Retail Matters Podcast: Sustainability: The Only Runway Left

As sustainability faces disruption and political backlash globally, fashion finds itself questioning how to move the needle forward after a decade of quantum leap efforts.

Against a dampened economy and geopolitical turmoil, the stakes are higher than ever.

Global supply chains, including Italy’s, are under pressure — and increasingly under scrutiny. Policymakers are navigating the complexity of dealing with a different world — and business views. The performance of the fashion sector is still iffy and the outlook hard to predict.

“The issue at hand concerns the models we want to champion for the future, the vision of the world we want to embrace,” said Vittorio Emanuele Parsi, international relations professor at Milan’s Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, at the fourth two-day edition of the Venice Sustainable Fashion Forum held here at the Fondazione Cini.

“This is the time to have the courage to face our era head-on,” echoed Carlo Cottarelli, director of the program for education in economic and social sciences and of the observatory on Italian public accounts at the same university.

Industry players at the forum recognized the importance of scaling up, rather than back, their efforts and of doing so collaboratively.