FORMA - Fashion Academies Creativity Festival

A festival that gives shape to the talents of tomorrow

FORMA - Fashion Academies Creativity Festival is the event through which Roma Capitale puts the spotlight on young people studying fashion, art, and design in the city's academies. Launched in 2025 as the first Italian event entirely dedicated to students of Roman Fashion Academies, the festival has established itself in just two editions as one of the most attended events in the capital's cultural calendar, with an audience primarily composed of students, teachers, industry insiders, and enthusiasts.

The venue is one of the city's most recognizable contemporary architectural landmarks: the Roma Convention Center La Nuvola, the building designed by Massimiliano Fuksas in the EUR district, on Viale Asia. A spacious and luminous setting that, for two days, turns into a sort of large collective atelier, where the work of the academies steps out of the classrooms and meets the city.

Exhibitions, talks, and showcases: the three souls of the event

The FORMA program is built upon recurring formats that define its identity:

• The Exhibition — over one hundred garments, accessories, and creations from the archives of the participating academies, a journey that narrates the evolution of style and taste through the students' work.
• Talks and Conversations — meetings with creative directors, journalists, curators, and industry professionals, focusing on career prospects, market trends, and the relationship between fashion, art, and sustainability.
• Showcases and Performances — spaces where students present their most innovative projects and artistic visions live, alongside performances by guest artists.
• Workshops — hands-on activities curated by the academies, ranging from creation and reinterpretation to material experimentation.

The academies in the spotlight

The festival brings together the main fashion and design schools active in Rome and the Lazio region. Eight institutions participated in the first edition: Accademia Costume & Moda, Accademia del Lusso, Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, Accademia Internazionale d'Alta Moda e d'Arte del Costume Koefia, Accademia Italiana di Arte, Moda e Design, IED Istituto Europeo di Design, MAM Maiani Accademia Moda, and NABA Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti. In the 2026 edition, the number of participating institutions rose to ten, a sign of the event's rapid growth.

Rome, fashion, and the EUR district

The choice of the EUR district is no coincidence. The neighborhood, with its rationalist volumes and contemporary architecture, has for years been one of the hubs where the capital concentrates major events related to fashion and design. FORMA is part of a broader strategy through which the Municipality of Rome, together with the Lazio Region and its Department for Economic Development, aims to strengthen the local creative supply chain: education, craftsmanship, tailoring, and the cultural industry. The project is also supported by the Ministry of Tourism as part of an initiative dedicated to UNESCO sites.

An open and free event

One of the elements that has ensured the success of FORMA is its accessibility: admission is free, with mandatory online booking, and the event is designed in a hybrid format, with part of the schedule broadcast via live streaming on Roma Capitale's platforms. This approach allows high schools across Lazio to follow the talks remotely and has contributed to a very high turnout, with tens of thousands of students involved.

For those studying fashion, those working in the industry, or simply for those curious to understand how a garment is born, FORMA is today one of the most interesting opportunities offered by the city of Rome: not a celebratory catwalk, but a place where you can see work in progress.