Green Leads Fashion, Innovation Drives the Future
In 2022, the first season of INNOVATION 100 under the Youngor Group debuted at Shanghai Fashion Week, presenting a "real and sustainable" fashion innovation concept shirt show, which attracted a great attention from the domestic and international fashion, cultural and business sectors. The fashion incubation platform constructed by the Group has reinterpreted a new image that is younger, more fashionable and more diversified.
Since the beginning of the platform's construction, BETWEEN RESEARCH has injected international resources into the platform, and also incorporated in its concept a sustainable part. The platform brings together top designers, international brands and sustainable fashion pioneers from all over the world. With sustainability becoming the hottest topic in the fashion industry, the second season of Youngor INNOVATION 100 will continue to inspire the infinite creativity of designers putting sustainability at the core of their creation.
This year, INNOVATION 100 continues to cooperate with BETWEEN RESEARCH, and invites two fashion designers from Italy, who will discuss how to integrate fashion, art and sustainability through innovation, and bring a positive impact to the fashion industry.
LUCA LARENZA
He is an Italian who founded his eponymous menswear brand in Milan in 2011, with his fashion management studies and working experience as a buyer for multinational retail companies.
Luca Larenza was born in the southern Italian city of Caserta, but is a global traveller with a natural curiosity and a passion for exploration. After four years in Madrid and a long period of exploring graffiti art across Europe, he chose Milan in 2009, the international centre of fashion, to launch his career in 2009.
From the outset, Luca Larenza has redefined the basics of the male wardrobe with his unique vision. His designs are infused with a sense of nostalgia for his hometown and traditional Neapolitan tailoring, whilst at the same time focusing on the selection of exceptional raw materials.
Luca Larenza succeeds in presenting a personalised aesthetic, as evidenced by his collaborations with different luxury brands point out. His knitwear for men is among the best in Italian fashion. His collections are known for the use of colours, which comes from Luca Larenza's experience as a street artist. He also uses exclusively Italian-made yarns, inspired by contemporary streetwear and presented in special colours. This has become the signature of his brand.
Luca Larenza's garments, especially knitted tops and jackets, are the best expression of his passion for colour and the results of his in-depth research. There is a balance between innovation and tradition in his style, thus making him appreciated by both which has made him a favourite with both the press and the public, so that and in 2011 his brand won the "Most Interesting Emerging Brand" award in the "Who is on next?” competition for new Italian fashion designers. In 2015 he made his debut at Milan's Men's Fashion Week, and in 2017 he was a finalist in the prestigious international Woolmark Prize.
For this project, the brand also had a dialogue with Luca Larenza, exploring his career, design philosophy and views on fashion. Take a closer look at his design world in this video below.
TIZIANO GUARDINI
Italian, who founded his eponymous label in 2015, is a promoter for environmentally friendly and sustainable fashion, and the intento of his designs is to intent on establishhing a precedent.
He was born in Rome in 1980. After graduating with a degree in Economics, he made the big decision to study at the Koefia International Fashion Academy in Italy, where he became a fashion designer. This decision changed the direction of his career and allowed him to create a new fashion concept: ECOuture, which represents a new approach to haute couture, skilfully combining tailoring skills, innovation and ethics.
Nature has always been a source of inspiration for Tiziano Guardini and the essence of his work. He values research in all its forms, searches for highly sustainable and cruelty-free special materials, focuses on craftsmanship, shape and substance, fusing ethics and aesthetics. He is an expert at for transforming nature into extravagant and modern designs, and he loves nature and fashion, two seemingly opposing concepts both that merge beautifully merging in his creations.
In 2013 he was the special guest of honour at the WHITE trade fair in Milan and in October of the same year he was invited to present his creations at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In 2014, he presented his work at the "Fashion for the Forest / Forest for Fashion" event organised by the United Nations Office in Geneva. In 2015, one of his works made of liquorice root became a part of the “L'eleganza del Cibo" exhibition at the Traiano Market Museum.
In 2016, he took part in the "Ethical Fashion Exhibition" during the Milan fashion cycle. In July, he collaborated with Milena Canonero, winner of the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, for the "Cum Grande Humilate" fashion show in Duomo, Milan. In September 2017, he received the "Green Carpet Fashion Award”, and “Peta Couture Award" in October of the same year.
In 2018 he held his first show at Milan Fashion Week and participated in the “Next green talent" event organised by Vogue ltalia and Yoox. In March, he collaborated with Michelle Yeoh to produce a documentary film with the support of the United Nations and the Michelangelo Pistoletto Foundation.
His unique vision of fashion, skillfully blending craftsmanship and innovation, has made him stand out in a series of exhibitions such as "Fashion from Nature" at the V&A Museum or "Italy: The Beauty of Knowledge" in Dubai 2020, just to name a few.
Tiziano Guardini also shares his design philosophy, inspirations and his passion for sustainable fashion in the video below.
Let's looking forward to see how the unique creativity and design concepts of the designers will be combined with the platform in the second season of INNOVATION 100.
After more than 10 years of in-depth cooperation, BETWEEN RESEARCH has helped the Group to expand its brand and business overseas, which has helped the Group to take a crucial step forward in the brand's internationalisation and upgrading, and BETWEEN CONSCIOUS PROGRAM, the sustainable fashion platform under BETWEEN, has been carrying out long-term conceptual co-creating and multi-dimensional cooperation for the Group's sustainable upgrading in various sectors.
