Buy less, use better. This is one of the key concepts behind the textile and clothing ideas selected for the training sessions that will take place in Italy during the month of May. In total, 40 fashion entrepreneurs have been selected in the call for applications launched by Museo del Tessuto di Prato, the Italian partner within the STAND Up! project, at the beginning of the year. After receiving more than 110 applicants, the 40 early-stage ideas will learn how to scale their projects moving from a green business idea to a validated business model.

A total of 34 female and 6 male entrepreneurs have been accepted, with a 90% of woman that will receive support throughout ENI CBC MED. Young people is also a potential target behind the selected participants that will enhance replicable and inclusive circular economy ventures in the Mediterranean. That’s to say, 67% of selected applicants are younger than 35. In terms of geographical statistics, different regions and cities such as Catania, Calabria, Pistoia, Arezzo, Viterbo, Lucca, Lecce, Bari, Trapani, Livorno and Siena will benefit from the trainings, being Firenze, Roma, Prato and Salerno the top ones in location of the entrepreneurs.

The vast majority of initiatives go against fast fashion and offer more sustainable and ethical options in the production of the pieces. By recovering waste and textile leftovers and producing garments in social tailors, some selected ideas aim to favour the labour integration of fragile people providing social value behind the products.

Bags, blankets, dresses or pursues are some of the products that entrepreneurs will produce. In this sense, artisanal production will be one of the main techniques, a valid alternative to recycle and build circular economy processes towards the discarded clothes. The results will be innovative artisan product, permeated with social and sustainable value, which contrasts with the products of the market based on the command of fast fashion.

Concerning materials, most of selected participants will be focused on raw materials made with fibres of natural origin, fabrics composed mostly of vegetables, biological fibres and in case regenerated. “My business is idea is unique because it offers the possibility of developing a 100% eco-sustainable and circular textile production system managing to safeguard our territory and our environment”, says one of the entrepreneurs selected.

That’s exactly the additional value that selected ideas are providing to the Mediterranean regions of Italy. In this sense, the training session will take about seven weeks from the end of April to the beginning of June. The 40 participants will be divided into two groups of 20, established on the basis of the state of development of the project ideas (initial state and more advanced level) for which six theoretical sessions are planned each for the implementation of the Green Business Model methodology.

A short calendar of meetings with prominent guest speakers in the national and international fashion and textile scene was included in the training course as a weekly appointment, to deepen key concepts such as sustainability and circularity with successful business cases. STAND Up! is a EU-funded project under the ENICBCMED Program including 5 countries (Spain, Italy, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia) and SCP/RAC is the lead partner of the project.