Camera Moda Fashion Trust Names 2024 Grant Winners

MILAN — Andreādamo, Niccolò Pasqualetti, Francesco Murano and Lorenzo Seghezzi are the recipients of the 2024 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 in the city on Thursday night, the winners were selected by a committee from among 10 finalists, shortlisted from 76 applicants. The latter included a mixed panel of up-and-coming designer brands at various stages of development, from Andreādamo, Durazzi Milano, Federico Cina and Francesco Murano, to Ascend Beyond, Be Nina, Domenico Orefice, Lorenzo Seghezzi, Niccolò Pasqualetti, and Victor Hart.

Some of them have been regularly showing their collections as part of Milan Fashion Week, including Durazzi Milano, Andreādamo and Federico Cina, while others have just recently started setting up distribution or are hoping that the grant will allow them to do so, such as Hart.

“Camera della Moda and Camera Moda Fashion Trust project their actions towards the future, the time of fashion, acknowledging the heritage of our industry and the complex challenges that fashion faces as a cultural and industrial system. Today we must provide concrete answers,” said Carlo Capasa, president of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana and a trustee of the Camera Moda Fashion Trust.

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

Since its foundation and including the 2024 edition the Camera Moda Fashion Trust has donated over 1.1 million euros, supporting 33 designers overall.

Meet the 2024 Grant Recipients

Ever since the launch of his namesake brand during the pandemic, designer Andrea Adamo — who cut his teeth at Elisabetta Franchi before working in the eveningwear division of Roberto Cavalli, as well as in other design roles at Zuhair Murad, Ingie Paris and Dolce & Gabbana — has put the enhancement of the female body at the center of his creative vision. Known for his sensual, body-hugging knitwear styles, he staged his first runway show in Milan in February 2022, and continued to do so until last season. The Andreādamo brand has attracted the interest of major international retailers, including Modes and Sugar in Italy, Tsum in Moscow and Harvey Nichols in London, as well as  Selfridges, Net-a-porter and Antonia, for which he created capsule collections.

An alum of The Row, Loewe and Alighieri, designer Niccolò Pasqualetti’s androgynous designs are supported by a sustainable and artisanal approach, which had already netted them a grant in the Fashion Trust’s 2023 edition. They were also among the 2022 LVMH Prize semifinalists and grabbed the attention of retailers like Ssense, Machine-A, The Broken Arm and Dover Street Market Ginza.

Francesco Murano’s unexpected boost of visibility came when the designer was about to graduate from Milan’s Istituto Europeo di Design and Beyoncé 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, as the designer puts it.

Queer culture sits at the core of Lorenzo Seghezzi’s fashion message, aimed at making social, cultural and political statements to empower the LGBTQIA+ community they are part of, by challenging the norms of gender identity and the masculine-feminine dichotomy in clothing. After attending Milan’s Liceo Artistico di Brera high school and graduating in fashion design at NABA, the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, they unveiled their first full-fledged collection at the 2020 edition of the Alta Roma showcase and went on to debut two additional lineups amid disruptions caused by the pandemic.

A fifth winner was selected by Max&Co., which is bestowing on the Ghana-born, but Bologna, Italy-based Victor Hart a prize of 20,000 euros and the opportunity to join the contemporary brand’s design team for a special project, as part of the Max Mara Fashion Group’s label’s “Design for Change” program.

Hart is in the early stages of scaling up his young fashion brand. After studying painting and sculpture in his native country and moving to Italy to attend the Haute Future Fashion Academy school in Milan, he kicked off his career in textile and sustainability design consulting before setting up his namesake fashion brand in 2021. The brand focuses on hybrid workwear, highly informed by sartorial construction and largely crafted from deadstock denim pieces.

This year’s jury panel included Capasa; Roberta Benaglia, chief executive officer and founding partner of private equity fund Style Capital SGR; Umberta Gnutti Beretta and Warly Tomei, both Camera Moda Fashion Trust cofounders and cochairs;  Margherita Maccapani Missoni, CEO and creative director of Maccapani; Laudomia Pucci, president of Emilio Pucci Heritage; fashion photographer Giampaolo Sgura; Max&Co.’s brand director and member of the Max Mara Fashion Group Sustainability Committee Elia Maramotti; Maria Giulia Prezioso, omnichannel retail director at Max&Co., as well as Anna Dello Russo, Afro Fashion Association founder Michelle Francine Ngonmo, stylist Lorenzo Posocco and digital personality Tamu McPherson.

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 and Setchu. The organization relies on private donors as well as Italian brands contributing with yearly donations.

The 2024 edition has seen Max&Co. return as the trust’s main patron flanked by luxury e-tailer LuisaViaRoma as patron.