Laura Sfiligoi – Who I am

I am an Italian young woman (27 years old, so yes! I’m young). I was born in Bassano del Grappa, an amazing small city in Veneto, in the North-East part of Italy.

My Grandmother Carla was an amazing seamstress. She was a workman, but she was incredibly good at embroidering. Actually, many nobles of her small town, Capriva del Friuli, used to commission her the embroidering of their initials on bed sheets. She earned more from this job than from the one in factory!

I still can see the movement of her fingers, when she was describing the “leaves” on macramè tissues (this is how she called the embroidery of this tissue). And the smile on her face and the sparkle in her eyes! She once took in her white macramè top for me. She actually sew together all the leaves, so nobody could notice the cut. She was an artist.

There are many other stories I could tell. But actually I guess it is clear how this amazing passion came to me.

I graduated in Materials Engineering at the University of Trento. I attended then a full-time MBA at Collège des Ingénieurs, an international Business School with locations in Turin, Paris and Munich. I got the chance to measure myself against brilliant fellows, and I grew both personally and professionally. After a working experience in the automotive industry, I understood that I want and I need to work on products I am passionate about. The answer is easy: fashion.
I then had the chance to work on a project in which circular economy is applied to fashion industry. We took awareness of all the pollution that is caused by fashion and we explored all the possibilities of applying circularity, developing a business idea sustainable from economic, social and environmental point of view.

It is sad to see that fashion became the second most polluting industry in the world. We started to be cold lovers with our clothes: we want, we buy, we use few times and then we get rid of them. I would like to tell you about some companies that have a circular business model. You’ll be surprised in finding out how many amazing and fashionable items there are, that are at the same time sustainable.

I try to buy only things I know I can match with others I have. And I try to take care of every single item I have. It is better to buy one expensive but classic item and keep it for a long, long time, than buying 10 cheap items.

Ok, you feel fresh and new if you keep buying. But I’ll tell you a secret: fashion comes and goes. So if you get tired of something, you can keep it in your wardrobe, and after some years it will be fashionable again.

We should all learn to fall in love again with our garments, and keep them as goods to pass on.

Let us find the sparkle in our eyes. Let us be passionate again, as my Grandmother Carla was and as I am today.