Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Three online rooms dedicated to sustainability, advanced craftsmanship to support SMEs and collaboration with Altaroma
Tajani: “In recent years, together with WHITE, we have promoted sustainability and circularity of production, from yarn to the finished product”

Milan, February 18 2021 - On the occasion of the next Fashion Week, from 25 to 28 February, WHITE presents the new digital format with over 200 brands protagonists on the WHITE platform and the B2B marketplace. An "only digital" project to promote SMEs, created thanks to the support of MAECI and ICE-Agenzia and the partnership with Confartigianato Imprese and the support of the Municipality of Milan. The format, which also includes a series of "Special Areas", aims to communicate the world of small and medium-sized businesses with storytelling capable of involving professionals and the final public.

“In recent years together with WHITE - explains the councilor for Labor Policies, Productive Activities, Fashion and Design, Cristina Tajani - we have undertaken a path that involves the entire world of fashion by promoting new ways of showing ourselves, telling ourselves and proposing ourselves thanks to new digital formats but above all aimed at promoting modern production methods, increasingly attentive to the reuse of materials and recycling, with a view to circularity and overall sustainability that goes from the yarn to the finished product. As an Administration we have always been alongside WHITE and all the small and medium sized companies that innovate, because fashion and the entire fashion sector are and remain above all great craftsmanship, research into materials and new languages".

Massimiliano Bizzi, founder of WHITE, comments: “All of us operators in the trade fair world have first and foremost the duty to think about the common good of our Italian companies by remaining at their side in this difficult moment, to ferry them to the September edition, which we hope marks the real recovery, also thanks to the spread of the vaccine. For this reason I thought of starting a series of initiatives to raise awareness of the realities of SMEs, which we have represented and promoted at WHITE for years, but which are mostly unknown to the general consumer public. They are Made in Italy companies and often sustainable, but which do not have the means to invest in communication. We are planning a series of initiatives to accelerate the development of SMEs by bringing them towards the final consumer. A sign of concrete support for these realities, the flagship of Italian know-how".

Among the "Special Areas", the one dedicated to sustainability stands out, curated by Chiara Tronville in collaboration with Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto, on which WHITE was a precursor with the WSM format; sees a selection of brands experimenting with different techniques, from recycling and upcycling processes, to working with less polluting raw materials to reduce the environmental impact, and above all with a path attentive to traceability and transparency. Another important area is dedicated to the theme of advanced craftsmanship - curated by Angelo Ruggeri and Valeria Oppenheimer - in which over 30 companies are the protagonists, to tell the story of the work of modern makers, who combine image and product. Uniqueness and attention to detail characterize all the products created by the selected brands, which have been able to preserve an artisanal dimension by associating it with an avant-garde way of designing: each object, through its materials and finishes, tells a precise story that involves the consumer and makes him feel unique and special.

The collaboration with Altaroma also continues - even if only in digital version - which will be on show on the WHITE platform with a selection of the best designers. An important part of the project is the match making between the companies presented and the buyers who, accompanied on the online platform to view the companies' collections, will be able to schedule their appointments in real time to see the collections live.  

Also scheduled are 12 live webinars on the whiteshow.com website which will address topics useful to SMEs, ranging between the artisanal dimension and sustainable innovation.

Many partners involved in the project include Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto, IDEE Brand platform through its Sustainable Brand Platform (SBP) project, a new platform which, through an algorithm of its own creation and blockchain technology, offers an environmental and ethical evaluation of emerging brands at an international level, connecting them with buyers, up to the new association CSM-Camera Showroom Milano which brings together over 30 Milanese showrooms.