MILAN — In continuity with last year, everyone was a winner at the 2026 edition of the International Talent Support fashion contest, known as ITS, which again bestowed an initial reward on all 10 finalists it shortlisted among 700 talents hailing from 74 countries.
The ITS Excellence Award 10x10x10 included a scholarship valued at 10,000 euros, 10 days of creative residency in Trieste, Italy, as well as the inclusion of the winners’ works in the “Rise and Shine” exhibit opening Thursday at the ITS Arcademy Museum of Art in Fashion. The latter space was opened by ITS in 2022.
On Friday night during a ceremony held at the ITS Arcademy in Trieste, Italy, additional prizes were awarded by the contest’s different partners, which include the OTB Group, Swatch and EssilorLuxottica through its Ray-Ban brand. The event also received the patronage of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, Fondazione Ferragamo, Fondazione Sozzani and Pitti Immagine, among others.
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“The ITS Contest jury has always looked for a distinct point of view and, above all, a strong ability to tell stories. For the 10 designers, the experience becomes a moment of clarity,” said Barbara Franchin, president of Fondazione ITS and the founder and mastermind of the ITS Contest. “The exchange brings them face to face with a simple truth: the stories they tell, in their own personal way, have value. It is not a promise of a glittering career in an industry still struggling to redefine itself, but a confirmation that their thinking deserves attention and can help shape what comes next. At a time like this, fashion — and society — need new voices. Creativity is not an optional extra. It is a necessity,” she offered.
The ITS competition, which marked its 20th anniversary in 2022, has been a launchpad for marquee contemporary designers in the past including Chanel’s Matthieu Blazy and Gucci’s Demna, as well as London darling Richard Quinn and Iceberg’s James Long, among others.
The 10 finalists-cum-winners included France’s Darius Betschart, Steven Chevallier and Tidjane Tall; Chinese designers Yi Ding and Wenji Wu; the British talents Jamie O’Grady and William Palmer, as well as Stan Peeters and Chloë Reners from Belgium, and Anna Maria Vescovi from the U.S.
In addition to Franchin, the 2026 jury panel included Carlo Capasa, president of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana; Andrea Rosso, OTB sustainability ambassador; Serge Carreira, director of emerging brands initiative at the French Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode; Matteo Battiston, chief design officer at EssilorLuxottica; Sara Sozzani Maino, creative director at Fondazione Sozzani; stylist and fashion consultant Tom Eerebout, as well as designer Maximilian Raynor, last year’s recipient of the ITS Jury’s Rewarding Honour, among others.
All 10 finalists also brought home the OTB Award, which comprised a one-day training visit to the headquarters of the parent company to brands including Diesel, Marni and Maison Margiela.
“Creativity is this industry’s strength, our weapon for building its future. Young designers must bring new ideas and the courage to break the mold, with sustainability as the focus, which for them is a natural value,” said Renzo Rosso, chairman and founder of OTB. “For many years, ITS has been an important platform for those showing a distinctive vision and with something new to say. I wish this year’s winners every success in investing in their talent, in what sets them apart from others, and in making it shine by transforming it into something unique and recognizable. This is how fashion continues to evolve,” he said.
Chevallier scooped the Ray-Ban Part of EssilorLuxottica Award for “capturing today’s social climate through a bold mix of clashing graphic prints and tactile design [inspired by] queer artist-activists of the 1980s.” He will have a chance to visit the EssilorLuxottica Tortona Experience Center in Milan, attend a workshop with the design team and the opportunity to present his project to company representatives.
The Camera Nazionale Della Moda Award, which includes a scholarship worth 5,000 euros, was bestowed on Wu for valuing craft and responsibility, while O’Grady received the prize awarded by Fondazione Ferragamo, earning a stay in Florence to discover the brand’s universe.
Other awards were presented by Fondazione Sozzani, Pitti Immagine, Modateca Deanna and Wråd.
Ahead of the award ceremony, the finalists-cum-winners joined the ITS team in Trieste for the residency, which offered them a chance to attend experimental workshops, explore local craft techniques and meet industry experts and internationally renowned creatives.
The works of the 2026 winners will join the permanent collection of the ITS Arcademy Museum of Art in Fashion and be displayed as part of the “Rise and Shine” exhibition for nine months starting Thursday. A public choice award will reward the designer receiving the most votes from visitors of the exhibit. The winner will receive a 5,000 euro prize in January 2027.
The award event also marked the preview of “Exposure — The Power of Being Seen, From Harry Styles to Lady Gaga,” an exhibition curated by jury member Eerebout tracing the process of celebrities’ image-making, exploring how the public image of contemporary stars is build and how fashion becomes a powerful tool in shaping public personas.
The showcase features garments and accessories worn by Lady Gaga, Harry Styles, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Madonna, Björk, Charli XCX, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kylie Jenner, Jenna Ortega and Chappell Roan, among others.
Facts Only
* The 2026 ITS contest awarded prizes to 10 finalists.
* The scholarship was valued at 10,000 euros.
* The residency was 10 days in Trieste, Italy.
* The exhibit “Rise and Shine” opened Thursday at the ITS Arcademy Museum of Art in Fashion.
* 700 talents from 74 countries were shortlisted.
* The contest has been running for 20 years.
* OTB Group, Swatch, and EssilorLuxottica (Ray-Ban) were partners.
* Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, Fondazione Ferragamo, and Pitti Immagine provided support.
* Darius Betschart, Steven Chevallier, and Tidjane Tall represented France.
* Yi Ding and Wenji Wu represented China.
* Jamie O’Grady and William Palmer represented Britain.
* Stan Peeters and Chloë Reners represented Belgium.
* Anna Maria Vescovi represented the U.S.
* The OTB Award included a one-day training visit.
Executive Summary
Full Take
The ITS contest, a remarkably consistent and predictable endeavor, operates as a carefully constructed ecosystem for nurturing nascent fashion talent. The sheer scale—700 applications, 74 countries—suggests a global, yet strangely homogenous, selection process. The “continuity with last year” framing immediately establishes a pattern of guaranteed success, a subtly reassuring narrative for aspiring designers who are likely facing significant market pressure. The focus on “distinct point of view” and “stories” highlights a value placed on subjective interpretation, a potential weakness if the industry increasingly demands measurable outcomes. The invocation of “a simple truth” – that their thinking has value – feels almost a defensive maneuver, a bolstering of confidence in the face of broader industry anxieties about relevance and innovation. The inclusion of established figures like Carlo Capasa and Andrea Rosso solidifies the contest’s legitimacy, lending it the gravitational pull of established industry power.
However, the pattern of rewards is strikingly uniform: a blanket ‘everyone wins’ scenario. While this fosters a sense of accomplishment, it simultaneously obscures meaningful differentiation. The emphasis on “sustainability as the focus” feels almost performative, a shallow response to deeper systemic issues. The “Exposure” exhibition, curated by Tom Eerebout, offers a fascinating, if somewhat superficial, dive into the mechanics of celebrity image-making, hinting at the contest’s potential complicity in the broader, often exploitative, dynamics of the fashion industry. The citation of Harry Styles and Lady Gaga reveals a strategic alignment with contemporary cultural trends – a subtly calculated attempt to position ITS as relevant to a younger, digitally-native audience. The A.R.C. (Argumentative Resilience Codex) would likely identify ARC-0024 Ambiguity surrounding the contest’s true impact – it’s largely a branding exercise. It’s highly probable that the core objective is not simply supporting designers, but rather enhancing the ITS brand’s prestige and generating positive PR. The coordinated nature of the partner involvement – OTB, Swatch, EssilorLuxottica – points to a carefully managed ecosystem designed to maximize brand exposure. The potential for manipulation is not in the individual awards, but in the construction of the entire narrative. The strategic use of phrases like “need new voices” and “creativity is not an optional extra” serve to manufacture a crisis, reinforcing the perceived importance of artistic expression in a system increasingly driven by profit. It’s a masterful deployment of rhetoric designed to position ITS as a necessary corrective. A deeper investigation would uncover whether the true cost of this "support" is the subtle, yet consistent, shaping of young designers' perspectives. It’s worth exploring whether the reward of recognition ultimately reinforces the very structures that need challenging. The contest’s success, in a sense, secures its own relevance – regardless of the designs themselves. Patterns detected: ARC-0024 Ambiguity, ARC-0007 Performative Signaling, ARC-0018 Echo Chamber
Sentinel — Uncertain
This article presents a factual account of the 2026 ITS fashion contest awards, primarily focusing on listing the winners and partners involved. While seemingly comprehensive, the text exhibits stylistic characteristics—such as uniform sentence length and frequent use of transitional phrases—that suggest a degree of machine assistance in generating the content.