Educating for Sustainability in Fashion: An Event in Milan to Enhance Independent Boutiques

On March 17, 2025, from 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM, the Guffanti Showroom in Milan (Via Filippo Corridoni 37) will host the event “Educating for True Sustainability in Fashion: The Key to Enhancing the Role of Independent Boutiques“. Organized by Erica Corbellini, a professor at Bocconi University, the event aims to explore how sustainability can become a key element for independent boutiques, strengthening the bond with customers and promoting more conscious consumption.

The initiative focuses on independent multi-brand stores, a distinctive element of the Italian retail landscape, which offer a selection of small and medium-sized brands, often expressions of local supply chains. “To promote sustainability in Milanese fashion and design, our working group has focused in particular on independent multi-brand stores, which represent a typical element of the Italian reality and still maintain an assortment of small and medium-sized brands that are often representative of our supply chains, but lack the marketing strength of large brands,” says Corbellini. “The goal is to provide these stores with the tools to effectively communicate the value of sustainable products, differentiating themselves from large retailers.”

From interviews conducted with boutique owners, a strong interest in sustainability emerged, perceived as a way to justify the price differential of quality products and to build customer loyalty. However, there is a lack of specific knowledge on the subject and still limited demand from consumers. “We have seen that there is an interest in promoting sustainability as this can justify the price differential due to product quality and create customer loyalty. But there is also little knowledge of what it means to be sustainable, and on the other hand, there is not much demand from customers either, which creates a sort of stalemate: customers ask for little and boutiques are informed in a generic way,” explains Corbellini.

To overcome this stalemate, the project includes the creation of informational videos on key sustainability concepts, with a focus on the value of Made in Italy and European products. The idea is to “train the trainers,” that is, to provide shopkeepers with the skills necessary to educate end customers. “To do this, we started by interviewing independent boutiques and saw that there is an interest in promoting sustainability. For this reason, we have created some informational videos on important concepts in the field of sustainability, explaining why Made in Italy products have a price differential, what the value of a product made in Europe is, and so on, thus taking a more circular view of the process, with the idea of training the trainers, reaching the end customers to educate them on what is being sold,” adds Corbellini.

The event will present sustainability as an effective sales argument, capable of enhancing small Italian brands and making the retail profession more attractive. Industry experts will gather in a panel to discuss the strategies and opportunities related to this approach. “We therefore see sustainability as a sales argument towards the end customer, a justification of the value of small brands produced in Italy, but also an element of attraction towards the retail profession,” concludes Corbellini.