For its third sustainability conference, entitled “Shaping A Sustainable
Future Society,” Prada chose its Manhattan headquarters, an old piano
factory which in 2005 had been transformed into a sleek multi-use space
with the help of Herzog & de Meuron and which most recently held the Prada
Resort show. In collaboration with Yale University and the Politecnico in
Milan, Prada unveiled an intense day of speeches, panels and roundtables
focusing on the latest sustainability research and the importance of human
dignity in the digital era.
Sir David Adjaye OBE, the architect behind the lauded 540 million dollar
Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History which
opened on the National Mall in 2016 set an uplifting tone as Keynote
speaker. Just days previously Italy had been in the news for becoming the
first country to offer Climate Change on its high school curriculum, so the
Italians who had traveled to attend were also in optimistic frame of
mind.
Historically mankind has had all the answers, now we are being asked to
act definitively in circumstances of great uncertainty. To illustrate this
point the Dean of Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture,
Amale Andraos, explained how the university is looking at options within
the Green New Deal as research, pedagogy, and practice band together when
our political parties cannot.
Amanda Gorman, activist and the US’s first ever National Youth Poet
Laureate who has performed for President Obama and Malala Yousafzai, and
who spent the summer traveling with Prada for their ReNylon project,
recited verse and emphasized the need to shift our view of sustainability
to one not of scarcity but of a new abundance, simply with different
resources.
Paralympic swimmer who underwent his first surgery at only a few days
old, Simone Baarlam, arrived fresh from the World Championships in London
where he won five gold medals and one silver, and broke four world records,
providing a living breathing injection of inspiration against all odds.
Prada and Yale reveal results of survey on consumer behavior
The results of a Yale Center for Consumer Insights survey commissioned
by Prada on the nature and impact of ethical considerations among US luxury
consumers revealed that 83 percent of consumers feel they lack basic
information on how companies behave on social issues.
The survey sampled 1,170 US consumers of which 52 percent were female,
48 percent male, with an average age of 47, who had made a “premium”
purchase within the last 12 months in at least one of the following
industries: Luxury, Automotive, Hotel & Travel, and Tech. Of the four
sectors, Luxury outperformed other industries in gender diversity,
performed similarly in ethnic diversity but lagged behind the other three
in issues of fair treatment of employees, fair treatment of customers, and
reducing its environmental impact. Furthermore, when consumers were
presented with options to explain a price increase on a pair of jeans, the
most acceptable reason was that manufacturers were being paid better,
followed by a reduction in emissions at manufacturing stage. The least
acceptable reason for the price hike among customers surveyed was
escalating popularity of the jeans.
So with luxury customers prioritizing social issues which impact their
choices, the onus falls on the luxury industry to endeavor to communicate
its values more effectively.
Fashion editor Jackie Mallon is also an educator and author of Silk for
the Feed Dogs, a novel set in the international fashion industry.
Photos by FashionUnited
