November Editorial

In November I celebrate an important birthday—60 years old, thirty of them spent working as a television journalist. The last four, however, have been revolutionized by a total change in my professional life with the creation of a start-up, Crida, and my new role as an entrepreneur in the fashion industry. I have no regrets about having had the courage to change; on the contrary, I believe every transformation—with all the study and preparation it demands—helps you stay young and is above all a challenge with yourself that can only make you better. But I never imagined I’d be working in this sector at such a difficult and complicated time, especially for someone who in 2020 decided to launch a brand based on Italian elegance, strongly Made in Italy, and absolutely sustainable.

In my view, two factors have completely overturned the rules: on one hand, the pandemic, which radically changed consumer habits—people today are less willing to spend on clothing and instead seek experiences like dining out, travel, and weekends away. It’s no coincidence that the major online fashion platforms collapsed, triggering a crisis in Asian markets like China, and forcing brick-and-mortar stores to put merchandise on sale just weeks after receiving it in order to attract customers.

On the other hand, a deep divide has emerged between luxury brands—which, despite seeing significant drops in revenue, remain supported by a core of high-spending buyers—and fast-fashion, which began with the brazen intent of quickly copying luxury designs at rock-bottom prices with inevitably poor materials, and now seeks to expand its market share by waving the banner of sustainability, positioning itself as a new prêt-à-porter alternative to high fashion.

However, one must be cautious, because the words and images that some brands use to launch this challenge are not enough.

Take Zara, for example—with its 7,000 stores in 100 countries and a $20 billion annual sales empire, it has just rolled out a glossy ad campaign—hiring Stefano Pilati as designer, in a campaign reminiscent of Gucci or YSL—to convey that its clothes are not only affordable but also beautiful, well made, and sustainable. Yet the goal remains to grow by 10 percent annually, flooding the market with ever more garments destined to go out of style even faster and end up polluting the poorest regions of Asia and Africa.

The financial resources at their disposal are massive, unlike those of many smaller but higher-quality brands that work locally, use truly natural fabrics, pay their workers decent wages, and must understandably price their products higher. And so they struggle much more.

Do you know how many garments are produced each year on average? 150 billion. Yet there are only 8 billion of us.

We could make a difference if we choose consciously to buy less and buy better, selecting clothes made of non-synthetic fibers (even if labels now boast “recycled polyester,” it’s still plastic), and checking where our garments are produced.

Crida is certainly among those many companies that produce few but well-crafted items, invest heavily in fairly paid labor, and carefully choose only natural-fiber fabrics. We release just two collections a year and believe in fashion that endures—garments you keep in your wardrobe for years, in the elegance of fabrics produced in our own country. We don’t run extravagant ad campaigns, because we lack the means and prefer to invest in our products and people. Above all, we strongly believe in Italian fashion—quality prêt-à-porter that must not and cannot be destroyed by fast fashion.