Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) and the Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI) have renewed their partnership for the CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards. The awards, which were presented on Sept. 24 in Milan on the close of fashion week, recognized circular fashion leaders and emerging designers.

Italian luxury fashion brand Gucci won the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Award for Circular Economy. Finalists for that award included Chloé and ACS Clothing – who were also recognized for making progress toward a circular economy for fashion apparel.

The Bicester Collection Award for Emerging Designers went to Ahluwalia with So-Le Studio and Made for a Woman named as finalists. Partners for the Sustainable Fashion Awards were Certilogo, Ginori 1735 and Consorzio Franciacorta. The CNMI also presented a recent edition of The Fashion Hub this yr featuring discussions, recent designers and displays with the support of sponsors akin to Salesforce, Mastercard, DHL and others.

Finding Purpose

Regarding the context for the awards, organizers said the style industry is reevaluating its narrative from a long-term value creation perspective. “It’s steadily moving towards stakeholder-focused approaches, aiming to align its operations and outputs with planetary boundaries and the social needs of a world impacted by climate change, biodiversity loss, excessive use of natural resources, inequality, and conflict,” they said in statement, adding that the awards help cultivate support from a broader range of industry stakeholders while answering the basic query of the style industry’s purpose.

Simone Cipriani, head and founding father of the Ethical Fashion Initiative and Chair of the U.N. Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, said the awards “symbolize a collective effort to deal with all systemic issues related to sustainability. Through collective motion, we’re generating a recent form of value — one which extends far beyond the realms of investors and businesses, benefiting a large number of stakeholders.”

Cipriani said this value “embodies a technique of long-term value creation that’s reshaping the very purpose of the industry. Governance structures are poised to evolve in response to this transformative change, offering greater voice and agency to stakeholders.”

To assist in this quest for purpose and greater circularity, the CNMI and EFI said they’re “committed to supporting a transition by implementing a set of management tools on ESG due diligence and reporting. These tools have been specifically developed to facilitate the industry’s pursuit of purpose-driven practices, and so they have been formulated based on international laws and guidelines on responsible business.”

Be the Change

Leading by example of this transformation of the industry while defining its purpose is Gucci, the winner of this yr’s Ellen MacArthur Foundation Award for Circular Economy.

Gucci was recognized for its work to create high-quality garments that align with a circular economy in addition to the posh brand’s ongoing commitment to using materials which can be grown in a way that supports the natural environment. Award organizers said Gucci’s “Denim project” set a high bar “for incorporating regeneratively-grown cotton in its denim collections in partnership with Regenagri®-certified Algosur farm in Spain, combined with post-consumer recycled fibers collected and re-spun in Italy.”

The project also leverages technology that traces the raw materials used through to the top product and includes product care and repair information.

“On the planet of fashion, our vision of a circular economy is one where products are used more, are made to be made again, and are produced from secure and recycled or renewable inputs,” said Andrew Morlet, CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. “We’re delighted to see top players in the worldwide fashion industry – winner Gucci and finalists Chloé and ACS Clothing – embrace these circular economy principles of their products and thru redesigning entire business models.”

Morlet acknowledged that reworking the style system won’t occur overnight. “But collaboration across the industry from the design of future products to the processes, services, supply chains and business models that may deliver them and keep them in use, gives us hope that a circular economy for fashion can grow to be the norm,” the CEO said.

Jean-François Palus, CEO of Gucci, said the brand was proud to receive the award, and said that constructing scalable collaborations “is an important a part of Gucci’s strategy and the ‘Denim project’ is an example of mixing the numerous strengths of the House’s supply chain partners and leveraging progressive tech to reinforce circular economy principles.”

Meanwhile, finalist Chloé, who’s a participant of the inspiration’s Jeans Redesign project, “demonstrated the way it was possible to implement changes on a significant scale, making 90 percent of its jeans portfolio circular in design, using durable, traceable, secure and recycled materials in the clothes.” Finalist ACS Clothing “was short-listed for its efforts to maintain clothing in use,” award organizers noted. The corporate offers services to its partners that include rental, repair, resale and fulfilment to make garments last more.

Showcasing Emerging Talent

This yr’s winner of The Bicester Collection Award for Emerging Designers, Ahluwalia, was presented the award by host Sabrina Impacciatore together with Carlo Capasa and Chiara Ferragni. Ahluwalia, launched in 2018, has garnered attention for pioneering recent sustainable solutions and approached. “By utilizing vintage, recycled, upcycled, and sustainable fabrics and garments, Ahluwalia creates pieces led by design but all the time made responsibly,” award show organizers said. “The label seamlessly blends elements from Priya Ahluwalia’s dual Indian-Nigerian heritage together with her London roots.”

From here, brand founder Priya Ahluwalia will receive long-term support to further grow her business, which incorporates access to The Bicester Collection’s bespoke mentorship program and the chance to be in the subsequent Creative Spot pop-up boutique.

Ahluwalia said being environmentally and socially conscious “is vital to myself and everybody at Ahluwalia. It was key to the foundations of the brand and as we develop, we endeavor to learn more, listen more and ultimately act more. Receiving this award is a large honor and reaffirms that our work has been meaningful and that anything is feasible, no matter your background or the industry’s current established order.”

Award finalist So-Le Studio is a Milan-based jewelry brand that was founded by Maria Sole Ferragamo “and born from her passion for craftsmanship and sustainability. SO-LE STUDIO creates unique jewelry using upcycled leather and brass leftovers from Italian luxury brands and manufacturers.”

Made For A Woman, the second award finalist, is described as an progressive social entrepreneurship project empowering women from vulnerable backgrounds and promoting female craftsmanship in Madagascar. Made For A Woman was founded in 2019 by Eileen Akbaraly, who’s a young Italian-Indian designer who grew up in Madagascar.

Partnering with CNMI on this award was Value Retail Management. Desirée Bollier, Chair and Global Chief Merchant for the corporate, said Ahluwalia “is already making an impact on our industry – representing the subsequent generation of iconic London fashion together with her celebration of diverse cultural heritage, progressive design, and commitment to the planet. All three finalists are incredibly exciting recent voices in fashion, and their talent and convictions speak to a promising future for our industry and our world.”

Carlo Capasa, chairman of the CNMI said The Bicester Collection “aligns perfectly with CNMI’s vision for a more environmentally conscious and socially responsible fashion landscape, supporting emerging designers on this journey and allowing them to spread their talent.” Through the partnership with the CNMI for the past five years, The Bicester Collection fostered the profession journeys of 18 Italian and international designers, thereby “contextualizing the Collection’s commitment to championing talent and delivering positive impact socially, economically and environmentally.”

The Bicester Collection, which operated by Value Retail, consists of 11 distinctive shopping destinations across Europe and in China is defined by offering “extraordinary experiences while offering remarkable value.”

Sustainable Fashion Awards: Key Partnerships

Certilogo’s partnership with CNMI involved collaborating on the creation of the SFA book captures the newest edition of the event while gathering the stories of its protagonists, the corporate said adding that, for the primary time, the book was printed in 2,500 copies and gifted to event participants.

But there was a digital twist with this yr’s edition. Certilogo included a QR code on the duvet thereby transforming it right into a digital touchpoint that permits readers to access an in-depth platform created in collaboration with CNMI, which incorporates special and exclusive multimedia content. The content included an unpublished video by Carlo Capasa, president of the CNMI.

Michele Casucci, General Manager and Founding father of Certilogo, said the corporate is happy to support corporations investing in sustainability “and recent circular economy models through digital innovation and sharing with the style community the unique creativity and craftsmanship behind each product.”

Casucci noted that the corporate works alongside brands “to guard and support the entrepreneurial community of ‘Made in Italy’ and, more broadly, the Fashion and Luxury sector in its journey towards circularity.”

Certilogo, founded in 2006, is a cutting-edge SaaS platform that uses artificial intelligence to immediately confirm the authenticity of a products in addition to access content, information, and services offered by brands. The corporate supports brands via constructing consumer trust by leveraging product digitalization. Casucci’s initial goal was to mitigate the distribution of counterfeit products by utilizing technology to confirm the authenticity of a product and do it “simply, reliably, and immediately.”

 Ginori 1735’s partnership with the CNMI involved embellishing the tables on the SFA’s gala dinner with the black and scarlet settings of the Catene (Chains) and Labirinto (Labyrinth) services.

“A clever mix of expertise and Italian sense of beauty, Catene and Labirinto were designed by Giò Ponti, who was artistic director at the corporate from 1923 and 1933,” the corporate said. “They mix lines and geometrical shapes, alternating intersections and spaces and giving the collections a very contemporary feel.”

Ginori 1735 said its partnership with the CNMI “was a spontaneous decision driven by the strong sense of sustainability that could be a fundamental a part of Ginori’s identity.” For its part, the corporate is working to significantly reduce energy consumption in its production process in addition to recycle waste porcelain while strongly limiting the variety of heavy metals utilized in decorations which will come into contact with food.

Alain Prost, chairman and CEO of Ginori 1735, said the corporate was proud “to be in conjunction with CNMI on the occasion of The Sustainable Fashion Awards 2023 with the intention to promote the values of social, environmental, and economic responsibility while enhancing the best Italian savoir-faire in craft and art.”

Consortium Franciacorta’s partnership with CNMI, now in its eleventh yr, involves being the official wine. Silvano Brescianini, President of the Consorzio, said being “a partner of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana is a terrific reason of pride for Consortium Franciacorta, and what’s more it represents a great opportunity to strengthen much more our common values and distinctiveness.”

Brescianini said the Franciacorta shares with the Italian fashion brands “creativity and craftsmanship, top qualities that provide our products with uniqueness, elegance, and excellence: the distinctive ingredients of Made in Italy on the planet.”

Brescianini went on to say that Franciacorta represents a wine “that’s the expression of a powerful territory, where producers work day-after-day to ensure a novel product, exactly as happens in fashion.”

And other than elegance and top quality, Consortium Franciacorta said the partnership with the CNMI is predicated on a shared commitment to sustainability. “This was further emphasized during a joint opportunity for discussion held last May, when the sustainability managers of the principal fashion brands were hosted on the headquarters of the Franciacorta Consortium,” the corporate said. “This meeting marked a crucial step forward within the promotion of sustainable Italian style, starting a discussion on sustainability issues, on which each have been working in a structured way for over ten years.”

The Fashion Hub

The CNMI also showcased a recent edition of the Fashion Hub, which is a gathering place spotlighting progressive projects open to the town of Milan in addition to most of the people.

Supporting the project were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the International Co-operation and the Italian Trade Agency. The Fashion Hub was held on the Palazzo Giureconsulti, a prestige venue positioned in the center of Milan. The Fashion Hub hosted a series of initiatives and activities geared toward promoting emerging brands and designers while they met with key players in the style industry.

“The projects featured on this edition of the Fashion Hub are Designers for the Planet, A Global Movement to Uplift Underrepresented Brands, Birimian Collective and MFW Forward.

Designers For The Planet involves eight brands that base the production of their collections on sustainability principles,” organizers said.

The designers were picked by a technical panel that chaired by Carlo Capasa, President, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, and made up of Beppe Angiolini, Founder & Owner of Sugar, Francesca Busi, Fashion Content Creator, Tassili Calatroni, Photographer, Ramona Tabita, Fashion Stylist and Veronica Tonini, CEO and Vice-president, ARB SBPA.

The eight participants chosen for this edition are Escvdo, FELIPE FIALLO, Liwen Liang, OK KINO, PAIRI DAEZA, Trashy Clothing, VIAPIAVE33 and Young n sang. The brand FATRA, in collaboration with WAMI, is the project’s Special Guest.

As well as, A Global Movement To Uplift Underrepresented Brands was featured. It is a project of CNMI in collaboration with Teneshia Carr, who’s editor-in-chief of Blanc Magazine. The project is designed “to advertise multiculturalism in the style industry by giving underrepresented designers visibility and business opportunities, the aim being to foster a culture based on the appreciation of diversity and inclusion,” organizers said adding that the designers chosen for this edition of the project can be BruceGlen, eliEls and Orange Culture.

Meanwhile, Birimian Collective Ventures, which is a financial institution supporting emerging designers inspired by African crafts and heritage, presented the Birimian Collective project done in collaboration with CNMI. The project showcased Chez Nous, Lafalaise Dion and Renwa. The designers showed their collections during all the Fashion Week and got to network with industry leaders.

MFW FORWARD was one other project of the Fashion Hub that involved designers who were “chosen for his or her give attention to research, innovation and experimentation in relation to recent trends and cultural change,” event organizers said, adding that the brands showing their collections were Ara Lumiere, Ascend Beyond, Endelea, Futuro Remoto, NKWO, San Andres Milano and Sake.

“Contained in the Fashion Hub,” which is a room dedicated to Scalapay and hosted a number of items from Artknit Studios, ACBC and Lil Milan. The collections responded to the query “What does sustainability mean for you?”

One other room on the Fashion Hub was dedicated to Fantabody X Dhl Express, which is a project that bases its creative process on elements of sustainability and inclusivity. Here, a capsule collection of three looks produced by Fantabody exclusively for DHL was shown.

And for a second time, the Sala Parlamentino at Palazzo Giureconsulti hosted Educational Talks on various themes and topics by foundations, corporations and associations. The aim was to “inform and educate, provoke thought and share experiences,” event organizers said. Topics ranged across sustainability, forests, nature, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, media and entertainment, crafts and cultural change.”

The talks also included “Fashion Archives: looking back to maneuver forward,” which was a conversation with Stefano Tonchi and Daniela Hamaui on the occasion of the launch of Archivio N°9; The brand new fashion industry.

“Fashion archives are like all archives all the time open to different interpretations and the worth of every object, garment and document is within the eyes of the beholder, dictated by the point we live in,” said Stefano Tonchi, Guest Editor-in-Chief, ARCHIVIO. “And since fashion all the time documents the current there’s never an end in collecting and updating a group. Fashion archives are all the time changing, creating recent narratives and relationships, all the time moving. They live archives.”

Also showcased was strategies and models for a plural, fair and inclusive fashion, which was curated by Marilena Umuhoza Delli and Sambu Buffa and presented by the Academy of Anti-racism in collaboration with WAMI. And the second edition of the talk Fashion for Planet Open Parliament was presented by Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto.

The Fashion Hub also held a presentation of the Podcast Sailor. Anatomia del corpo attraverso la moda (Sailor. Anatomy of the body through fashion), was produced in collaboration with Storielibere. The podcast mapped out the brand new geographies of bodies and garments by weaving together the words of leading players in Italian fashion in dialogue with Maria Luisa Frisa and Chiara Tagliaferri.

Other talks were presented by Salesforce, Asahi Kasei, Certilogo, Avatr, Scalapay and Mastercard.

Michele Casucci, GM and founding father of Certilogo, discussed the “DIGITAL PRODUCT PASSPORT – The way to do it and switch an obligation right into a business opportunity.” The discussion was on the long run of fashion and the technological understand how that must accompany its development.

Scalapay CEO Simone Mancini presented a session titled, “Scalapay and the long run of digital payment,” which addressed prospects and brand partners with the aim of supporting emerging talents and dialoguing with the style system.

Salesforce discussed how media and entertainment businesses “can boost the engagement of their publics and discover potential growth opportunities and areas for improving internal efficiency aided by technologies that use artificial intelligence and data to integrate, automate and personalize all interactions with customers across all channels,” the corporate said.

It’s essential to notice that Salesforce’s work with the CNMI is vital as the style industry continues to evolve and “Made in Italy” takes on more global significance in an era of greater digital convergence. Maurizio Capobianco, Area Vice President of Salesforce, praised the partnership “because we all know that with the good strides Italy is making in the large world of digital commerce, we are able to do quite a bit to renew a sector as essential to our country’s economy as luxury, pushing it to advertise increasingly exclusive and personalized shopping experiences for purchasers, profiting from the correct technique of digitalization to ensure only the most effective, and learning to seize every opportunity at essentially the most.”