What kind of an image appears in your mind when someone mentions sustainable fashion? I bet glamorous would not be ranking first in your list. However, the times when clothes made out of recycled plastic and cotton waste were exclusively for spiritual hippies have passed. The global fashion industry is reshaping the image of sustainable fashion - bringing a piece of the glitz and glamour to the eco-friendly clothing industry.
Words: Katrin Kaurov
Teatro alla Scala.
Italy announced the Green Carpet Fashion Awards created by Livia Firth’s initiative Eco-Age and the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, which will take place in the famous Milan’s Teatro alla Scala on 24 September 2017, during Fashion Week. The aim is to bring focus to the ethics and sustainability of to the Made in Italy brand, therefore leading the path for other major fashion capitals. The Green Carpet Fashion Awards will feature major brands, including Fendi, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Prada and Valentino, whereas each of the haute couture fashion houses will create a unique look according to the strict criteria of the Green Carpet Challenge.
The president of the Camera Nazionale della Moda, Carlo Capasa, describes the event as “The Oscars of sustainable fashion”. He has the intention to make Milan the cornerstone of eco-friendly fashion, as it pairs well with the Italian conscious lifestyle and biological food production, which are an essential part of the Italian heritage to date.
Carlo Capasa, Livia Firth and Michele Scannavini.
"Italian unique design heritage must be developed and built on the values of environmental protection and social justice in our supply chains, which will uniquely allow Italy to be the added-value designer and manufacturer on the global fashion stage."
Livia Firth, the ambassador of the project, hopes to bring attention to sustainable lifestyle with the Green Carpet Awards, as Italy has always been more about slow, hand-made approach to fashion, with a high focus on quality and uniqueness, in contrast with the general trend of mass-scale fast fashion. She claims that Italian unique design heritage must be developed and built on the values of environmental protection and social justice in our supply chains, which will uniquely allow Italy to be the added-value designer and manufacturer on the global fashion stage.
It is definite that haute couture brands won’t turn back to the 19th-century exclusive, tailor-made ateliers, as a more fast-paced, contemporary mass production is needed to keep up with the global pace of fashion. However, the Green Carpet Awards Challenge lets designers explore new ways of combining the glamour of high-end fashion with environmentally friendly production methods and the large-scale global demand for clothing.