Alberta Ferretti Photographed Fashionable Mothers and Their Children for Her New Sustainable Collection With Eco-Age
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For a designer just beginning their “journey into sustainability,” as Alberta Ferretti did earlier this year, textiles are the most obvious and impactful place to start. It isn’t just about natural versus synthetic, organic versus not; you have to retrace every step along the supply chain, starting with the plant (like cotton) or animal (like a sheep) itself. How is it being grown or raised, and who’s harvesting the fibers? Where is the fabric being spun, dyed, knitted, and finished? And that’s before you even consider other issues like shipping, waste, and workers’ rights. Ferretti has been zeroing in on her fabrics with help from Livia Firth and Eco-Age, and for Earth Day, she cleverly reworked her popular day-of-the-week sweaters in organic or recycled cashmere with earth-oriented slogans. She’s applied the learning to her runway collections too and is launching her third Eco-Age capsule today around another message: love. Following April’s sweaters emblazoned with It’s a wonderful world and Love me, these are knitted with Every day is an adventure, Live your dream, and Don’t forget to love. They’re photographed on mothers and their children or best friends, including Arizona Muse and her son, Nikko; Yasmine Le Bon and her daughter, Amber; Elisa Sednaoui and her mother, Anna; and Carolina Crescentini and her lifelong friend Alice Palazzi. It’s a fitting theme for the holiday season, and just so happens to mirror Vogue’s January issue, which is dedicated to mothers, including Stella McCartney, Ashley Graham, Greta Gerwig, and Cardi B. Ferretti hopes the graphic, 100 percent natural knits will serve as reminders of “how important it is to love not just the people around us [every day], but also the environment and land.” In addition to paying close attention to the origin of her cashmere, Ferretti is dedicated to producing all of her collections as locally as possible going forward. “We remain faithful to the traditions of Italy, while always looking to the future and new industry needs. I don’t believe this initiative of mine alone can save the world. But I am convinced that fashion is a great means of communication that [can send] strong messages in a direct, authoritative manner in every country and culture,” she explains.
Eventually, it won’t even be newsworthy that Ferretti’s materials are naturally and consciously sourced; it will become the norm. But she’s also focused on supporting the people making her clothes at every step of the supply chain, a process that is arguably even more difficult to trace than the fabrics. Yesterday’s factory fire in Delhi, India, which left more than 40 workers dead, is just the latest example of the lack of transparency at the worker level. As the BBC reported, the factory was thought to be operating illegally, and most of the victims were migrant workers sleeping between shifts. Limited factory oversight and lax regulations allow these issues to persist and can make change seem insurmountable. “We must develop [a way] to trace the sustainability of the entire supply chain that feeds the fashion industry,” Ferretti says. “I would like to know that the rights of the workers who work with cotton, those who then turn it into yarn and then into fabrics, and also those who package the items, are all respected. I can’t deny that there is a lot of work to be done, but we must start.” As a consumer, the best way to do all this is by shopping with designers who are transparent about their supply chain and are committed to improving it. The worst offenders are often (but not always) the companies making cheap, synthetic clothes on a massive scale, pushing workers to double up on shifts to meet production demands in unregulated factories. You can feel good about putting your dollars toward Ferretti’s new capsule, which lands on her website today, particularly if you have a thoughtful, eco-conscious friend (or mother or daughter) on your gifting list.
Photo: Courtesy of Alberta Ferretti1/6Amber Le Bon and her mother, Yasmin Le Bon.
Photo: Courtesy of Alberta Ferretti2/6Carolina Crescentini and her friend Alice Palazzi
