After gaining experience working internationally in the leather and footwear industry, Simone Cipriani relocated to Ethiopia with a UN agency to develop the local leather industry there. The idea for the Ethical Fashion Initiative was born in Nairobi. Cipriani visited the Korogocho Slum, where he met the skilled artisans working there. He saw an opportunity; to connect artisans with the fashion industry for mutual benefit.

 

Simone Cipriani began the project in 2009. He developed a cooperative of micro-producers in the Korogocho slum with the guidance of visionary Gino Filippini; a lay missionary in the slums who inspired Cipriani to create jobs to do good. Gradually, the project has expanded to Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Haiti, Ethiopia, Nepal, Cambodia, and recently Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Cote d’Ivoire .

 

Today, through his work at the Ethical Fashion Initiative, Simone Cipriani has become a key spokesperson, at the forefront of the growing global movement for ethical supply chains in the fashion industry.