Today in Milan we visited Catholic University and had our first in Italy lectures about the supply chain system for fashion in the country. We learned the true definition of fashion being a fluid form of speech that includes designers, trends, and all “the invisible behind the visible” being the “pipelines” of textile fairs and fashion shows that ultimately lead to the collections in stores. The fashion “pipeline” is made up of 37.8% textile and 62.2% clothing/fashion, showing just how much is underneath the surface in the clothes we take for granted. Additionally we learned the difference of Luxury from fashion, where luxury is more timeless and not dependent on season, like watches, cars, nice houses, yachts, and jewelry to name a few. In clothing, there are 4 business models that act as successful strategies for making a profit, which include Luxury brands, designer brands, premium industrial brands, and retailers. All of which are completely different in the clothing they produce and their methods of doing so, filling different niches in the fashion industry. In this talk, a major focus that stood out tremendously as something I had not perceived as extremely deep was the impact of sustainability on fashion and the shift that has occurred towards it over the last decades. Sustainability in fashion means the balance of the three P’s; People, Planet, and Profit. Fashion had to move towards sustainability due to the impact of material usage, damage to the environment, and situations like Rana Plaza that demonstrated the terrible/irresponsible nature of what was occurring in the industry. For instance, it takes a precedented 10,000 liters of water for the manufacturing and cleaning to make 1 pair of jeans, which is terribly expensive in terms of waste. The Rana Plaza incident was the collapse of a building that was in the business of cheap clothing and didn’t do much for worker rights. Of the 2000 working there over 1000 were killed within 90 seconds of the collapse. Many issues like this caused the fashion revolution to take place where companies like Patagonia change their business approach from a linear to a circular system where a huge part of the business is customer feedback that forces the company to take responsibility for all aspects of production to ensure ethicality including their product after the sale.

After the lecture we got lunch in the schools canteen which was completely different in all aspects to American cafeterias from getting food to the food they even provided. Following lunch, we headed to the Leonardo DeVinci Museum and got an amazing tour of all the aspects of his inventions, history, and various life activities that made him the famous individual he is regarded as today. Additionally in the museum there were other great minds on display and we toured all their life works like the fact that the individual who invented plastic is the only man in Italian history to receive a noble prize in chemistry.