BtoBe brands take part in Not Just a Label showroom

From May 15 to 18, the city of Vicenza, in northern Italy, will host Origin – Passion and Beliefs (OPB), a project created by the Not Just a Label fashion and e-commerce website in partnership with Fiera Di Vicenza, a traditional commercial showroom for jewelry and gold. In an effort to hold an innovative fashion event and integrate the talent of new designers with the experience of Italian manufacturers, the website selected 100 designers from 18,000 participants to show their pieces at the showroom. Brazil will be represented by Rio Grande do Sul designer Helen Rodel, a Texbrasil Program member known for her handcrafted and sustainable knit work. Texbrasil, the Brazilian Fashion Industry Internationalization Program, developed by Abit in partnership with Apex-Brasil (Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency), will also have a special corner in the showroom with an institutional presentation on the BtoBe project, an incubator for up and coming talent.

Notable among the various factors that led NJAL to rethink current models for publicizing collections are the closing of over 500 Italian textile companies in 2014 alone, a 13% drop in textile product sales over five years and the need to discuss how people current consume fashion. It was not by chance that Vicenza was chosen to host the showroom: the city is the birthplace of Italian manufacturing and thousands of artisans, executives and families have set up shop there in the last 70 years to produce their products, which range from apparel and leather to jewelry and 3D printing. “Made in Italy is synonymous with quality and luxury. I believe that it is our responsibility to stimulate our economy by providing support to the new generation of designers that is coming up,” says Matteo Marzotto, the CEO of Fiera di Vicenza.

Over three days, this collaboration between designers, artisans and buyers could be the beginning of a new fashion industry, geared towards slow fashion and conscientious consumerism. For Stefan Siegel, the founder of Not Just a Label, the idea is to train crafts workers and empower the individual, pushing back against fast-fashion. “We want to join new brands with the most notable industry leaders and, according to factors like commercial viability, commitment to manual techniques and sustainability, we select designers in emerging markets, such as Brazil, the Ukraine, Serbia, Lebanon and Lithuania to share the same space with designers from Italy, the U.K., the United States, Canada, Japan and many others,” he says. Designers from 36 countries and 50 different cities are confirmed to attend. See the complete list here.