Captured on 23.11.2023
In the English-speaking world, there is the expression "made to measure", which best describes the luxury of a made-to-measure garment - exclusively created with regard to the wearer. Stepping on this idea and taking the best of Italy's deep fashion traditions, tying them into an overall concept of ethical values with sustainable materials, fair working conditions and high quality, the Cantarelli brand introduced the Ethical Fashion project.
In one of the capital's major hotels, the owner of the Italian company for women's and men's custom-made suits, Martin Cantarelli, shook hands with the chairman of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria, Alessandro Jereto, announcing a joint partnership and a new horizon for small and medium-sized businesses from both countries, a reporter told BGNES.
The Cantarelli brand is one of the most famous in Italy - synonymous with fashion and quality, said Alessandro Gerreto in his welcome speech, defining today as a wonderful start to a long and fruitful partnership.
"We want to help Bulgarian and Italian companies", emphasized the chairman of the chamber.
"We are starting to talk about ethical business," added Jerreto, defining Martin Cantarelli as someone who looks ahead and even calling him a businessman of the future.
"From 2030, the new directives of the European Commission come into force and we must all be ethical", added the president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce, because Cantarelli's "Ethical Fashion" project fits perfectly into the strategy for a sustainable circular economy, relies on ethical values and protecting the environment in a time of fast fashion and the overconsumption of inferior clothing.
"Without ethics, there can be no sustainable development, whether it's business or society," added Anselmo Caporossi, general secretary of the Italian Chamber of Commerce.
While the designer and seamstress Vesela Georgieva skilfully runs the meter along the shoulders, sleeves, and whatever the lining is for Caporossi's personal jacket, the representative of the Italian Chamber of Commerce is adamant that this is about style, and style needs strength and patience - tradition.
"Style is a choice you make," adds Caporossi.
Martin Cantarelli expressed satisfaction with the fact that he found the best Italians in Bulgaria.
"China has taken over the whole world with technology and machinery, but Italy is the cradle of design, of fashion, the birthplace of Michelangelo," said the company's owner, who resents the fact that today the world resembles a huge outlet center with low-quality clothes. He fully endorses the European directives that will cover Europe and much of the world in less than seven years.
"Ethics is expressed in wearing clothes that don't pollute nature, clothes made that don't exploit people," Martin Cantarelli told BGNES.
According to him, there are many companies in Italy that are in dire straits, but he sees opportunities in partnership - Bulgarian factories with Italian design. "If we have a real product, fast delivery and compliance with all laws, if we unite - small family businesses in Bulgaria and small family businesses in Italy, fashion, furniture, everything - then there will not be one product that is produced in 100 or 200 thousand units", Cantarelli is convinced.
According to him, fast fashion is not just fast, it destroys humanity.
"The Italian fashion industry is not an Italian heritage, it is a world heritage," added Cantarelli, who has been living on a shoestring for the past 10 years. There is a factory in Rousse, and the one in the Tuscan city of Cortona wants to turn it into a showroom where both Italian brands and Bulgarian companies can be presented. From Kartona, the goal is for the ethical business model to spread across all major European capitals. To present the concept even more vividly, while the guests of the event in Sofia are introduced to fabrics, leather bags and fine scarves, "Amo la Vita" (Amo la Vita) offers a tasting of delicious white and red wines.
"We don't sell costumes, we sell an ethical business model," concluded Lazar Kirov - the man responsible for Cantarelli's international and economic relations. /BGNES