The sustainable revolution
Modular clothes and footwear, silk fur, creatively recycled materials, sustainable dyes: the finalists of the CNMI Green Carpet Talent Competition stretch the boundaries of green innovation.
It won’t be long before the winners of the CNMI Green Carpet Fashion Awards, Italia 2019 are announced. The initiative was launched by the National Chamber of Italian Fashion in collaboration with Eco-Age and with the support of the Ministry for Economic Development (MISE), ICE, and the city of Milan. On 22 September, looks from the finalists in the CNMI Green Carpet Talent Competition will be presented during a fashion show. “This year’s selection highlights some of the most interesting and exciting Italian innovations that I’ve seen thus far in the CNMI Green Carpet Talent Competition. This contest has really sparked the imaginations of incredibly talented designers who have created pieces that are really extraordinary, embodying the true spirit of this initiative in the best possible way,” says Carlo Capasa, chairman of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, of the five finalists for the 2019 edition. For the first time, this year’s selection includes designers of accessories, such as Benedetta Bruzziches who used scraps from plexiglas production to make some of her bags, while Edoardo Iannuzzi and Gio Giacobbe created a zipper system for his ACBC brand that makes it possible to create different shoes with a single sole. Modularity, along with the use of recycled fabrics, is a fundamental element for flavialarocca, a clothing brand by Flavia La Rocca. Anyango Mpinga, meanwhile, works with silk fur created from silk scrap, and the knitwear by Linda Calugi, the designer behind Twins Florence, is made from recycled denim yarn with bands of rubber obtained from recycled plastic. To source their fabrics, the finalists were able to rely on the support of Milano Unica, the international trade show dedicated to textiles. “The collaboration between the National Chamber of Italian Fashion and Milano Unica, which focuses on the topic of sustainability, is further proof of the need for the key players in the textile and fashion industries to work together even more,” says Ercole Botto Poala, president of Milano Unica, Main partner of the CNMI Green Carpet Talent Competition. “Creating more of a dialogue between those upstream and those downstream in the supply chain is necessary for becoming ever more competitive in global markets.”