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Donna Moderna and the Fondazione Vodafone Italia have launched a new initiative called the “Women & Work Project”, a competition for women which aims to encourage the best social enterprise ideas for women.

There are three areas:

Solidarity. Lending a hand

Entrepreneurial ideas to encourage the employment of women who have suffered violence or who live in disadvantaged socio-economic conditions. Open to women of all ages.

The Web. Let’s get online

Projects linked to the world of the internet or telecommunications and aimed at encouraging the employment of women. Open to women of up to 30 years of age, final-year students or recent graduates.

Home & Work. Getting better organised

Projects to encourage more effective management and conciliate domestic and professional demands in the daily lives of women. Open to women of all ages.

The best projects in each of the three categories will received a prize of €100,000.

How to take part

Application forms can be submitted between 15 October 2010 and midnight on 15 January 2011. In order to request finance you should download the competition notice from the web site www.progettodonnelavoro.it, along with the loan request and business plan forms, register your personal details and submit the completed documents online. A printed copy, along with the attachments, should also be sent to: Fondazione Vodafone Italia, Piazza SS. Apostoli, 81 00187 Rome.

Applications may be made by any women, permanently resident in Italy, who intend to create a business activity with charitable or socially useful aims.

Stefano De Alessandri has been appointed the new general manager of Magazines Italy of the Mondadori Group.

De Alessandri, 50, was born in Milan and has a degree in economics and business administration from Milan’s Bocconi University. He has an extensive and wide-ranging knowledge of the Italian magazine market and has, over the years, also built up considerable managerial experience with important positions at large International publishers.

De Alessandri began his professional life at RCS in 1989, where he held a series of jobs with growing responsibility until 1999, when he moved to Condé Nast as deputy general manager and director.

In 2003 De Alessandri was appointed managing director and general manager of Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori, where he remained until 2005, when he was appointed chief executive and general manager of Hachette Rusconi, the Italian arm of the Lagardére Active group, where he remained until now.

The Mondadori Group wishes to thank Gianni Vallardi for his valuable contribution, made with competence, passion and professionalism during the whole of his time with the company.

Grazia readers now have a an extra way to get access to and read – at any time of the day, also when travelling or abroad – their favourite magazine.

First among women’s fashion weeklies, Grazia has launched its app for the iPad and with iGrazia it is now possible to flick through a digital version of the magazine every week and discover – in addition to everything that is in the print version – a range of additional features specially created for enthusiasts of the new device, including a video-editorial by the editor Vera Montanari, interviews and “chats” with the magazine’s staff.

And to coincide with the Milan Fashion Week there will also be a photo gallery and backstage coverage, which thanks to the quality of the images, will provide a taster of the collections on the catwalks for the 2011 Spring/Summer season.

And for those who want to re-read or get more background from already published interviews, with iGrazia you can access all the content of the last ten issues of the magazine.

To coincide with the 2010 Women’s Fashion Week, the City of Milan and the Mondadori Group, with its titles Grazia and Interni, are the promoters of an initiative entitled Fashion & Design 2.0.

The weekly magazine Grazia, a qualified interpreter of Italian fashion and style, has involved prestigious Italian brands and exploited the know how of its editorial staff to produce a series of innovative fashion performances at the centre of the Ottagono, and open to the whole city.

The monthly Interni, with its long and consolidated experience in the world of design, has selected 4 important and world famous designers and architects to produce 4 large installations inspired by the themes and values of the world of fashion in order to illustrate the connection between the fashion system and the world of design.

The opening of Milan’s Fashion Design House

A symbolic space in the centre of Milan, the Galleria, is transformed into a place of encounter and events dedicated to fashion, but also to design, in order to engage not only the media and fashion professionals who during the Fashion Week converge on Milan, but above all local citizens, during one of the most important periods of the year for Italian industry.

The event is organised in three distinct areas:

1. The design installations at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele

Four designer/architects selected by Interni were asked to produce four installations, macro objects of great symbolic value, celebrating the cross-fertilization between fashion and design; in the creation of the installations, the designers have been inspired by the content of the world of fashion, with the possibility of working with the sorts of materials that are most identifiable with it.

The four installations:

Air du temps,
by Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel and Partners with Moncler

Wooden Thread,
by Lissoni Associati with Gallo

Timeless Chic,
by Vudafieri Saverino Partners with Tod’s

Apparition,
by Alberto Biagetti with yoox.com

2. The Fashion Design House at the centre of the Ottagono

A stage and a large tiered stand built in the centre of the Ottagono, and enriched with highly suggestive design objects design, creating an original and modern backdrop to enliven every day the fashion performances; Grazia has organised 4 days of appointments during which more than 20 Italian fashion brands will give life to the same number of fashion events created and organised exclusively with the magazine’s fashion department. The tiered stand of the Fashion Design House makes it an authentic exhibition space: with the tiers and the terrace decorated by prestigious furniture and design companies, creating an original and very evocative backdrop.

3. Piazza San Fedele, animated by fashion and design

Piazza San Fedele will become an open-air exhibition space dedicated to the city, in which there will be a combination of moments dedicated to the world of fashion and contemporary design.

Circulation figures continue to reward Tu Style, the Mondadori weekly edited by Marisa Deimichei, re-launched in mid-July with a completely new look.

The appreciation of readers has been immediate, with a circulation in the July/August period of 260,000 copies, a 32% increase on the already excellent results of the previous months.

These summer results consolidate and give a new impetus to the positive trend recorded by the title since its initial launch, just over a year and a half ago. A success that the latest ADS figures, for the 12 months May 2009 – April 2010, had already established at 192,646 copies.

There has also been an extremely good response from the advertising market, with revenues up by 49% in July and 72% in August.

“Tu Style is the advertising phenomenon of the year,” declared Angelo Sajeva, chairman and chief executive of Mondadori Pubblicità. “Advertisers have understood the evolution of the title and have particularly approved of the format and the new layout, which is both more modern and, in line with Mondadori’s activities, has an international feel. We immediately noticed a very positive attitude and the results were quick to follow,” underlined Sajeva. “Despite the low season, the revenues of Tu Style have increased considerably, as has the number of clients and the average price of the title. There has been constant growth in all sectors, especially fashion, which has become the main sector even in a title that is not seen as a priority in planning terms. September is also showing an overall increase of around 60%, with fashion and cosmetics reaching 76% of total billings,” concluded Sajeva.

Tu Style has captured women’s attention thanks to an original and revolutionary editorial formula: the large format and completely new layout amplifying the title’s characteristics and giving readers a product with a big impact.

For the editor Marisa Deimichei: “the new Tu Style is increasingly glamorous and exciting. Fashion, beauty and shopping have become more appealing, thanks to an impeccable redesign of the layout and use of photographs, the increase in the number of pages and an even more focused selection of content. Readers are happily captivated by the desire to go out an buy the up to date items shown, even in their super-accessible versions. Just as they are drawn into the world of women that is reflected in Tu Style: stories about celebrities and ordinary women that alternate to give a picture of the many shades and variety of real life,” Deimichei.