The Gianfranco Ferré Research Center was established in Milan on December 3, 2021, and collects the immense heritage left by the designer who graduated from Politecnico di Milano in 1969. 

The Ferré family, after setting up the Foundation in 2008, decided to donate to Politecnico di Milano the archive and the headquarters in Via Tortona in Milan (one of the areas recently developed for services related to the fashion and design sector), designed by architect Franco Raggi. A patrimony almost entirely catalogued in a digital database, characterized by more than 150,000 documents and artifacts (including sketches, technical drawings, photos, clothing and accessories, objects, books, magazines, films, press reviews, writings, lessons and notes by the designer). Gianfranco Ferré was capable of declining the polytechnic centrality of the "culture of design" in an emerging context such as that of fashion. Far from a purely stylistic vision, he has brought all the design components, from the most technical and technological to the artistic and cultural, into a unique and distinctive language. He has been able to look at the fashion product with scientific rigor, making this a distinctive element of its design poetics.

  Under the coordination of the Fashion in Process Research Laboratory and as an integral part of the Library and Historical Archives system of the Politecnico di Milano, the Research Center intends to bring together the technical-scientific know-how and design culture that characterize the identity of the Politecnico di Milano with the material and immaterial heritage related to the history, culture and techniques of fashion preserved and valorized by the Gianfranco Ferré Foundation.

The Research Centre is an interdepartmental Research Centre involving different disciplinary components of the University: Department of Design, Department of Mechanics, Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering. It is based on an interdisciplinary vision capable of combining heritage with innovation and technology and integrates a deep domain knowledge in design and fashion with ICT, User Experience and User Interaction skills.

Through research in the field of digital innovation, the Research Center aims to investigate, develop and experiment with advanced techniques for the visualization, representation and use of material artifacts with a high cultural content, typical of the creative and cultural industries that represent a distinctive identity element of Italian Culture and its recognition and positioning in the international arena. 

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Access to the Gianfranco Ferré Research Center is also free for outside users to consult the archives. Reservations must be made by emailing: centroricerca-ferre@polimi.it

Documents kept in the Gianfranco Ferré Archives are available for consultation only on the premises. They are not photocopiable, but may be duplicated by own means for study and research purposes only.

For consultations, contacts with foundations and cultural institutions, and requests for loans for exhibition purposes, please send a request to centroricerca-ferre@polimi.it