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More than 1,000 guests gathered at Jungle Plaza in the Miami Design District to see the work of graduating students selected by Dean of Fashion Mario Braghieri to represent IMM’s class of 2026. Titled La Grande Bellezza, a nod to the school’s Italian roots, the evening opened with a message from Miami-Dade mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who congratulated the student designers while recognizing IMM’s status as the first international fashion school in the United States to receive official accreditation.
Across the runway, the work moved from menswear to womenswear, between discipline and abandon. Intersections, whether between personal identity, fashion genre or cultural influence, became a thread connecting many of the collections.
Photo: Courtesy of Istituto Marangoni Miami
Among the designers, Danna Anton described Fluid Void as an exploration of “the fragile point where beauty and danger meet,” a phrase that suited her sculptural column gowns and outerwear. Sarah Berto’s To the Line injected motorsport aggression into black tailoring through leather, denim and raised red embellishment. Mariana Jimenez lent workwear a fresh patina through rust-effect denim and Swarovski embroidery, while Cristina Uribe’s standout sculptural pieces turned Colombian craft into physical architecture, combining woven forms and monumental accessories.
Photo: Courtesy of Istituto Marangoni Miami
From mermaids rendered in shell shimmer and pearled iridescence to Brutalist silhouettes drawn from architectural force, the range of work on show was impressively diverse and powerfully coherent.
Since opening in 2018, Istituto Marangoni Miami has built a school that brings European fashion expertise into a city shaped by North, South and Central American cultures. The presence of Karolina Kurkova added industry wattage, but the evening’s focus rightly stayed fixed on a fresh generation of design talent emerging from Miami’s particular heat.
