A green carpet during Milano Fashion Week to celebrate fashion’s greatest paradox
On September 27, 2025, the Teatro Alla Scala hosted the CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards, the official green carpet event for Milano Fashion Week SS26. Its mission: to celebrate the innovators and Italian fashion houses, ostensibly driving the industry toward a sustainable future.
The event, organised by the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana in collaboration with the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, promised to honour those distinguished by their “vision, innovation, commitment to craftsmanship, circular economy, human rights, environmental justice, and biodiversity.”
A symbolic green carpet welcomed guests like Anna Wintour and Naomi Campbell, who wore outfits made from sustainable materials, presenting a unified front for a greener fashion industry.
The celebration: Nine green awards
The ceremony proceeded to distribute nine awards, each targeting a key pillar of sustainability:
- The SFA Craft and Artisanship Award: Tod’s Group
- The SFA Circular Economy Award: Regenesi
- The SFA Biodiversity and Water Award: Ermenegildo Zegna Group
- The SFA Climate Action Award: Schneider Group
- The SFA Diversity and Inclusion Award: Willy Chavarria
- The SFA Groundbreaker Award: Aura Blockchain Consortium
- The SFA Education of Excellence Award: Kiton
- The SFA Human Capital and Social Impact Award: Saheli Woman
- The Bicester Collection Award for Emerging Designers: The Sake Project
The pinnacle of the evening saw Anna Wintour present the New Legacy Award to Giorgio Armani.
However, by all official accounts, it was a night of triumph—a consolidation of brands’ sustainable missions, widely covered in the press as a positive step forward.
Yet, according to Ansa, “Prosecutors request judicial administration for Tod’s. The Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office has requested that high-end shoemaker Tod’s spa be put into judicial administration over alleged worker exploitation at factories run by Chinese people in its production chain, sources told ANSA on Wednesday, confirming a Reuters report.”
After all, it’s even ironic with all the brands put under investigation for labour exploitation. Tod’s is simply the last one added to the list. How does CNMI evaluate this particular aspect of “sustainability?”
Sustainable Fashion Awards: What do they even mean?
And so, for one night, all these people wore sustainable materials. The headlines celebrated a green vision. The brands were applauded.
But this is where we must pause and ask: What does any of this actually mean? Does anyone there have an idea of what “sustainable” means?
Does a single award cancel out a brand’s vast linear production model? Does it justify the immense water and land use of a global supply chain? And does wearing one sustainable outfit on the red carpet make the entire attending house sustainable? Really, what are we talking about?
Sustainability: The uncomfortable truth
The uncomfortable truth is this: true sustainability in the fashion industry, as it currently operates, is a myth.
Celebrating “Sustainable Fashion” at a glitzy awards gala is the industry’s greatest paradox. These awards create the illusion of progress while the core system—built on overproduction, overconsumption, and globalised, opaque supply chains—remains fundamentally unchanged.
A few sustainable collections or material experiments are not enough to offset the environmental and social footprint of a multi-trillion dollar industry.
In order to be truly sustainable, the fashion industry wouldn’t need awards; it would need to be redone from scratch. The very nature of these ceremonies exposes their inherent contradiction, a point perfectly illustrated by an excerpt including a telling anecdote from our book This is Greenwashing:
“While the name suggests recognition of progress towards circularity or sustainability, these awards rarely go to small, independent brands. Instead, they spotlight the same top fashion houses – the ones with the largest environmental footprints and marketing budgets.
At one edition of the Green Carpet Fashion Awards, designer Antonio Marras presented a dress crafted entirely from recycled fabric. Yet, because the fabrics weren’t sourced from certified sustainable labels, the jury asked him to remake the garment from scratch. The irony of this anecdote is striking—is it about promoting recycling, or ticking certification boxes? And really, is there anything more unsustainable than that?”
Yet here we are, celebrating something that doesn’t even exist. This story encapsulates the entire paradox. It’s not about substance; it’s about spectacle. With the Sustainable Fashion Awards 25, we are not celebrating sustainability. We are celebrating its carefully branded illusion.
Want to learn how to spot the illusion?
Discover more in This is Greenwashing.
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