“We triestini always used to tell ourselves that Trieste was la città in fondo a destra, ‘the city at the end on the right’,” says Barbara Franchin. “Now we’re starting to wake up to the fact that we’re slap-bang in the middle of things.” Franchin is the president and artistic director of ITS Foundation – International Talent Support, a Trieste-based foundation known principally for its annual ITS Contest, first held in 2002. A global competition for young fashion, accessories and jewellery designers that culminates in a starry gala, the prize has established itself as a major scouting platform for emerging talents: previous finalists include two of the fashion world’s hottest creative directors, Bottega Veneta’s Matthieu Blazy and Demna at Balenciaga.
But ITS is now broadening its horizons, helped along by funding from Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the north-eastern Italian border region of which Trieste is capital. In April, the foundation will open the ITS Arcademy, Museum of Art in Fashion on the fourth floor of a grand late-19th-century former bank HQ in central Trieste.
