Creativity and Responsibility in the Italian Fashion System: Insights from the Leather Goods and Tanning Supply Chain

Abstract

The international competitiveness of the Italian fashion system today no longer depends on cost containment, but on its ability to integrate production specialization, sustainable innovation, and shared cultural values. The analysis of the leather goods supply chain, a strategic sector for Made in Italy and fundamental to the economies of the regions involved in the RHITA project, clearly reveals this transition. The persistence of tannery districts in Veneto, Tuscany, and Campania continues to represent a distinctive feature: places where cooperation among firms, the concentration of expertise, and the preservation of artisanal knowledge support advanced and traceable industrial processes.

Within these local systems, new global pressures are increasingly intertwined. The entry of international groups, growing demands for transparency on environmental impacts, and the need to optimize resources are leading companies towards more circular models, from waste reduction to the valorization of by-products. In this context, even seemingly minimal stylistic choices influence the measurability of impacts and the durability of products.

This transformation concerns not only production but also the forms that creativity takes. The concepts of contextual knowledge and distributed creativity demonstrate that innovation no longer resides exclusively in the designer’s act but emerges from the daily interaction among diverse roles within the supply chain: technicians, artisans, developers, sustainability managers. Rethinking the Italian fashion system therefore means recognizing the relational value of this network of competencies.

It is precisely from this industrial scenario that the educational context can draw decisive insights. The university, as a protected space for experimentation and exchange, becomes a place where tensions can be recomposed, sectoral contradictions interpreted, and an ethical awareness of design cultivated. Bringing students and companies closer together thus creates the conditions to imagine a future in which creativity, sustainability, and the care of relationships converge in the process of reshaping the Italian fashion system.