Can sustainability and entertainment come together? Carlo Capasa replies

This evening, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan will turn blue to celebrate a new edition of the CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards, an event organized by the National Chamber of Italian Fashion to celebrate sustainability and Made in Italy. On the red carpet, celebrities and executives from the luxury fashion world will walk, dressed in lace and tuxedos, adorned with pearls and diamonds. In the hope that many of the guests will choose to wear vintage pieces again this year, the extravagance and spectacle of the event continue to concern sustainable fashion enthusiasts, uncertain about the theme of the evening: the environment or glamour? In the past, the Sustainable Fashion Awards have honored established fashion industry figures like Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, OTB, and equally well-known public figures such as Pierpaolo Piccioli and Donatella Versace. As Carlo Capasa, President of Camera Moda and creator of the event, explains, one of the main goals of the evening is indeed the spectacle - the initiative takes inspiration from Michelangelo Pistoletto's Rag Doll Virgin, who is on the jury - but also the promotion of Italian fashion and young talents that should be embraced.

«Every year we award an emerging sustainable designer», says the President of CNMI. «We reward high-end brands because when they invest in sustainability, they are able to execute large projects, but at the Awards, we have always had a mix of public figures, start-ups, and supply chain brands.» With ten awards divided between luxury brands and independent activities, the CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards are preparing for a glittering evening, although, more than ever this year, the theater will also have to welcome socio-environmental issues that are now hard to ignore. In the middle of Fashion Week, Italian fashion is grappling with tangible problems such as the management of luxury supply chains and the new circularity regulations, with European laws on traceability to be extended to all items by 2030. Carlo Capasa explains how, through what he calls an «impactful» event, the CNMI will address the issue of greenwashing and the regularization of supply chains with the grace of a waltz.

In past editions of the CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards, the prizes awarded to brands were for unique projects rather than overall brand achievements. Will you change this criterion this year?

Awarding a single project allows for a better evaluation of a brand’s results rather than rewarding its overall work, because there is still no shared scale defining how sustainable a company truly is. At the Awards, we have always used a metric developed in collaboration with the Ethical Fashion Initiative of the UN ITC, which includes ESG (social credit parameters attributed to companies corresponding to Environment, Social, Governance) that determine the value of an initiative. Awarding individual projects is more authentic because, given the complexity of the subject, it is difficult to calculate a generic sustainability award for a brand. Of course, when awarding projects, we also consider general due diligence regarding companies, with awards given by a high-level independent jury. Even from a scientific point of view, the awards are truly accurate: I see many awards around, many of which are given without scientific criteria and without competent juries.

In the past, the Awards have brought celebrities like Donatella Versace and Edward Enninful, as well as major groups like Prada and OTB, into the spotlight. This year, will you give more space to smaller companies and emerging creatives dedicated to developing sustainable alternatives?

As in the past, this year we will have ten total awards: three dedicated to high-end brands, three to startups, initiatives, and innovative companies, and three to the supply chain or humanitarian projects. Some companies became famous thanks to the Awards, like Orange Fiber, which creates fabrics from citrus waste, and in the past, we have awarded individual artisans and socially engaged figures. There is also the Visionary Award, which is significant because it is not given for a specific project but for the general approach of an individual who has made an important contribution to the fashion world. The beauty of this award is that it represents the sector as a whole, previously given to figures like Giorgio Armani, Edward Enninful, and François Henri-Pinault. This year it will be awarded to Brunello Cucinelli.

What do you think of the traceability laws and the Digital Product Passport (DPP) that will come into force in the EU? How will CNMI support their implementation?

CNMI is very active in Europe regarding European sustainability laws, although they do not always go in the direction we hope for. The passport is a great initiative, but the applications will need to be well defined, as talking about traceability is not simple. Transparency is the foundation of sustainability: who, more than anyone, can benefit from absolute traceability if not luxury brands, which have the ability to invest in production processes?

At the moment, we are in the midst of a dispute with the EU regarding the evaluation of garment durability, as CNMI is on the technical committee that assesses the impact of raw materials on the production chain. Currently, the durability of a garment is measured by taking and "stressing" a piece of fabric, which is given a score based on its resistance. In this way, since only the robustness of the fabric is considered, a soccer jersey appears more sustainable than a lace dress. However, the dress, whether lace or silk, tends to be more sustainable because it is likely to stay in the closet longer than a soccer jersey: we call this emotional sustainability. Moreover, according to EU durability parameters, fast fashion brands could appear more sustainable than high-end brands, as they use synthetic materials that are more resistant, but the amount of CO2 produced during the creation process is not measured. This demonstrates how complex and broad the concept of sustainability is.

The European Union is also promoting new guidelines against greenwashing, a phenomenon that is now widespread and motivates brands to increase the number of "sustainable" collections instead of convincing them to produce less. Will this be a topic addressed at the Awards?

At the Awards, we touch on all these topics. The problem, however, is not how many collections are produced: even with the first uses of artificial intelligence, creating smaller capsules actually allows for minimizing unsold items and preventing waste. Today, the real problem is excess stock and overproduction, and in this area, fast fashion is the first category that needs to change because when we talk about fashion’s impact on the planet, we are essentially talking about that system. The number of pieces produced by luxury companies has a physical weight far less than the huge quantity of garments produced by fast fashion. We need to rethink the idea of accessible fashion: it can no longer be the same fast fashion concept from the early 2000s, which has a huge environmental impact.

Beyond emotional sustainability, the social impact of a garment could also be discussed. In the past year, Italian fashion has been at the center of several scandals related to the production sector. What have been CNMI's initial reactions, and what projects have been carried out to address the issue?

We are in talks with the Prefecture and the Court of Milan, and we have submitted a new protocol to try to contain a phenomenon that is greatly harming companies and brands. Sometimes subcontracting (when a producer collaborating with brands assigns the work to third parties) happens without the brand being aware, making it complex to control thousands of suppliers, many of whom are unknown. We need to change the law and establish a fund like the one in France, where brands contribute a percentage to create an institutional fund that helps workers recover their wages in the event of wrongdoing. We are very concerned about the protection of workers' rights, because if the scandal involves brands, it is also detrimental to Made in Italy. We will bring these issues to the stage because it is important to raise awareness about them.

Also, controlling the supply chain contributes to the protection of Made in Italy, which ultimately represents the reputation of Italian production. What is CNMI's role in this?

It all serves to protect Made in Italy; preserving it also means working on the future of the sector. The awards must also serve as support for the supply chain and brands to imagine a more modern and sustainable future: on one hand, we must promote the digitalization of craftsmanship, create a strong environment for small businesses, and strengthen consortiums, while on the other hand, we must invest in training, otherwise, we will never have generational renewal. Italy is a country with a low birth rate, so it is important to open up training to people who come to our country to invest in our future, in quality and production, in the mix of craftsmanship and industry that makes Italian fashion so creative, flexible, efficient, and unique.

In conclusion, what other new things will be part of the next edition of the CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards? What will be the guiding themes of the evening?

The new feature will certainly be the new production house, which this year has been entrusted to Balich Wonder Studio. In addition, we have worked on something impactful that will be able to combine the spectacle with the strong connection of the event to Michelangelo Pistoletto, who marked the birth of our concept of sustainability when he created The Third Paradise in Piazza della Scala in 2012. The award is a statuette that reproduces the Venus of the Rags in eco-sustainable material; we are very attached to the collaboration with Maestro Pistoletto, and, in this edition as well, there will be a strong participation by the artist. What will undoubtedly be important about the evening will be the highlighting of his works, with the concept of people at its center. The Third Paradise ultimately tells the story of the fusion between us and what is outside, so the new edition will focus precisely on what humans can create by combining nature and artifice.