World

Danny D’Alessandro: leather is a life material

Feb 16, 2020 Italy

While another edition of Mipel kicks off we recall the interview with Danny D’Alessandro CEO of the Milan-based trade show and General Manager of Assopellettieri

Attracting young people

In our opinion we need to communicate a lot with the families, and we need to change our minds. The families need to change their mind because the work in a factory is an engaging work and to work within the leather goods industry is not something to be ashamed.

Skilled workers

To manufacture our products in this industry you need a lot of technicians and a lot of workers involved and these workers are not normal workers, they are skilled workers. And this is not a business message. This is a cultural message.

Sustainability

In our opinion, it means three things: eco-sustainability, social and working system sustainability … and all this is linked; and we have to think about this system as something connected. We need to flight a lot in order to have this message passed to the people; not only to the companies, but also to the people.

The leather industry

We have a recycling system. We take as raw material rubbish from the food industry and we do something special: we make bags. Leather was the first material used by the human being. And leather is a life material.

Trade fairs

Ten year ago, twenty years ago, before globalisation, before the advent of the internet, the exhibitions were the diamond peak of the fashion system, because all buyers needed to come to an exhibition for two reasons: to see the innovations and to meet their suppliers. Nowadays, this changed a lot. We are trying to move the exhibition to be an event and then we need to ask the young generation to visit our event.