The Italians win the Grape Leather H&M Award .. Italians are the winners of the Global Change Award, an annual award of H & M Foundation for innovations that can reinvent the fashion industry. The team, led by Rossella Longobardo and composed of Gianpiero Tessitore, Francesco Merlino and Valentina Longobardo, won the first prize of € 300 thousand due to Grape Leather project, which plans to produce vegetable skins from grapes and the production waste some wine.


"We are deeply pleased that such a prestigious Foundation has recognized the value of our innovation, and he strongly believed in it," said Rossella Longobardo. "Our first objective will be to focus in the transition from a pilot project in an industrial-scale production of our fabric and start a green revolution, cruelty-free within the leather goods industry, thus resolving the current issues and over- exploitation".


The Global Change Award, now in its second edition, had allocated a sum of € 1 million to be divided among the top five, chosen through an online vote.