Students of fashion from Milan and Pontedera win Rome design competition.

Fashion students from the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA) in Milan and the Istituto Modartech of Pontedera in Tuscany are joint winners in a competition to design new uniforms for staff of the Colosseum archaeological park in Rome.

The winning entries were selected from a total of 15 submissions following an open competition launched among Italian fashion schools last summer.

The initiative was the result of collaboration between Altaroma, the launchpad for emerging designers and platform for Italian high fashion, and the director of the Colosseum archaeological park, Alfonsina Russo.

The competition brief was to create a new line of uniforms to "strengthen the visual identity and promote the image" of the archaeological park which in addition to the Colosseum comprises the Palatine hill, Roman Forum and Domus Aurea.

The 100 uniforms, which will be worn by ticket staff as well as security guards, will reportedly be unveiled at the beginning of the next university semester, and each school received €2,500 for materials.

The success of NABA students comes as the Milan-based academy prepares to open a new headquarters in the Garbatella quarter of Rome, offering students in the capital a choice of multimedia arts, visual arts, communication and graphic design, and fashion.

Founded in Milan in 1980, NABA is a privately-run art university with approximately 3,000 students, many of whom come from abroad on Erasmus programmes. The academy's new Rome base will launch with an open day on 6 April. For more details see website.