Vittoria Di Palma

I attribute my success to my faith, family, friends, mentors from over the years, lifelong passion for fashion, and strong commitment to continuous learning. My interest in fashion began at a young age. I have been sketching designs since I was 7 years old, which sparked a creative drive that continues to shape my work today. In addition, I am actively expanding my knowledge of AI to combat the lack of regulations still existing with AI in the fashion industry especially, better integrate the right technologies into my field and career, and stay at the forefront of innovation while making sure to not compromise my values or morals with my brand especially.

The best career advice I’ve ever received is to never give up no matter what, cut whatever noise anyone tries to give me in the process, not change who I am, keep advocating for myself and others who need to be advocated for, find my community, and avoid and get away from toxic people, places, and situations as much and soon as possible. Also, I've been given the advice to trust my gut/intuition/instincts, remember my worth, protect my work, always prioritize my safety and health, not overwork myself, not let my values or morals be compromised, and keep creating and learning always.

Advice I would give to young women entering my industry is to keep being you, remember your worth, don't let anyone change you into someone you're not, and unleash your creativity continuously. Keep learning, because you can never have too much knowledge. Also, you're never too old for an education or your dream career. Protect your work as much as possible, remember your why, always trust your gut/intuition/instincts, never give up being good to people, find your community, and never give up on yourself. Give yourself grace, listen to your body, prioritize your health and safety, and don't overwork yourself. Always advocate for yourself and others who need to be advocated for, do the right thing, and remember that kindness is never a weakness or a sign of weakness. Never tolerate bullying or mistreatment. Always speak up against bullying and mistreatment, no matter where, when, or how it happens. Avoid and get away from toxic people, places, and situations as much and soon as possible. Call out and combat colorwashing, objectificaton, and wokewashing as much as possible to not let them happen anymore, because they happen a lot in the fashion industry especially still. Let your voice be heard always, and keep getting up when others try to bring your down. Don't compromise your values, ethics, or morals either. Also, don't bring others down to bring yourself up, even when others will try to bring you down to bring themselves up (which always backfires on them later on). This has happened to me multiple times within my experiences in my industry, where I tried bringing others up, and some individuals have tried bringing me and others down to bully and bring themselves up. It later backfired on the people who tried bringing me and others down in the first place as a result. Also, look at your experiences as lessons for the future to help others who may be going through a similar experience you've gone through before. You never know what other people may be going through. Finally, remember to keep having empathy, no matter how apathetic others may be to you. Don't treat other people horribly because of others in the past treating you horribly. Always be kind and good to people, and stand up for the right thing.

There have been lots of challenges in my field currently, but there have been lots of opportunities in my field in response to the challenges at the same time. Talking about the challenges first, the biggest challenges in my field right now are still lack of safety and ethical regulations within the fashion industry. Examples include fast-fashion, ultra fast-fashion, waste colonialism (including from certain luxury fashion, fast-fashion, and ultra fast-fashion brands), fashion pollution (from certain fashion brands and sweatshops especially), exploitation in the fashion industry still (including from sweatshops, certain brands, and certain model and talent agencies who were involved in labor, human, and sex trafficking of fashion workers--including models and garment workers--over the years and to this day for example), and copyright infringement from big brands against designers, creatives, and artists. In addition, the challenges of wokewashing and colorwashing (including pinkwashing, greenwashing, whitewashing, etc.) from fashion brands (including fast-fashion, ultra fast-fashion, and big luxury brands especially) and lack of regulations with AI getting taken advantage of in today's world more (especially with generative AI and copyright infringement in the process) are going on in today's day and age too.

Fast-fashion and ultra fast-fashion companies and sellers (including SHEIN, Urban Outfitters, Temu, Amazon, Walmart, Target, Forever 21, Zara, Halara, J. Crew, etc.) have created a lot of toxic pollution and sweatshops around the world over the years that have literally killed people and destroyed environments (one of J. Crew's sweatshops found in Rana Plaza after the Rana Plaza Collapse in Bangladesh in 2013 for example). To know that the fashion industry is still one of the top 10 industries (being #2 at one point still) in the world regarding pollution and carbon emissions is very concerning and alarming, and that needs to change. The amount of clothes and textile materials (especially synthetic materials and fabrics like polyester for example) that are purposefully mass-produced in a wasteful and disposable way that only allows the clothes to be worn once or a couple of times only on average and then thrown away and destroyed after is an example of waste colonialism. The fact that the clothes that have been mass-produced and thrown away into oceans and to other countries like Chile, Ghana, India, Bangladesh, etc. is still another issue and example of waste colonialism today. Who would've thought that a huge textile landfill in Chile can be seen from space now, or that the amount of mass-produced clothes from fast-fashion, ultra fast-fashion, and even luxury brands (such as Louis Vuitton and Chanel for example) are the equivalent amount to clothe the next 6 generations of the world's population. To see these same brands also work to colorwash and wokewash about their clothes, products, and brands to keep themselves looking good (despite what they've done) is disgusting to me, because they know what they're doing. Instead of taking accountability and responsibility like moral businesses, they're too afraid to admit their actions and greed, fearing to lose money from their already multi-billion dollar companies.

In addition, sweatshops are a part of waste colonialism, where garment workers are forced to create clothes for little to no pay, stay in horrible working conditions, and are treated like slaves as a result. Meanwhile, the companies who own these sweatshops care less about this but more about the money instead. Then, after the clothes are sold, the clothes are immediately or later thrown away into the ocean or washed up back to the countries where the sweatshops are located. This includes luxury brands (Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada for example), where leather and fur are constantly mass-manufactured in horrible conditions. I recommend anyone who is reading this to watch two documentaries that are about this called SLAY and The True Cost. I also recommend watching the documentary Girl Model, which talks about exploitation in the fashion industry, especially towards young girls and women in the modeling industry. Model agencies and fashion brands especially have exploited models over the years through debt-bondages, trafficking, and abuse in both the fashion and entertainment industries. Horrible but big examples of this include the cases of the former CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch, Victoria's Secret, Alexander Wang, etc. Six model agencies (including Elite, Select, Next, Tru, One, Wilhelmina, and Ford) in New York City also tried lobbying against the Fashion Worker's Act in 2023. On top of waste colonialism and exploitation, it's disgusting that brands like Zara, Louis Vuitton, SHEIN, Reebok, etc. as multi-million to multi-billion dollar companies are involved financially in human rights violations, crimes against humanity, and war crimes too (especially with what has been happening in Palestine, the Xinjiang Province in China, Sudan, Ukraine, etc.). These brands need to do better, because we cannot let these brands continue hurting and killing more people and the environment.

Talking about AI as someone who has worked as an AI trainer in the past, I can say that we need more regulations in the AI industry to protect everyone in the world and keep all of us safe (including fashion workers in the fashion industry). Tech companies especially need to stop abusing AI in a way that actually puts all of us in danger, especially with the AI Bubble currently happening and the rise of deepfakes. If this keeps happening, where companies want to keep illegally collecting our data or using our faces, likenesses, and info to generate AI without our consent (while spending billions of dollars on AI to accelerate the AI Bubble to burst sooner), it's not just going to hurt all of us. At the same time, it will backfire on every company who was first involved in creating and popping the AI Bubble in the first place through the loss of billions of dollars that could instead be used to help create more safety regulations with AI in these companies and for consumers, including for the fashion industry who has been looking into AI more in recent years. This is so that with AI now being a part of our day and age more, AI needs to be used more responsibly and to help more people instead of these big companies hurting more people and the environment (or worse).

In the fashion and social media industries for example, brands like GUESS have been using AI-generated models in their campaigns recently, and we're seeing more generative AI influencers getting more brand deals and gigs than real social media content creators and influencers. On top of this, these same brands are using deepfake avatars that have the likenesses, faces, and looks of real content creators and influencers on their brands' social media accounts (Stella Hennan's likeness getting stolen when Tilly Norwood was introduced for example). Other instances involve fashion and social media brands editing photos and videos of models, content creators, and influencers through generative AI without their consent, even if it meant creating an AI-generated face that replaces the faces of the real models or influencers. Designer Michael Costello has done this with Model Shereen Wu. Amazon has also allowed this to happen on their platform to Popflex and Blogilates Founder Casey Ho with no repercussions, where a seller on Amazon stole Ho's social media content, created a knock off of her designs, and illegally used her content in their listings, replacing Casey's face with a generative AI face in the videos. Both instances involve Ho and Wu (who are both women of color by the way) being digitally whitewashed by these brands, because their faces were replaced with an AI-generated face of a white woman. This is some of multiple examples of how AI needs more regulations in the fashion industry, especially for models and social media content creators and influencers. Same thing is happening for artists whose work is being stolen and used for generative AI without their consent in so many ways. I also want to mention Casey Ho is one of many designers and artists whose work was also stolen by SHEIN. I also want to mention that SHEIN also has sued Temu for copyright infringement sometime ago, but Temu is doing the same actions and practices as SHEIN. I don't understand why SHEIN did this, but it's ironic and hypocritical on SHEIN's part.

Despite all of these challenges in the fashion industry, the biggest opportunities in my field right now that combat the challenges mentioned before are that more people inside and outside of the fashion, social media, and entertainment industries have become more aware of the challenges in the fashion industry especially, because all 3 industries are interconnected. For example, the state of New York in the U.S. recently implemented the Fashion Worker's Act. The bill was first introduced in early 2022, introduced again in both early 2023 and early 2024, passed in May 2024, signed into law in December 2024, and then taken into effect since June 2025 in the state of New York. Many fashion workers (including myself and many other workers in the fashion industry), lawmakers (including Brad Holyman-Sigal and Karines Reyes) and organizations (including the Model Alliance, ReMake, the CFDA, etc.) have supported this bill. This bill works to create more worker's protections for fashion workers, including models and content creators/influencers (especially when working with model agencies and brands). The bill also holds model agencies accountable to regulate them more and prevent them from exploiting fashion workers anymore. The Fashion Worker's Act also protects fashion workers from AI abuse and exploitation from agencies and brands. The FABRIC Act was introduced in 2023, which creates more worker's protections for garment workers especially in the state of California in the U.S. It hasn't been passed yet, but it has yet to be passed still. Regarding ultra fast-fashion and fast-fashion, SHEIN was sued by RICO in 2023. SHEIN has also been under investigation in Europe for copyright infringement and other horrible business practices and actions the brand has done since their founding globally against other designers, artists, and influencers. Temu has also been under investigation for the same things. There have also been calls recently in 2025 by a few lawmakers in the U.S. to investigate SHEIN and Temu for their operations in the U.S.

More people in the fashion industry (including myself) have also been working on learning how to practice sustainable fashion more and better, including through education, design practices, social entrepreneurship, and lifestyle. Sustainable fashion has been evolving as we learn more about it over the years. Upcycling, thrifting, darning (term for mending), and renting fashion pieces and accessories have become more commonly practiced in recent years. More fashion consumers (including myself) are demanding more transparency from fashion brands for how their clothes are made and where the money is going. I'm happy that more brands and designers have authentically spoken up on social justice and human rights issues, including smaller brands that are boutiques especially. Good On You also rates fashion brands, which has been helpful as a consumer, designer, and model myself who is working to do more research to become more sustainable in the fashion industry, work with more sustainable brands, and have a more sustainable brand myself overall. Also, the CFDA announced that for NYFW Fall 2026/Winter 2027, fur has been banned in NYFW moving forward. We're also seeing more consumers (including myself) supporting small fashion businesses (including fashion boutiques that are into slow-fashion and sustainability). Also, the first union for stylists was founded in the United Kingdom in 2023 called the Celebrity Stylist Union. The state of California also passed a law in 2025 that protects actors (some actors also work in the fashion industry) from getting replaced with AI. I'm also glad to see brands such as Reformation, Patagonia, and Stella McCartney champion in sustainability over the years. Another opportunity that has been going on in the fashion industry over recent years is seeing clothing being made from food waste (coffee filters, banana peels, etc.), hemp, and bamboo. The documentary The Next Black talks about this, so I recommend watching this documentary too. These updates and opportunities have given me hope in recent years for the fashion industry and in general. I cannot wait to see how much more progress will be made to make the fashion industry better, more inclusive, and safer for everyone in the future moving forward.

The values most important to me in both my work and personal life are creativity, discipline, remembering my why, sticking to my values and morals, advocating for the right thing, practicing self-care, and self-expression. I prioritize staying active through working out, as it builds focus, resilience, and balance. I also value creative practices like sketching, painting, decoupaging, and drawing, which allow me to continuously explore ideas, refine my skills, and express myself authentically. I also enjoy playing video games (such as games from the Legend of Zelda franchise, which is my favorite franchise from Nintendo), junk journaling for mental health reasons, and listening to lofi hip-hop music to be able to concentrate and focus better when I do work.