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One would imagine Andreas Kronthaler’s latest collection for Vivienne Westwood would have Mozart’s stamp of approval. Inspired by the composer and the era, hats piled up in the style of the hairstyles of the eighteenth century, while corsets and skirts with flounces also made an appearance on the catwalk en masse. Kronthaler skilfully paired it all with punk elements for which the house of Westwood is famous. The son of a Tyrolean blacksmith and husband of Vivienne Westwood let the audience know the title of the show was “Rock me Amadeus.” And that he did. As 50s pin-ups also served as a historical reference which resulted in a collection that reminded more of a rock concert than a waltz.

“La collaborazione è frutto della continua ricerca che portiamo avanti per sviluppare collezioni sempre più innovative. Attraverso EFI, Ethical Fashion Initiative – ndr un programma dell’agenzia delle Nazioni Unite International Trade Center -, abbiamo potuto condividere la nostra expertise e gli stessi valori promuovendo il lavoro artigianale delle comunità in aree in via di sviluppo” – con queste parole Cesare Casadei, Direttore Creativo di Casadei, ci introduce alla mini capsule collection, presentata alla Milano Fashion Week di Settembre 2019, che unisce l’Italia al Burkina Faso, paese tra i più importanti produttori africani di cotone.

Casadei launched a sustainable collection
CASADEI showcased a brand new Artisanal collection, developed with the Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI), which includes four styles using fabrics woven by women in Burkina Faso – one of the biggest producers of African cotton and the shoes feature a variety of textures, fabrics and colour.

Casadei made a strong statement about ethical fashion today at its Milan Fashion Week presentation.

The Italian label unveiled a capsule collection of nine styles for spring ’20 that use fabrics woven by women in Burkina Faso, Africa — an area known for its artisinal weaving and one of the biggest producers of African cotton.

The capsule was developed with the Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI),which promotes sustainable fashion and the work of communities from developing countries by connecting big fashion names with local entities. EFI is a program of the International Trade Center, a joint agency of the United Nations and World Trade Organization. It has worked with companies big and small, from Adidas to luxury designer Aurora James.

Nel 2016 è arrivato via mare in Italia, più precisamente in Sicilia, è stato trasferito nell’hub regionale di Bologna e infine accolto dalla cooperativa sociale “Lai-momo”, a Lama di Reno, frazione del comune di Marzabotto. Poi il colpo di fortuna. Nel 2017 la cooperativa, in collaborazione con il programma “Ethical fashion initiative” dell’Onu e dell’Organizzazione mondiale del commercio, fonda una piccola start-up: la Cartiera, con sede nella casa dell’amministratore della vecchia cartiera di Marzabotto. L’obiettivo è produrre accessori di alto artigianato in pelle, favorendo l’inserimento lavorativo di richiedenti asilo, migranti e disoccupati.

This mythic landscape that set the scene for cult films like The Talented Mr. Ripley and Scandal in Sorrento is where two pixie-haired women have chosen to unveil a new right, and discover the Goooders universe, one of two pop-ups this summer (the other is in Paris at The Bristol Hotel) that aims to help people look good by doing good. Co-founder and co-CEO Caterina Occhio is inside the pop-up while her partner Eva Geraldine holds court on the terrace. The similarities don’t stop at their short crop. Both have romance in their eyes and some French cancan in their legs, as proven by spontaneous dancing later that evening. Moreover, they are both fiercely determined to fill today’s shopping bags with a dose of 21st century, UN-approved values.

Goodee has partnered with the Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI), whose network of artisans in conflict-torn countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso are producing fabrics designed by Byron and Dexter Peart, to be featured as products on the site. “We regenerate the social capital of workers from very marginalised communities [by making them] permanent suppliers of international fashion and lifestyle brands,” says Simone Cipriani, UN officer, founder and head of the EFI. This, in turn, allows for environmental regeneration, such as the instalment of solar panels to heat water for the natural dyeing process carried out in Mali.

The launch of Goodee comes at a time when sustainability and ethical transparency are a growing concern among consumers yet a relatively untapped market in the luxury lifestyle space. According to sustainability consultancy Futerra, the market for ethical products and services in the UK alone is worth £81.3 billion (about $104.9 billion), growing over £40 billion since 2008. “Sustainable living for beginners” as a search term on Pinterest went up by 265% last year.

Sustainability is also a timely matter for policy and industry-wide action, with the UN Alliance For Sustainable Fashion launching in March 2019 in a bid to tackle the social and environmental harm of fashion, of which the EFI is a member agency.

Tout est passé au crible du code d’éthique (et d’esthétique) Goodee. La certification B-Corp, accordée aux sociétés commerciales répondant à des exigences sociétales, environnementales, de gouvernance et de transparence, est imminente. L’entreprise travaille également en collaboration avec l’Ethical Fashion Initiative, un programme lié à l’ONU. Ils mettent au point une gamme de matières textiles et d’objets pour la maison qui permettra aux artisans membres d’avoir un meilleur accès au marché mondial.

Hierfür arbeitet Jeanne mit Frauen in ländlichen Regionen in Indien, Usbekistan und Afghanistan zusammen und verwendet für ihre Kollektionen (die keine Kollektionen im klassischen Sinne sind, da sie keinem festen Turnus folgen), ausschließlich ausgesuchte Vintage-Stoffe aus den Regionen. Produziert wird dann eben soviel, wie der Stoff hergibt und mit Respekt vor der Umwelt und (und hier können sich so einige große Modehäuser eine Scheibe abschneiden) unter Einbeziehung der Frauen aus den Kulturen, von denen sich Jeanne für ihre Zazi Vintage Kollektionen inspirieren lässt. Heißt: Jede*r bekommt ein faires Stück vom Kuchen ab.

Für ihre neue Resort Collection 2019 hat Jeanne erstmal mit der Ethical Fashion Initiative der Vereinten Nationen zusammengearbeitet und gemeinsam mit Handwerkstätten in Afghanistan eine traumhafte Kollektion gefertigt, die auf den Spuren der legendären und sagenumwobenen Seidenstraße wandelt. Fair, nachhaltig und wegweisend. Logisch, dass wir bei diesem unterstützenswerten Konzept neugierig geworden sind und genauer bei Jeanne nachgefragt haben.

從消費者的角度來看，究竟什麼是更道德、更永續性的購物方式呢？這兩個詞彙絕對於當下最熱門的關鍵字，而其定義也密切關聯。「這兩者該被視為同義詞，」聯合國道德時尚協會負責人Simone Cipriani 這麼説。「道德必須兼顧永續性，無論在社會或環境層面。」 What exactly does it mean to buy more ethically and sustainably, from a consumer perspective? The two terms are definitely buzz keywords at the moment, and their definitions closely interlinked. “They should be considered synonymous,” says Simone Cipriani, the head of the UN’s Ethical Fashion Initiative. “Ethical has to [mean] sustainable, socially and environmentally.”

Die Seidenstraße in Afghanistan ist bekannt für ihren Reichtum und ihr kulturelles Erbe. Sie ist umgeben von Geschichte und Kultur, die den Westen und den Osten wie ein Netzwerk einer Handelsroute miteinander verknüpft. Ausgetauscht wurden hier neben Religionen, Philosophien und Technologien auch Seide, die bereits damals zu einem sehr wertvollem Exportgut galt. Durch jahrzehntelange Kriege, ist diese wichtige Verbindung der Gemeinschaft leider angegriffen worden, deswegen ist es mehr denn je an der Zeit, die Tradition in der Seidenstraße wieder aufleben zu lassen. ,,The Silk Road’’ heißt das Programm, das von Jeanne de Kroon in Kooperation mit der Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI), einer von der Europäischen Union gegründeten Initiative, geleitet wird.

Die Designerin Jeanne de Kroon hat in der Ethical Fashion Initiative einen Partner gefunden, der ihre Vision, ein besseres Verständnis zwischen unterschiedlichsten Kulturen und Traditionen zu fördern, gemeinsam in die Tat umsetzt.

Die Ethical Fashion Initiative – kurz EFI – ist 2009 mit der Mission an den Start gegangen, marginalisierte Handwerker mit ethisch orientierten Konsumenten zu verbinden. Simone Cipriani, Gründer und Leiter von EFI besuchte damals den Korogocho Slum in Nairobi und erkannte sofort, wieviel Potenzial im traditionellen Handwerk dieser Region für die Modebranche steckt. Von der Verknüpfung beider Welten sollten alle profitieren. Mittlerweile macht sich die Organisation auch mit Projekten in Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Haiti, Äthiopien, Nepal, Kambodscha und zuletzt auch in Afghanistan, Tadschikistan, Usbekistan und an der Elfenbeinküste für ein faires Miteinander und besseres Verständnis stark.

Antes del muro de Trump, ya existía una barrera comercial, que ha dividido históricamente el mundo por la mitad. El hemisferio sur ha sido siempre el gran marginado. Sus artesanos son desterrados de la cadena de producción del mercado del lujo, condenados a trabajar en condiciones pésimas. Vivienne Westwood empezó en 2010 a colaborar con Iniciativa Moda Ética (EFI por sus siglas en inglés) del Centro de Comercio Internacional (ITC), organismo conjunto de la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre Comercio y Desarrollo (Unctad) y la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC). «Nuestro trabajo con el Centro de Comercio Internacional da a las personas oportunidad y sostenibilidad», señala Carlo. «Estamos hablando de trabajo», hace hincapié Simone Cipriani, director de EFI. Su lema siempre ha sido: «Es trabajo, no caridad». Para D’Amario, es un intercambio: «Compartimos técnicas y transmitimos nuestra experiencia a su artesanía. Soft Power». En castellano, ‘poder blando’ –término acuñado en los noventa que hace referencia a la influencia que tiene un Estado en el extranjero al margen de su acción diplomática, actividad directa económica o capacidad militar–. Para Carlo, la acepción moderna (más positiva) se centra en el poder de la sociedad de intercambiar ideas.

De Kroon works with artisans across Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and India, but her latest project brought her back to Afghanistan for a special collaboration with the United Nations Ethical Fashion Initiative. Last year, de Kroon met Simone Cipriani, the head of EFI, at Nest’s summit on the handworker economy at the U.N. “I was wearing one of my coats and Simone asked me about it, and when I told him it was made in Afghanistan, he said we had to work together,” she says on a recent call (from Berlin, not the jungle!). The EFI had several ongoing initiatives in Afghanistan in collaboration with its social enterprise partner, Zarif Design, a “slow production” workshop in Kabul founded by Zolaykha Sherzad, who employs 52 local artisans to create garments using traditional fabrics, embroideries, and natural dyes. In doing so, she is keeping those crafts alive and providing safe, fair trade employment.

On the 10th anniversary of the EFI, Simone Cipriani discusses his mission to make fashion truly sustainable

Abrima Erwiah, who was raised in New York and worked in marketing and communications at Bottega Veneta, co-founded Studio 189, an artisan-produced fashion brand that is headquartered in Ghana, West Africa and New York. It currently operates a store in New York and Accra (Ghana), an e-commerce site, a manufacturing facility in Accra, and supports various community-led projects in Africa and in the US. It works with artisanal communities that specialize in various traditional craftsmanship techniques including natural plant-based dye indigo and hand-batik. Studio 189 partners with the United Nations ITC Ethical Fashion Initiative, NYU Stern School of Business and has collaborated with brands including EDUN, which was part of LVMH, and the retailer Yoox Net-A-Porter.

Simone Cipriani, Head and founder, Ethical Fashion Initiative at the ITC, spoke about what luxury is today and his work investment in social capital.

After years of various groups trying to promote the importance of sustainability as best they can, the United Nations Alliance on Sustainable Fashion plans to take the lead.

Fashion in Africa has consecutively gotten better with every year, and 2018 was no different. The prospects are becoming more visible and based off this, we at Haute Fashion Africa are debuting our “Fashion Ahead” list, a curation of brands who from the last quarter of the previous year are already showing trends for remarkable next year to come, thus putting them Fashion Ahead.

Williams and Adidas will release a limited-edition range of reworked track jackets with the Ethical Fashion Initiative, an organization that links artisans from developing countries to fashion’s international value chain.

The fund seeks to create an investment potential to cover the gap between public intervention and business reality in the creative and fashion sectors of Sub-Saharan Africa.

The United Nations through, its ethical fashion initiative also helped the co-founders develop a factory for its clothing. While its mission may be philanthropic, Dawson said it doesn’t come at the expense of high fashion.
“If you don’t even care about sustainability you don’t have to lose out on anything. It doesn’t have to feel like charity. It shouldn’t feel like charity. This is about really recognizing people’s work and coming to the table and recognizing everybody along the supply chain and the consumer is just as important as the farmer,” Dawson said.

Previously underestimated in terms of its impact on the environment, the record of the $2.5 trillion-dollar fashion industry is now coming increasingly under scrutiny. Not only is it the second highest user of water worldwide, producing 20 per cent of global water waste, and responsible for 10 per cent of global carbon emissions, but beyond the environmental impact the industry is also closely linked to labor, gender and poverty issues. And while significant today, it is likely that such concerns will only increase further in the coming decades, which has prompted the UN to call for delegates attending its upcoming High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development to debate plans to launch a Partnership for Sustainable Fashion.