MILAN — Leave it to Brunello Cucinelli to pick a quote by Carthaginian commander Hannibal as he was bestowed the Visionary Award by actress Naomie Harris.
At the conclusion of the CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards on Sunday evening, staged at the La Scala theater, Cucinelli dedicated the award the younger generation, tasked with shaping the future, as he urged people to “replace fear with hope.” With a message of positivity, he cited Hannibal’s phrase to his generals, “I will either find a way or make one,” as he embarked to cross the Alps into Italy by elephant during the Second Punic War around 218 BC.
Carlo Capasa, chairman of Italy’s Camera Nazionale della Moda, defined Cucinelli one of the country’s “great ambassadors,” creating a new and virtuous enterprise model, preserving and promoting the value of Italian crafts and manual skills and harnessing technology and artificial intelligence for humanism.
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The fashion association apparently got the memo. Held once again at the tail end of Milan Fashion Week, the event was tight — one and a half hours as promised — and well-organized by Balich Wonder Studio and professionally rehearsed with Freida Pinto a presenter in control and faultless, compared to last year’s event, which dragged on too long and was interspersed with a few botched up distractions. The only concession to a live artistic performance at Milan’s storied theater was a ballet by Nicoletta Manni, the principal dancer étoile of the institution on the notes of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “La Luna.”
The glitz and celebrity quota was whittled down to a minimum, though — no Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett or Jessica Chastain as in past seasons — leaving the stage to the core issue at hand: sustainability.
That said, there were a number of models who have also been devoting their time to activism, such as Ashley Graham, a longtime promoter of body positivity. Environmentalist Arizona Muse, who in 2021 created her “Dirt” charity devoted to biodynamic farming, received the The SFA Climate Action Award from Paralympic athlete VeroniCa Yoko Plebani, and enthused about the possibility of “soon wearing biodynamic clothes.”
Silvio Campara, chief executive officer of Golden Goose, and Umberto De Marco, president of Coronet and founder of Yatay, were awarded the SFA Groundbreaker Award by Isabeli Fontana and Italian actress Matilde Gioli. The Yatay Lab was launched in early 2023, a collaboration between Golden Goose and Gruppo Coronet as a hub to develop circular and sustainable materials. “Innovation is culture,” Campara said.
Angolan model Maria Borges, who has been outspoken about embracing natural beauty, bestowed the SFA Biodiversity & Water Award to the Lenzing Group, represented by CEO Rohit Aggarwal and Italy’s business manager Carlo Covini, for promoting glacial preservation through circular textiles. A significant advancement includes the creation of the “Glacier Jacket,” recycling geotextles into new fibers.
Jean-François Palus, president and CEO of Gucci, received the SFA Human Capital & Social Impact Award from the hands of actress Kyshan Wilson, as the executive touted the brand’s commitment to fight against gender-based violence, partnering with dedicated organizations and initiatives both in Italy and around the world. “Perhaps what we do is just a spark, but it’s a spark with the power to ignite action and drive real change — fostering freedom from all forms of violence and promoting dignity and independence,” he said.
Remo Ruffini, chairman and CEO of Moncler Group received the SFA Education of Excellence Award from Edward Enninful. “Education is fundamental: without it, ideas remain just dreams. In our work, we turn ‘bello [ beautiful]’ into ‘ben fatto [well-made]’ and we are committed to passing these skills on to young people because the future is in their hands. This award is for the students and the teachers of the [group] Academy and everyone who makes our work possible.”
Also highlighting the generational handover and the need to preserve Italian crafts, Mehdi Benabadji, CEO of Brioni, received the SFA Craft and Artisanship Award from actor Adriano Giannini and said that the company, which “produces in the spirit of slow luxury,” will reopen the sartorial school named after Brioni’s cofounder, Nazareno Fonticoli, in Penne, home to the brand and a tailoring hub.
British Ghanaian sustainability advocate, writer and producer Samata Pattinson awarded Renzo Rosso, accompanied on stage by actress Christine Quinn, who fronts Diesel’s latest campaign, with the Circular Economy Award assigned by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Rosso, the founder of Diesel parent group OTB, said the Diesel Rehab Denim, was “an example of how you can create beautiful products using discarded materials, but sustainability is not only a recycled fabric, it’s also to think and act in a responsible way toward the environment and people. I believe in a circular business model where a company creates, produces, sells and gives back part of the value to the community, this for me is sustainability.”
The awards were presented in collaboration with the Ethical Fashion Initiative of the International Trade Centre of the United Nations ITC Agency, with support from the city of Milan, and also included The Bicester Collection Award for Emerging Designers to Escvdo and founder Chiara Macchiavello for crafting sustainable luxury with Peruvian heritage, bestowed by Tamu Mcpherson, Laurent Vinay and Qi Wei.
Paz Vega handed Jeanne De Kroon, Madhu Vaishnav and Belinda Idriss of Zazi Vintage the SFA Diversity and Inclusion Award for crafting sustainable luxury and heritage.
