How Loewe and Salvatore Ferragamo are championing sustainability in fashion design

The former is a capsule collection made from fabric created with citrus by-products that are left after the fruits are squeezed for juice. There’s certainly no lack of raw materials: More than 700,000 tonnes of citrus waste are generated in Italy each year. The name of an Italian start-up founded in 2014, Orange Fiber produces a textile that looks and feels like silk. The first company to use the material, Salvatore Ferragamo now presents a small range of printed clothing made from this eco-friendly fabric.

While they can’t be worn, the creations of the first winner of the Loewe Craft Prize revolve around two key themes in high fashion right now: sustainability and craftsmanship. First announced last year, the prize honours modern craftsmanship. The winner, master woodturner Ernst Gamperl, impressed judges with his large wooden containers, hewn from a 300-year-old oak tree that had been uprooted during a storm. Jury member Patricia Urquiola – a renowned architect and industrial designer – noted of the winning works: “We wanted to honour craft that made us think about the times we are living in.”