Italy's Eco-Friendly Award Show Debuts in China

What happened : The Green Carpet Fashion Awards, a sustainability-focused Italian industry award initiated by Milan Fashion Week organizer, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, and consultancy, Eco-Age, three years ago, has come to China for the first time. During Shanghai Fashion Week, an awards ceremony featuring over 300 guests was held in Shanghai on October 10. This year, the GCFA gave ten awards in total — five of which were presented to Chinese recipients at the ceremony in Shanghai. The award ceremony was presented with the help of technologies like augmented reality and holography, and it was broadcasted via the British TV station Sky and streaming platforms YouTube and China's Tencent Video. A panel discussion that was part of the press conference included bigwigs of China fashion scene: Shaway Yeh, founder of creative agency Yehyehyeh, and Cheng Yingting, chief operating officer of Istituto Marangoni in Mainland China. “We only have seven years left,” said Yeh, referring to the date that Earth’s carbon budget becomes depleted based on current emission rates. “If we don’t maximize our efforts to do something, we won’t be able to solve the crisis in time.” Jing Take : The launch of GCFA reflects the significance of the China market as well as fashion’s ever-growing sustainability agenda since the COVID-19 pandemic. With help from local partner APAX Group, the organizers were able to present the award show through Tencent Video, which had attracted one million viewers to the livestreaming session. As such, it addressed both fashion’s inner circle and the average consumer in a market that should account for 50 percent of global luxury consumption by 2025, according to the consultancy Bain. China’s role in fashion sustainability has grown over the past few years alongside local consumers’ spending power. But as the panel speakers stressed, the earth is under a time crunch, and action is needed — a step that is sure to be the biggest challenge yet for the awards show and the industry as a whole. The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.

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Italy's Eco-Friendly Award Show Debuts in China