GUEST LECTURE: MARINA SPADAFORA, FASHION & ENVIRONMENT

Fashion & Environment
GUEST LECTURE: MARINA SPADAFORA

On February 27th Marina Spadafora, designer and entrepreneur, gave a guest lecture at our Milan campus to students of the Master in Fashion Sustainability & Industry Evolution.
After having designed a collection of experimental knitwear, Marina has collaborated with Prada, Miu Miu, Ferragamo and Marni. Since 2007 she has dedicated herself to ethical fashion projects, from Banqu to Cangiari, to development initiatives for Africa with the late Franca Sozzani, and has been the creative director of Altromercato for the Auteurs du Monde line.
Professor of ethical fashion both in Italy and abroad, she is the Italian coordinator of Fashion Revolution, an international movement that fights for a fair, transparent, and responsible fashion industry. She received the United Nations Women Together Award in New York in 2015.

Marina talked about how increasing attention has been brought to the impressive range of negative environmental impacts that the industry is responsible for. Fashion production makes up 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions, contributes to dring up water sources, and can pollute rivers and streams. What’s more, parts of textiles go into the refuse each year. Washing some types of clothes can send significant amount of microplastics into the ocean. The environmental and social cost of the fashion industry forces us to rethink the business and stresses the need for more sustainable business models and practices.