“It is with great pleasure that Accademia Unidee announces the arrival of Rossella Ravagli as director of the new course in Sustainable Fashion at Fondazione Pistoletto – Cittadellarte in Biella” we read in the press release with which the Accademia has communicated the appointment of Rossella Ravagli (in the cover image), who for over 20 years has worked on creating a culture of social responsibility and sustainability at global level. From 2008 to 2020 she was Head of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility for Gucci, where she created and led the CRS (Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility) department, she presided over commissions of sustainability and ethical committees and she was a board member of SAI (Social Accountability International). She is well connected with the main global stakeholders and she is advisory board member and strategic advisor for several organisations. She has also authored relevant articles and publications on these topics. The course she will direct in Biella develops over three years and 2,400 hours of education, including theoretical and theoretical-practical lessons and workshops. Particular attention will be given to students and their relationship with the companies of excellence in the sector of local and international manufacturing linked to the textile tradition of the Biellese territory. Students will in fact have the opportunity to gain practical experience through the actual collaboration with companies based in a territory industrially rich, integrated in the fashion supply chain and at the same time extremely sensitive to environmental issues.
The course in Sustainable Fashion
The uniqueness of the course lies in its synthesis and analysis of the creative processes of Art and Fashion, together with the values of Participation, Responsibility and Sustainability. Students will learn how to use art as the driving force of a speculation about sustainable renewal. Practicing and experimenting what they have learnt, students will have the opportunity to establish a dialogue with the companies part of the textile supply chain, in order develop the skills and instruments necessary to professionals operating in the fashion and textile sectors.
Sustainable fashion at Fondazione Pistoletto
For over 15 years Fondazione Pistoletto – Cittadellarte has worked on projects linked to sustainable fashion, participating in and organising numerous occasions to analyse its themes through public performances and conferences involving the most relevant international stakeholders. Since the ’60s, Michelangelo Pistoletto’s art has spoken of matter, materials, production, recycle and reuse, from the iconic Venus of the Rags from 1967 to the exhibition “Habitus, Abito, Abitare” at the Pecci Museum. Also at Cittadellarte, the laboratory Fashion B.E.S.T. (Better, Ethical, Sustainable, Think-tank) – an operational workshop created in 2009 from a visionary idea by Michelangelo Pistoletto and Franca Sozzani – is dedicated to sustainability in the fashion supply chain, from raw materials to design, from production to education. The platform organises conferences, awareness-raising events, seminars and educational activities, and participates in international work groups. It has collaborated with Vogue and with the National Chamber for Italian Fashion.
Rossella Ravagli’s comment
“In the course of my professional career,” she said, “I have always reserved a lot of space for education as a lever to start processes of change and for establishing a relationship with future generations through collaborations with universities and mentoring programmes. I am therefore honoured and enthusiastic to collaborate with Fondazione Pistoletto and Accademia Unidee, with which I share the values and contents of the common mission to pursue”. In regard to directing the course in Sustainable Fashion, Rossella Ravagli has stated that the course “represents a response to the new generations’ need for instruments and skills to generate an innovative and inclusive transformation in the world of fashion, to benefit people in general and the whole planet. The course will be driven by the imaginative and evocative power of art as source of continuous inspiration in its indissoluble connection with fashion and design, and it will guide students into a regenerative era through a renewed relationship with nature, time and beauty”.
Paolo Naldini’s comment
Paolo Naldini, director of Cittadellarte and president of Accademia Unidee, has commented “we had the opportunity to meet Rossella Ravagli through the activities of Cittadellarte Fashion B.E.S.T., in years in which she was contributing to making Gucci one of the brands leader in a genuine commitment to sustainability in fashion. It is now a joy and an honour to have her accepting our invitation to direct the School of Sustainable Fashion of Accademia Unidee of the Third Paradise. Her experience and her vision will guide our educational programmes, which are addressed both to the working world and to new generations, people and organisations that will participate as protagonists of a historical shift in the fashion design, industry and consumption by developing an alliance between our second skin and the planet, the climate, the dignity of people, natural resources, animals, cultures and the culture of responsibility and balance. It is the alliance between ethics and aesthetics that the symbol of the Third Paradise has been representing across the world for more than twenty years, and which we are not only sharing with a limited vanguard anymore. Through this important collaboration, Cittadellarte continues to operate directly contributing to the strategic reorienting of the global, and in particular Biellese, textile industry”.
