Camera della Moda Sustainable Fashion Awards to Cap Off September’s Milan Fashion Week
MILAN — The Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana Sustainable Fashion Awards are coming back to Milan Fashion Week in September for the sixth edition, continuing the revised format debuted last year.
Capping off the week-long parade of spring collections, the event will take place on Sept. 24 at La Scala Theater. It again will be organized with support from U.N.’s Ethical Fashion Initiative and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and will name 10 winners assessed according to an ESG-oriented approach, a reflection of the country’s fashion industry’s path toward sustainability and its ambition to tackle pressing issues.
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“The baseline of sustainability is to preserve creativity,” said Carlo Capasa, president of the Camera della Moda. “We cannot neglect the impact coming from fast fashion but at the same time we have to acknowledge the need for accessible clothing. For its part, high-end fashion is committed to finding solutions and already can count on durability of its products… if I look back to what has been done over the past years, we’ve made quantum leaps.”
The 10 awards, compared to 15 last year, will be determined by a jury chaired by Andrew Morlet, chief executive officer of Ellen MacArthur Foundation and including Capasa; Simone Cipriani, head and founder of the Ethical Fashion Initiative; Blanc Media Inc. CEO Teneshia Carr; Federica Marchionni, CEO of the Global Fashion Agenda; model and activist Teddy Quinlivan, as well as artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, among others.
As part of its ongoing commitment to involve different entities joining forces in challenging the industry to do better, the 30 finalists — whose names were not revealed — were selected from among 150 applicants submitted by an advisory committee composed of 25 industry associations and Italian and international nonprofit organizations each proposing five names. The entities included, among others, the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Apparel Impact Institute, Confindustria Moda, Textile Exchange and Fair Wage Network.
“These awards are poised to spotlight manufacturing and craft and the supply chain’s upstream,” Capasa said, highlighting the rationale behind the advisory committee. “Big brands serve the purpose of leading the industry,” he said.
According to Cipriani the “awards will offer a glimpse into a different way of creating value for stakeholders.” He stressed how the ESG-leaning methodology is being applied not only to the awards but also as a framework to be adopted by the industry to spot, eliminate and mitigate ESG-related risks, anticipating European Union regulations.
A recent eco-design directive and the soon-to-be passed Supply Chain Act both contain criteria that the “ESG Due Diligence and Reporting Framework” developed by the EFI and Quantis for Camera della Moda already account for.
Two special awards will be offered by the event’s main partners, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and The Bicester Collection shopping village operator, the former bestowed on a meritorious circular economy project and the latter on emerging designers.
Highlighting the collaborative effort in tackling sustainability Desirée Bollier, chair and global chief merchant of The Bicester Collection at Value Retail Management, touted the awards, adding that “sustainability is indeed a journey and we’re learning every single day and writing it together.”
The event will be conceived and produced in partnership with boutique event operator Villa Eugénie and its founder Etienne Russo, who opened an outpost in Milan last year. It will include dance performances, Capasa teased.
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