Focus on Sustainability
From a new Master’s course to two teachers with a rich experience of green fashion, the Accademia del Lusso is devoting numerous initiatives to responsible design.
When it comes to the future of fashion, there is one topic being raised increasingly often and with greater awareness as well as urgency by professionals and consumers alike: sustainability. For those who have the mission of educating the professionals of tomorrow, it is essential to engage with this issue. And this is just what the Accademia del Lusso has been doing for some years now through various initiatives. Firstly it created specific courses in its threeyear tracks in Fashion Design, Fashion Styling and Communication, and Fashion Brand Management. Then last academic year, the Milan-based institute increased its educational offering with a Master in Sustainable Fashion Design to train professionals capable of entering a sector that is ever more attentive to the health of the planet and its inhabitants. In addition, Vittorio Giomo, Chief Advisor at Global Sustainable Fashion Week, and Gilberto Calzolari, winner of the Franca Sozzani GCC Award for Best Emerging Designer at Green Carpet Fashion Awards 2018, joined the teaching staff at the school founded in 2005. The group collection designed by 35 students at the end of the 2019/20 academic year confirmed the institute’s focus on responsibility. It presented 50 outfits inspired by the “hōsmōse” concept, produced with materials from eco-friendly supply chains (some sponsored by Guabello, Limonta, Penn Italia and YKK), or retrieved from the remains of past collections and given a new life by the craft skills of the students themselves.
“TO GET INTO EACH NEW SEASON, I USUALLY WATCH LOTS OF VINTAGE MOVIES FROM VARIOUS CULTURES, ESPECIALLY ASIAN THANKS TO MY BACKGROUND. FOR EXAMPLE, THE SS 2021 WAS INSPIRED BY BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI’S THE LAST EMPEROR. I THEN STUDIED CHINA’S MODERNISATION AND SYMPATHISED WITH
IT, AND THE CAMPAIGN SHOOTING ALSO EXPRESSED AN ORIENTAL FEEL WITH ANTIQUE PROPS AND ACCESSORIES PURCHASED FROM KOREAN MARKETS. SUSTAINABILITY IS ALWAYS A BIG CONSIDERATION IN PRODUCTION. THIS COLLECTION IS CREATED BY EXPANDING OR COMBINING EXISTING PATTERNS SUCH AS HERRINGBONE, ARGYLE AND GINGHAM WITH DISCARDED FABRICS.”
“The name Anchovi reflects my design attitude because I don’t like taking things too seriously. While I was thinking about what to call the brand, I remembered my younger days when I used to eat loads of anchovies, which my parents cooked to stay healthy. One of my goals is to bring people’s beautiful teenage memories back to the surface. I try to do it in a humorous way by using the image of an adolescent boy as a muse and mixing up styles, scents and things from
my own childhood.”