Just days before our much anticipated event* in Ruse on sustainable practices and the role of design in reframing the narrative of the environmental crisis, we present our guests in a series of interviews.
Alessia Tu is the content editor of Milan based Lampoon Magazine. She is a translator and journalist specializing in the intersection between fashion, design and architecture with a focus on sustainability.
Lampoon Magazine is a fashion, art and culture magazine based in Milan and published in English focused on sustainability and human commitment looking to feature brands and companies within industries that are making a difference, with the aim to provide them with a unique platform.
Why Lampoon as the name of a magazine tackling issues of sustainability?
AT: In 2015, at a critical time for the publishing industry, came Lampoon. A new and independent fashion magazine named after the satirical American magazine from Harvard University, famous in the 1970s. Lampoon, which means ‘Ironic Newspaper’ in English, was born with the idea to propose a fashion that was accessible to everyone, through its informative pages, and interaction between images, text, form and content.
Over the years the magazine has evolved through an effort of great research and care in both editorial and visual areas. The main focus of the magazine now is sustainability, which is interpreted by delving into every asset of the circular economy in all sectors: fashion, art, design and architecture.
The main strengths of Lampoon’s journalistic narrative are the global reporting of the strongest commitments to sustainable development and the dialogues and cultural connections between industry leaders and emerging voices and talents. Ample space is devoted to craftsmanship, with the aim of preserving Italian roots and heritage.
Where do you find your stories? Are these signs of a positive change? And are they enough to be optimistic about the future?
AT: We are very curious. We read a lot of newspaper, magazine both printed and online, we watch documentaries, movies, listen to podcasts. Whenever we can we go to places and try to see realities in person. This way we always find ideas for new stories
All true and honest businesses that are doing something to make a positive change are always a good thing to take as examples to follow. Nothing is never enough thinking about the future ahead of us but still doing something instead of nothing is a step forward.
If there is one thing each one of us should start doing right now in order to save the planet, what would it be?
AT: Instead of just one I would personally say three things: stop buying things we don’t really need, sell and buy second hand, try to eat more plant based
One misconception about the term sustainability?
AT: A part from the fact that today the word sustainability has been overused, and most of the time it’s all about marketing and greenwashing, there are few misconceptions about the term sustainability. One would be that when you think about the word sustainability you could think about expensive.
For example, if you think about fashion, you might think that to be truly sustainable you would have to stop buying fast fashion and instead buy only expensive clothing that would be synonymous with quality. This is not true. That is why I said that one of the best things to do is to buy second-hand products, where you can find extraordinary quality, in good condition and at a lower price than a new product with a mark-up.