Presented yesterday, October 7th in Milan, at a press conference by Luca Sburlati, Flavio Sciuccati, Andrea Favaretto Rubelli, Carlo Cici and Andrea Crespi, the 2025 Forum will have as its title and common thread “Harmonizing Values”The aim is to promote shared standards, concrete solutions and a common language for sustainability that unites responsibility and competitiveness.
These are the themes at the centre of the fourth edition of the Venice Sustainable Fashion Forum, the summit dedicated to the sustainable transition of the fashion supply chain, promoted by Confindustria Fashion, The European House - Ambrosetti e Confindustria Veneto EastThe appointment is at Venice on October 23rd and 24th, At the Giorgio Cini Foundation on the island of San Giorgio.
In an increasingly complex global context, sustainability is no longer just environmental but also social and economic, based on transparency, fair pricing, and collaboration along the entire supply chain, with the contribution of the financial system. The Forum will highlight the strategic value of "new" sustainability as distinctive factor quality production and will discuss European rules, traceability and harmonious paths of responsible development.
Harmonizing Values
The title and theme of the 2025 edition is “Harmonizing Values”The Forum aims to update the debate on shared rules, concrete solutions and a common language for sustainability. In a complex global context, the issue is no longer just environmental, but increasingly linked to social responsability and the value of work in the fashion industry. The goal is to identify tools and processes capable of harmonizing responsibility and competitiveness, ensuring transparency, fairness and collaboration between producers and brands, including through the involvement of the financial system. The Forum will explore the European standards and the strategic value of the "new" sustainability, today a distinctive factor of quality production compared to the mass one. The main challenge remains to build a harmonious path of transparency and traceability along the entire supply chain.
Just Fashion Transition
The fourth edition of the strategic study will be presented during the Forum “Just Fashion Transition 2025”, the permanent observatory of TEHA on the sustainable transition of the fashion, clothing, footwear and leather goods supply chains. The study highlights how, although perceived by many as an obstacle to competitiveness, European recipe for sustainability is turning out to be a lever for growth and decarbonisation: compared to the pre-Covid period, the sector's revenues have grown by11,4 %, While the emissions have been reduced by 17 %. However, the challenge remains demanding, especially for Italy, where the 58% of companies cannot independently sustain the necessary investments.
On the stage of Giorgio Cini Foundation they will alternate institutions, experts, start-ups and protagonists of Made in Italy, in a Venice symbol of excellence but also of fragility, a metaphor for the need for balance between creativity, quality and sustainability in fashion.
Luca Sburlati, President of Confindustria Moda: The uniqueness of the Italian supply chain and the brands within it must be protected and enhanced in the face of increasingly complex challenges. Reactive responses are not enough: we need a long-term strategic vision, grounded in solid and, above all, shared ESG pillars. The Venice Sustainable Fashion Forum must become the place where companies share ideas and concerns to develop shared rules and practices on three key fronts: Extended Producer Responsibility, a national regulatory framework that guarantees transparency and legality in supply chain contracts, and a harmonized auditing system capable of creating a shared language across the entire supply chain. Venice must consolidate its position as the place where policies for the sustainable evolution of the fashion industry are defined, with concrete commitments to businesses from a European and international perspective. It is our duty to preserve and strengthen that "beautiful and well-made" spirit that represents the essence and uniqueness of our country, even in the face of instrumental and unacceptable attacks, while every day half a million people in Italy work to create unique products.
Flavio Sciuccati, Partner & Director Global Fashion Unit TEHA: We launched in 2022, after a year of study and preparation, with the first edition of the Venice Sustainable Fashion Forum. We had the wind in our sails: sustainability and ESG objectives were the focus, while the Fashion and Luxury industry emerged with momentum and enthusiasm from the pandemic and a two-year period marked by fear and uncertainty. Today, four years later, we find ourselves in a profoundly different, if not completely opposite, context. At the European level, ESG policies are surrounded by a climate of uncertainty—the Green Claims proposal is just the latest example. In the Fashion and Luxury sector, we are seeing a sharp contraction in volumes at the high end of consumption, which directly affects the "Made in Italy" brand: one of the pillars of the national economy, among the top three manufacturing sectors in terms of number of companies, employees, exports, and added value. This year, a particularly sensitive issue has been added: the intervention of the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office in the investigation into gangmastering in the Fashion sector, with precautionary measures against several major brands. In this In this context, our Venice Forum—along with the strategic study we will present every year—represents a fundamental opportunity to discuss, explore, and reaffirm, on the one hand, the centrality of the shared commitment between brands and producers towards more ethical and sustainable fashion; on the other, the strategic importance of the "Made in Italy" system and its manufacturing as an essential economic and cultural lever for the country.
Paola Carron, President of Confindustria Veneto Est, states: In a complex time for the entire Fashion & Luxury industry, amid geopolitical tensions, regulatory changes, and consumer spending, this fourth edition of the Venice Forum aims to serve as an international benchmark for discussion on key issues for the future of the sector, including the urgent need to harmonize standards of social, economic, and environmental sustainability, transparency, and value, and the determination to evolve toward a new competitiveness. We want to send a clear message to national and European institutions, but also to all stakeholders in this sector—large and small brands, and the entire supply chain: only together can we make a difference, through shared responsibility, industrial vision, expertise, and investments along the entire value chain, and maintain global leadership in this strategic Made in Italy sector. A creative and manufacturing excellence, such as Textiles-Fashion, Footwear, Leather Goods, and Accessories, which in Veneto alone exceeds €14 billion in exports, thanks to the artisanal and innovative intelligence of the lagoon city and the surrounding textile districts, Calzature del Brenta, and Sportsystem.
Here is the program:
