Vogue Italia

fearless generations

Over the last year and a half, most of humankind has been forced to question all sorts of norms and mindsets that seemed to make perfect sense until the day before. Younger cohorts have been hardest hit, but at the same time they have reacted positively by developing an awareness that they can drive genuine change. The new generation of talents has found itself with a passionate ambition to radically transform a system that was no longer working. Vogue Talents has always championed stories, ideas, visions and projects that manage to overcome conventional limitations by working towards broader, more far-sighted and responsible objectives. We are now seeing how, as a response to the restrictions of our current circumstances, technological evolution is accelerating the creation of parallel worlds, where even garments are shaped…

egypt’s favourite destination

Festival Avenue, the upcoming luxury expansion of Cairo Festival City Mall (CFC Mall), is set to transform the retail market in Egypt. Announced by Al-Futtaim – a large business group based in Dubai – and scheduled to open in 2023, this new area will add 80 stores and 15 food outlets to CFC Mall, making it the largest shopping centre in Egypt. According to Al-Futtaim, the country is a promising market and, in the words of Timothy Earnest, Group Director of Al-Futtaim Malls, the expansion “will provide a unique experience for our customers by presenting a retail concept of international standards”. Earnest continues by explaining that it will be “seamlessly integrated with the current structure, including easy navigation, airy corridors, open sightlines and plenty of natural sunlight. Signature services will…

the future is in the making

Biomaterials are familiar in fields such as medicine, but the word has now been co-opted by the fashion industry to describe materials that are “biological in origin and, as with nature, circular by design”. So says Fashion for Good, a platform for sustainable innovation, which explained to us how this area of research is promising positive changes for clothing: “When you think of biomaterials in garments, probably the first things that come to mind are cotton, hemp and linen, but this world is way bigger and always evolving. Recent developments are using fruit skins (from waste), mycelium (fungus roots) or even algae, spider and caterpillar silk, cellulosics (from plants and trees) and bioplastics.” As for the categorisation of biomaterials, they tell us: “The taxonomy is ever-changing as new innovations arise.…

the finnish scene

Fashion in Helsinki, the yearly event showcasing creativity and young talent, introduced a number of new Finnish brands in late May 2021. Among these labels, mainly by graduates of Aalto University, are Hedvig, Rolf Ekroth, Paintings, Ervin Latimer, The FNRM and Mannisto. “After working with client companies for 8 years I decided to make a collection of my own and hooked up with former colleague Taru Lahti, with whom we had talked about establishing our own brand over the years. In the midst of the pandemic, we felt the urge to realise our vision,” says Sofia Järnefelt, founder of Hedvig. These designers are eager to express their creativity following their own rules, they feel no pressure to do things the old way and believe there is room for smaller initiatives. Amina Saada,…

scouting

CONNER IVES USA “By the time I was 18 I had a strong urge to move overseas, because the town in America where I grew up was a bit of a bubble, and I’d dreamt of going to Central Saint Martins in London since I was a kid. My story isn’t unusual in that sense, but I had to leave the US to fall in love with its rich and unique culture. I’m looking forward to exploring ways of incorporating lifestyle design alongside fashion, hopefully following in the footsteps of great American designers like Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Halston.” “Working with vintage is a great passion of mine. For some categories of garments we source directly from wholesalers. I go to warehouses across the UK with my assistant and hand-pick the…

fashion deserves the world

To mark World Refugee Day on 20 June, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) announced the project Fashion Deserves the World. This initiative is part of the UNHCR’s calendar of events and is presented in conjunction with Mygrants, the start-up and B Corp founded by Christian Richmond Nzi to offer refugees and migrants resources useful for developing their skills and gaining access to work. The project, part of CNMI’s policy of fostering inclusiveness in the international fashion system, will ensure that young refugees and migrants who wish to work in the textile and clothing sector will receive free access to a series of technical training services. Applications to Fashion Deserves the World should be submitted by 30 September 2021 on the website of Mygrants, which will send a shortlist to…