder and chairman of the Forel fund and chairman of Elisabetta Franchi; Margherita Maccapani Missoni, founder and creative director of Maccapani; Laudomia Pucci, president of Emilio Pucci Heritage; fashion journalist Suzy Menkes; Michelle Francine Ngonmo, CEO of the Afro Fashion Association, and Sara Sozzani Maino, creative director of Fondazione Sozzani and advisory board member at Camera Moda Fashion Trust, among others.

Established two years earlier, the Camera Moda Fashion Trust officially kicked off full-fledged activities in 2019. It previously bestowed its grants on Act N.1, Coliac and Blazé, Vitelli, Cormio, Niccolò Pasqualetti, Marcello Pipitone, Florania, Setchu, Andreādamo, Francesco Murano and Lorenzo Seghezzi. The organization relies on private donors as well as Italian brands contributing with yearly donations.