Refresh your wardrobe style with a focus on sustainable fashion, in collaboration with Nativa.
Short Course in Conscious Fashion (Sustainable Fashion) by Guenda Cermel, Sustainable Fashion Expert, Coordinator and Instructor of the BA in Sustainable Fashion Design.
The course aims to guide participants towards a more conscious approach to fashion consumption, in line with Goal 12 of the 2030 Agenda: Responsible Consumption and Production. At the same time, it provides foundational tools for:
– Creating an innovative personal style that best expresses individual identity.
– Upcycling clothes already present in the wardrobe.
– Approaching shopping sustainably, exploring vintage markets, learning how to read labels, and using sustainable marketplaces such as Vestiaire, to purchase pre-loved luxury brand items.
Course Objectives
Each lesson combines theoretical moments and practical activities to develop awareness and skills. By the end of the programme, participants will have gained an in-depth understanding of the fundamentals of sustainable fashion and conscious consumption. They will be able to develop an authentic and responsible personal style, applying practical skills for wardrobe management, upcycling, and sustainable shopping. The course is a true journey into the world of fashion, blending creativity, sustainability, and self-expression, with the goal of promoting a conscious and responsible lifestyle.
Upcycling: giving newlife to your wardrobe
Photo Credits: Elisa Tripepi
Unit 1: Introduction to Sustainable Fashion
Introduction to conscious consumption and its importance.
Analysis of the most common textile families and their environmental impact.
The “3 Rs” of sustainable fashion: Reuse, Repair, Recycle.
Group workshop on sustainability in fashion: meaning, reasons, and practical strategies to pursue it.
Unit 2: Fashion Between History and Contemporary Trends
Overview of fashion history and its value today.
Analysis of current fashion brands, with a focus on sustainable ones and their practices.
Group workshop on the functions and forms of fashion.
Unit 3: Visit to the Fashion and Costume Museum
A guided tour for inspiration and understanding the evolution and artistic expression of fashion.
Unit 4: Discovering Personal Style
Reflection on individual style.
Creation of personal mood boards to visualize and define one’s style.
Group activity to practice styling through role-playing games.
Unit 5: Understanding the Wardrobe
Analysis of wardrobe functions: balance between tops and bottoms, seasonality, essentials.
Group exercise to identify the essential pieces of a functional wardrobe.
Discussion on how to avoid waste by identifying what is truly necessary.
Unit 6: Personal Wardrobe Analysis
Participants bring a list of items in their wardrobe.
Emotional and functional approach to clothing.
Group workshop on “fashion decluttering” to reorganize the wardrobe.
Unit 7: The Art of Fashion Shopping
Deep dive into conscious shopping.
Workshop on the role of the fashion buyer, to learn how to shop thoughtfully and purposefully.
Unit 8: Practical Shopping Exercise
Direct experience of sustainable shopping in various locations around Rome.
Unit 9: Virtual Upcycling Workshop
Analysis and creative transformation of selected garments to be renewed: dyeing, mending, embroidery, reassembling, or repurposing.
Unit 10: Creating a New Sustainable Wardrobe
Final session to organize a renewed and sustainable wardrobe.
Integration of the personal mood board with the new wardrobe, aligning style with sustainability practices.
Course type: group – in person
Number of participants: Max 20
Frequency: weekly, Saturdays from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Duration: 10 lessons of four hours – total 40 hours
Cost: € 590,00 in one payment or two installments of € 300,00
Materials: Tablet or laptop, fashion magazines for creating mood boards, scissors, paper, pencil
Language: Italian
Instructor: Guenda Cermel
Location: RUFA – Via Benaco, 2 – Rome
Registration opening: November 7, 2024
Registration deadline: January 20, 2025
JANUARY
25/01/2025
FEBRUARY
01/02/2025
08/02/2025
15/02/2025
22/02/2025
MARCH
01/03/2025
08/03/2025
15/03/2025
22/03/2025
29/03/2025
GUENDA CERMEL
Head of Fashion and Brand Owner, a professional who has gained comprehensive expertise throughout her career, blending design and strategy. She has progressively taken on roles of increasing responsibility in leading Italian and international companies.
Entering the fashion world after studying Art History and an experience in New York in the contemporary art market, she began her career as a junior designer at Stefanel. Here, she learned to manage the entire fashion process, including:
Creative aspects: inspiration, collection design, and production.
Strategy: budget management, purchasing, and sales.
Negotiation: global sourcing and brand relations.
Operations: merchandising and visual.
Communication: marketing and product positioning.
She worked for 16 years at the Coin Group, progressively growing in the fashion sector. She held roles of increasing responsibility, from Assistant Buyer to Private Label Manager, eventually becoming Senior Fashion Buyer and later Category Merchandising Manager (still within fashion).
After her time at Coin, she worked for 5 years as Head of Fashion at HSE. Currently, she is an advisor in the sustainable fashion sector and strategic designer, with a particular focus on innovation and ecology.
In recent years, she expanded her education, earning a Master’s in Philosophy and a Specialized Degree in Integral Ecology. These paths have provided her with a revolutionary new perspective on the fashion supply chain, motivating her to adopt a conscious approach, considering social and environmental impacts, integrating sustainability at every stage of the creative and production process.
Since 2021, she has served as coordinator and instructor of the Bachelor’s Programme in Sustainable Fashion Design at RUFA, helping to train a new generation of fashion professionals focused on ethics and sustainability.
ALESSANDRA DE SANTI
Alessandra is an Evolution Guide at NATIVA. She graduated in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Pisa in 2017 and earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Groningen (NL) in 2021, specializing in the field of Sustainable Chemistry. From 2021 to 2022, she worked as an R&D Project Manager at Mondi Group in Graz (AT), where she was responsible for developing interdisciplinary research projects in the field of sustainable packaging, from laboratory studies to large-scale implementation.
NATIVA
Nativa is the Regenerative Design Company that supports hundreds of businesses in radically evolving their operations, accelerating their transition towards regenerative economic models.
It is the first Benefit Corporation in Europe and a B Corp in Italy. Nativa is also a co-founder of the Regenerative Society Foundation and a founding partner of the Sustainable Development Foundation. Together with the Sustainable Development Foundation, Nativa launched CO2alizione, an initiative aimed at supporting the transition of Italian companies toward climate neutrality.
RUFA Students and Alumni: 50%
Former RUFA Short Course and Summer Course Students 2023-24: 10%
University Students: 5% (upon presentation of student book).
Course/Group/Family Packages: contact corsibrevi@unirufa.it
For course information, fill out the form and you will be contacted.