Simone Cipriani

Simone Cipriani (born 1964) is an officer of the United Nations. He created and he manages the Ethical Fashion Initiative of the International Trade Centre (ITC),[1] which is a joint agency of the United Nations and the WTO. He is the Chair of the Steering Committee of the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion.[2]

Simone Cipriani
Simone Cipriani
Born1964 (age 56–57)
Tuscany, Italy
OccupationHead, Poor Communities & Trade Programme, Chief Technical Advisor, Ethical Fashion Initiative for the International Trade Centre (UN agency).


Chair, UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion.


Known forInternational Development, Ethical Fashion, Sustainable Fashion, Public Speaking, Informal Economy, Artisanal Production

The Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI)[3] is a large supply chain that enables artisans who live in marginalised conditions, in Africa (Burkina Faso, Mali, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and DRC), the Caribbean (Haiti) and Asia (Afghanistan and also in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), to become regular suppliers of international fashion and lifestyle brands, including Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney, thus reducing poverty and empowering large numbers of women artisans.

Since its inception, the initiative has also evolved into an accelerator [4]to work with emerging African designers to promote their talent at an international level and thus to support more forms of Made in Africa production.

Today, through his work at the Ethical Fashion Initiative, Simone Cipriani has become a key spokesperson at the forefront of the growing global movement for ethical supply chains in the fashion industry. In 2013, Cipriani was included in Business of Fashion’s list of 500 People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry.[5]

Career overview

Simone Cipriani was born in Pistoia, Tuscany, Italy, and completed his studies in Political Sciences and International Economy at the University of Florence. He began his career at CESECA, a company that offered Italian shoe and leather brands services in quality control, technological innovation and delocalisation of production. He participated in research projects within the EU Research and Development framework, and served on the board of directors of PromoIndia.[6] He also directed an export consortium for Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

In the 1990s Cipriani directed PISIE,[7] an organisation that offered training and capacity building to leather industry entrepreneurs in the developing world. He worked on projects in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh, before moving to Ethiopia, where he managed a large intervention by United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to improve the national leather industry. Whilst living in Ethiopia he was central to the establishment Taytu, a leather handbag brand that was touted as Africa's first luxury label.[8]

The Ethical Fashion Initiative

The idea for The Ethical Fashion Initiative was born when Cipriani was introduced to skilled artisans living in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. After a successful one-year trial, the Ethical Fashion Initiative became an ongoing United Nations project.[9] The Ethical Fashion Initiative represents a new way of doing business in the fashion sector, making it possible for communities in slums and impoverished rural areas to be part of the international value chain of fashion.[10] It empowers women by generating work, allowing them to become micro-entrepreneurs.[11] This is achieved through a business support infrastructure that facilitates fair collaboration with fashion houses and large distributors.[12] The Ethical Fashion Initiative also supports and promotes emerging design talent from Africa.

Location of operations

The locations of the Ethical Fashion Initiative are in Africa (Burkina Faso, Mali, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and DRC), the Caribbean (Haiti) and Asia (Afghanistan and also in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan).

Economic system

Underpinning its success is an economic system designed to work in areas of deprivation. Because of this system of logistics The Ethical Fashion Initiative is able to work over a vast geographical area, both in slums and disadvantaged rural areas. Cipriani is responsible for this system which has been praised by The Economist.[13]

The building blocks of this supply chain are commercial social enterprises established and managed by the EFI in each of the countries where it operates. Around every social enterprise, there are networks of artisans structured in cooperatives and independent small enterprises that receive training and technical assistance from the EFI, to grow in managerial and production capacities.

Social enterprises are privatised, through attracting impact investors, when they reach financial and operational (managerial) autonomy from the EFI. Each social enterprise is staffed by local human resources; the EFI is a multicultural and multinational venture that works in a socially and environmentally sustainable way. It regularly includes almost thousands of artisans and workers in its network.

Brand Partnerships

A multitude of international brands including Vivienne Westwood, Mimco, Osklen, Karen Walker, Brother Vellies, Camper, Adidas, Chan Luu, Edun, Stella McCartney, United Arrows, Fendi, Ratti source from the Ethical Fashion Initiative and its network of artisans.

Nurturing emerging design talent

In 2012 Cipriani expanded the scope of the initiative to include a program aimed at helping designers from West Africa to expand their established businesses across the region and also to have the possibility of export to Europe. Christie Brown designer Aisha Obuobi and Kiki Clothing’s Titi Ademola were the first designers in the scheme. Their collections were shown on that catwalk of Alta Roma in July 2013.[14] In September 2013, both designers were invited to Milan to take part in Vogue’s Fashion Night Out at leading Milan fashion store group, Biffi.[15] In 2014, the Ethical Fashion Initiative brought new design talent from Africa to IED Moda and AltaRoma (Catwalk show and Room Service).

In June 2015 and January 2016, the Ethical Fashion Initiative participated at Pitti Immagine's Pitti Uomo fair in Florence. On both occasions, the Ethical Fashion Initiative supported several African fashion brands to showcase their menswear collection at the event (Dent de Man, MaXhosa by Laduma, Proyecto Mental, Orange Culture, Lukhanyo Mdingi, Nicholas Coutts, AKJP, U.Mi-1 and Ikiré Jones).

Events and fashion shows

The Ethical Fashion Initiative, Vivienne Westwood and Yoox collaborated on an event at Pitti Immagine, Florence, which showcased bags designed by Westwood, photographs by Juergen Teller and seven short films about Westwood and Teller’s first trip to Kenya.[16] In July 2010 The Ethical Fashion Initiative joined forces with Vogue Italia for the “Who’s on Next?” competition at Alta Roma with the young designer winners then travelling to Kenya to learn about ethical production. In association with Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs in July 2013 The Ethical Fashion Initiative partnered with AltaRoma on the "Africa to Rome" showcase, which promoted the work of Ghanaian designers Christie Brown and Kiki Clothing, as well as international designers Stella Jean and Portenier Roth.[17] Partly as a result of this show, Stella Jean was offered a show by Giorgio Armani at Armani Teatro Milan, September 21, 2013. This showcased textiles woven with the initiative in Burkina Faso.[18]

In July 2014 the Ethical Fashion Initiative collaborated again with Altaroma for the Beat of Africa and Room Service showcase. This promoted the work of Stella Jean and three West African designers - Lisa Folawiyo (Nigeria), duaba serwa (Ghana) and Mina Evans (Ghana). Three designers from Ghana participated in the Room Service event: Anita Quansah London, Christie Brown and MO SAIQUE, participated at the Altaroma Room Service. The participation of designers from West Africa is part of the Ethical Fashion Initiative's project, based in Ghana, of mentoring emerging African design talent. Cipriani attended the La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival, where the Ethical Fashion Initiative’s film “Around the World with Stella Jean” received the prize for the Best Message category.

Speaking engagements

From November 2015 to May 2016, Cipriani led the Hand of Fashion lectures at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York to promote discussion around the theme of sustainable fashion. Guest lecturers have included Omoyemi Akerele, Bob Bland, Marie Claire Daveu, Oskar Metsavaht, Miguel Fluxá, Hirofumi Kurino, Aurora James, Auret van Heerden and Lisa Barratt.[19]

In April 2016, Cipriani spoke at the Fashion Business Series organised by Omoyemi Akerele of Style House Files and Lagos Fashion & Design Week. Cipriani has spoken about the concept of luxury at the Manchester Metropolitan University's Hollings faculty "The Big Issue" conference.[20]

In November 2015, Cipriani chaired the "Sustainable Fashion: Empowering women in Africa's fashion industry" at the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva[21] and also at the 2015 International Textile and Apparel Association conference in Santa Fe. In September 2015, Cipriani spoke at the Aspen Institute Alliance for Artisan Enterprise conference calling for the fashion industry's business model to involve artisans in a fairer & more effective way. In July 2015, at the United Nations's Third International Conference on Financing for Development held in Addis Ababa, Cipriani chaired the side event, "Financing for Impact: Investing in a Sustainable Fashion Value Chain." In February 2015, Cipriani spoke at 1.618's conference on "Sustainable Sourcing & Responsible Value Chains" alongside Jessica Michault, Marie Claire Daveu, Giusy Bettoni, Dylis Williams.

Cipriani participated in the International Herald Tribune’s "Promise of Africa" conference in Rome, to which he was invited by Suzy Menkes,[22] and the Australian Financial Review’s Bespoke fashion summit at The Sydney Opera House, which was curated by Marion Hume.[23] He curated and moderated the “Good business for a sustainable future” workshop, part of the RIO + 20 conference,[24] and was a keynote speaker at the inaugural Lagos Design and Fashion Week.[25] He also appears in short videos the initiative uses to draw attention to its work. Among these are ITC and Vivienne Westwood.[26]

Personal life

Cipriani has three daughters with his wife Stefania Gori. He is connected by marriage to the Collezione Gori[27] of Tuscany, which houses site-specific artworks, including sculptures by Daniel Buren and Sol LeWitt.[9]

References
  1. "ITC Home". Intracen.org. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  2. "Home". The UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  3. "Ethical Fashion Initiative - Home". Ethical Fashion Initiative. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  4. "Accelerator Programme". Ethical Fashion Initiative. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  5. "Business of Fashion 500 People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry". Business of Fashion. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  6. "Promo india homepage". Promoindia.in. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  7. "About us | PISIE". Pisie.it. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  8. Hume, Marion (2008-04-07). "Purse Strings - Pursuits - TIME". Content.time.com. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  9. "Ethical fashion? No, it's not an oxymoron". Afr.com. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  10. Touched by human hands, The New York Times, September 4, 2012
  11. "A Matchmaker Helps Artisans Find Luxury Jobs". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  12. Amed, Imran (2011-07-13). "The Long View | Simone Cipriani Says Ethical Fashion is Good Business - BoF". The Business of Fashion. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  13. "Fashion: Kenya on the catwalk". The Economist. 2013-03-09. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  14. "ITC's ETHICAL FASHION INITIATIVE and ALTAROMA BRING AFRICA TO ROME | AltaRomAltaModa July 2013 | AltaRoma". Altaroma.it. 2013-07-07. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  15. "Ethical Fashion Initiative_ Biffi boutique_ Vogue Fashion Night Out 2013". YouTube. 2013-09-20. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  16. "Ethical Fashion Africa Collection - The New Yooxer". Thenewyooxer.yoox.com. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  17. Suzy Menkes. "Fashion and the Power of the Pulpit". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  18. Hume, Marion (2013-09-17). "Fashion's New Stella - BoF". The Business of Fashion. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  19. "Fashion Institute of Technology". Fashion Institute of Technology.
  20. "The Big Issue: Luxury". Manchester Metropolitan University. MMU Hollings Faculty. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  21. Johnson, Sissi (12/01/2015). "How to Empower Women in Africa's Fashion Industry? United Nations Forum on Business & Human Rights". The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 10 May 2016. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. Suzy Menkes. "IHT Luxury Conference 2012: Empowering African Artisans". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  23. "Blog | Bespoke fashion summit". Afr.com. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  24. "Fashion goes to Rio (+20) | Material World". Blogs.ft.com. 2012-06-08. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  25. Schedule. "Guaranty Trust Bank Lagos Fashion & Design Week - Lagos Fashion & Design Week". Lagosfashionanddesignweek.com. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  26. "ITC and Vivienne Westwood". YouTube. 2011-06-21. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  27. "Collezione Gori - Fattoria di Celle". Goricoll.it. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
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