MILAN — None of the elephants in the room will be ignored at the fourth edition of the Venice Sustainable Fashion Forum, the yearly summit aimed at unpacking the ongoing eco-journey for the fashion and textile sector.
Although the industry is already facing the volatility of a dampened economy, geopolitical turmoil and declining consumer confidence, organizers said they will address many of the major forces impacting sustainability, including evidence of labor abuse in the Italian value chain and the unregulated penetration of ultra-fast fashion products in Italy and the Old Continent at large.
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The summit, which will take place at Venice’s Giorgio Cini Foundation on Oct. 23 and 24, is titled “Harmonizing Values” and is organized by Sistema Moda Italia, Confindustria Veneto Est and consultancy The European House — Ambrosetti.
“The landscape has changed compared to four years ago when the first summit was held,” said Luca Sburlati, president of industry association Confindustria Moda and chief executive officer of supply chain group Pattern. “The Italian fashion and textile sector is under deliberate attack.”
Sburlati pointed to the influx of non-European products, largely not subject to the block’s regulatory framework and oftentimes bypassing customs.
For context, he highlighted how in the first half of 2025, exports of Italian fashion decreased 4 percent versus the same period in 2024, but imports inched up 6 percent on a like-for-like basis. The most significant jump in imports into Italy was from China, up 18 percent in the period, implying that many fast fashion players are gaining Italians over.
The Venice Sustainable Fashion Forum aims to define a set of shared values to be embraced collectively — policymakers included. “It’s not just a summit, but an opportunity to define the agenda to work on for the following months,” Sburlati offered.
He touted France’s legislation aimed at reining in “ultra-fast fashion” platforms, which passed a Senate vote last June. “We cannot be a permeable continent when other regions take different approaches,” Sburlati said, referencing the U.S. stringent tariff policy.
“We need to define a nationwide fashion strategic plan that looks towards 2035,” said Sburlati, mentioning several pieces of legislation, from the extended producer responsibility, or EPR, and the control on import to a shared auditing system to check local companies’ compliance with labor regulations.
The latter, in particular, is seen addressing and trying to fix the other hot-button topic that has rocked the country’s supply chain recently, shaking both its reputation and business practices when some international luxury brands were investigated for ties to subcontractors involved in sweatshop schemes.
Andrea Favaretto Rubelli, vice president of the fashion group at Confindustria Veneto Est, said, “We have long thought we were the top of the class, and maybe we still are, but there are serious issues within it [on social sustainability].”
And Flavio Sciuccati, partner at The European House — Ambrosetti and director of the global fashion unit, said: “The supply chain’s crisis is directly connected to factories being overlooked. Fashion is a sector that has heavily relied on third-party manufacturing, producing an overall unbalance of big brands versus small players. The illegality echo remains a small phenomenon, which still has to be addressed with a protocol and actions on a national scale.”
As in previous editions, the event’s agenda — covering topics as varied as the latest regulations, the consumer’s trust in sustainability claims and the circular economy — is shaped around the findings of the survey “Just Fashion Transition 2025” conducted by The European House — Ambrosetti.
The study, also in its fourth edition, analyzed about 3,300 Italian and European fashion companies from a sustainability perspective across 950 data points, and gathered opinions from about 22,000 consumers.
Key findings of the survey will be unveiled on the summit’s first day — followed by keynote speeches and roundtables — but the consultancy’s partner and head of sustainability practices Carlo Cici highlighted how the only way forward for the sector is through innovation, which ensures that the sustainable transition generates short-term profits, thus becoming a constant incentive.
“Prosperity and sustainability need to go hand in hand, they are reciprocal and interconnected,” echoed Andrea Crespi, vice president of Confindustria Moda with oversight on ESG, sustainability, technology and innovation.
The full roster of speakers at the Venice Sustainable Fashion Forum is to be unveiled closer to the event.