ECONOMIST IMPACT

ECONOMIST IMPACT

Economist Impact — March 2025

"It's our responsibility as emerging designers to make a new offer. Change becomes real if there's demand, but there must first be an offer — we must create that."

Flora Rabitti, founder and creative director of Florania, speaks to Economist Impact about a new generation of designers who are rebuilding fashion from its material foundations.

Florania's offer is a genderless clothing range, made entirely on certified recycled (GRS) or organic textiles, often featuring vividly coloured fantastical prints. The designs and materials evoke the aesthetic of solarpunk — a genre of science fiction that optimistically imagines a future where humans use technology to live in harmony with nature.

Born in 1992, Rabitti is part of a new generation of fashion designers who are building a system based on resource availability first, then design.

"The older generation did the opposite — first the design, then the materials, and then they produce. But we cannot do it anymore."

Read the full article on Economist Impact