Glamour and Sustainability: Inside The Green Carpet Fashion Awards That Closed Milan’s Fashion Week
Milan’s Fashion Week closed on Sunday with a soirée held at the sumptuous La Scala theater, celebrating the industry’s engagement with sustainability, climate change, and social responsibility. For the third time, the Green Carpet Fashion Awards (GCFA) were granted to members of the fashion community effectively committed to embracing real changes in the system’s production chain—reducing waste, finding alternatives to plastic, protecting small sustainable businesses, and innovating and researching cleaner, less planet-harmful technologies. Italians definitely know how to glamorize sustainability: The evening was elegantly choreographed in a festive atmosphere. The fashion community turned out in force, along with a dashing contingent of celebrities, walking a sustainable floral green carpet made from recycled plastic sneaking through delicate canopies of vine leaves, envisioned by Vogue’s Hamish Bowles, the awards’ creative director, and paying homage to Leonardo da Vinci, whose 500th anniversary of death occurs this year.
The awards were established in 2017 by the National Chamber of Italian Fashion (Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana), masterminded by its chairman, Carlo Capasa, in collaboration with Eco-Age’s creative director Livia Firth, with the Ministry of Economic Development, the Italian Trade Agency, and the Municipality of Milan.
This season, the event was hosted by Jon Kortajarena and Adut Akech, resplendent in a billowy Valentino dress in pale blue silk faille. They introduced the 12 awards lavished on entrepreneurs, small businesses, craftsmen, and designers championing ethical and sustainable practices. Among the highlights of the evening, filmmaker Ginevra Elkann awarded François-Henri Pinault the GCFA Visionary Award. Kering’s chief executive was the force behind the Fashion Pact, prompted by France’s President Emmanuel Macron and recently presented at the G7 summit, representing 32 fashion companies and approximately 150 brands—all committed to working on a more sustainable approach. From the stage, Pinault urged companies to embrace corporate responsibility, getting together to share experiences and knowledge. “We need to act together, to take concrete action,” he said. “Let’s join the Fashion Pact, to make fashion clean and great again.”
Prada’s Lorenzo Bertelli presented the Circular Economy Award to the volunteer divers of Healthy Seas, a nongovernmental organization, and businesses for cleaning the Mediterranean, the Adriatic Sea, and North Sea from derelict plastic fishing nets and waste littering the waters, a deadly threat to marine life. More than a 100 divers and several fishing communities work in the NGO, which transforms discarded nylon in ECONYL, a regenerated nylon yarn used by fashion and interior industries. Prada recently launched a project called Prada Re-Nylon, a line of bags and backpacks made from repurposed ECONYL yarn.
On a cheerful note, the gondoliers of Venice were granted the Ecostewardship Award, for the use of natural merino wool, provided by The Woolmark Company, for their famous striped sweaters; Lou Doillon awarded the GCFA for Responsible Disruption to I Was a Sari, a small, zero-dividends company based in Mumbai which repurposes vintage saris into new outfits, investing the profits back into developing the label and advancing the conditions of the female community of seamstresses and embroiderers. Clad in a beautiful golden-embellished creation in black chiffon, the French actress handed the Chopard-designed statuette (made of Fairmined-certified ethical gold, of course) to CEO Stefano Funari, who was surrounded onstage by the Indian artisans, exquisitely dressed in their stunning pre-loved and upcycled saris.
No designer has tackled the sustainability conversation as forcefully and with as much integrity and conviction (and creative fashion verve) as Stella McCartney, the true pioneer of unwavering commitment to ethical fashion practices. She received the much deserved Groundbreaker Award and was joined onstage by her whole cheerful team. In her emotional and engaging speech, she went through those personal reasons which made her embrace a responsible lifestyle. “I was brought up a vegetarian in the countryside by two socially conscious parents,” she said. She too urged the fashion community to share knowledge and experiences: “Sustainability is today a global open workshop, an ongoing process propelled forward by trials and errors. The definitive solutions have yet to come—that’s why the conversation has to be circular, with as many players as possible taking part in the debate.”
It would be too long to mention all the awards and the recognitions granted, but one thing was clear: The industry is definitely taking action. It’s a promising start, with big Italian companies like MaxMara and Zegna joining the discussion with a pragmatic, effective approach, and with young designers like Flavia La Rocca (recipient of the GCFA Franca Sozzani Award for Best Emerging Designer) becoming more and more committed to an ethical fashion mind-set.
But back to the star wattage that an award ceremony requires, sustainable as it may be—it was provided in spades by the fabulous appearance of the divine Sophia Loren, still sublime at 85, her charisma and consummate stage presence still intact. With an emotional and witty speech, she brought down the house while presenting the GCFA Legacy Award to the equally fabulous Valentino Garavani. Tan and dapper as always, the 87-year-old legendary designer seemed utterly pleased by the accolade, which he graciously received. He was also granted a well-deserved, thunderous standing ovation.
Photo: Courtesy of the Green Carpet Awards1/29Valentino Garavani and Sophia Loren
Photo: Courtesy of the Green Carpet Awards2/29Pier Paolo Piccioli and Adut Akech
