Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2017

Held at Copenhagen Concert Hall the Summit has evolved as the leading forum for sustainability in fashion and has proven to be a safe neutral environment to launch new initiatives, where businesses, non-profit organisations, policy-makers and media can come together to join forces and make actual commitments to change.

The Summit is under the patronage of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark and hosted by Amber Valletta, model and entrepreneur, and Tyler Brûlé, editor-in-chief of Monocle (pictured right). Since the first Copenhagen Fashion Summit was held in 2009, it has become the most influential platform for creating awareness on the state of sustainability in fashion and has gone on the create the Global Fashion Agenda, a year-round agenda setting forum that aims to convene the entire fashion sector, governments, civil society and all the great many initiatives out there around a global commitment to positive change. Anchored around the flagship event Copenhagen Fashion Summit, Global Fashion Agenda’s mission is to mobilise the global fashion industry to transform the way we produce and consume fashion, for a world beyond next season.

“It is a very exiting time for us; taking our initiatives to the next level! The goal is to take the Summit from being a great conference to being an actual Summit focusing on commitments from individual companies and on a much broader scale. The Summit must deliver tangible outcomes, guidelines and hands-on solutions that will create positive change. The Global Fashion Agenda cannot do this alone, therefore we are forming a strong group of strategic partners behind us and will focus on convening the conveners to help streamline the great many initiatives out there. The Summit will first and foremost be a fashion event but also has the potential to make sustainability mainstream and provide the business case for the industry,” says Eva Kruse, CEO & president of Global Fashion Agenda.

In amongst the diverse range of high level speakers this year are CEO of Tiffany & Co. Michael Kowalski, The New York Times chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman, circular economy authority Dame Ellen MacArthur, founder of Eco Age Ltd. Livia Firth, fashion designer Prabal Gurung, Director of Sourcing ASOS.com Simon Platts, CEO of Hugo Boss Mark Langer, Director of Sustainability Selfridges Daniella Vega and sustainability leader William McDonough.

For those that can’t make it to the Summit there are Livestream for Copenhagen Fashion Summit available via YouTube, Facebook and www.copenhagenfashionsummit.com

There are many talks and discussions to listen in on from circular economies to digitization & unique ID numbers of garments so we can trace their entire lifespan beyond retail sales, we have just been listening in on the latest material science and biotech talk from Miroslava Duma, Founder & CEO Fashion Tech Labs Venture Inc (pictured right). “What sounds like science fiction is now becoming science fact, just to give you a couple of examples of what is happening: sustainable material developments include – growing leather and fur from stem cells without killing animals – fabrics made from 100% orange peel and lab grown diamonds.”

Since last year’s Summit, the format of the event has evolved greatly. One of the major changes is the intensified focus on commitments and outcomes, which includes the Pulse of the Fashion Industry report. The Summit will see the release of the first-ever edition of the groundbreaking Pulse of the Fashion Industry report, which has been developed in collaboration between Global Fashion Agenda and its knowledge partner, The Boston Consulting Group.

This annual report is the first of its kind to provide a common fact base on the current sustainability performance of the industry, to quantify the potential of sustainability in fashion and to provide recommendations for companies across the supply chain.

To help set a common global agenda for the industry and spearhead this transition, Global Fashion Agenda has partnered with Kering, H&M, Target, Sustainable Apparel Coalition and Li & Fung as founding members and Strategic Partners. They represent some of the world’s foremost sustainability leaders in the high street, mainstream and luxury fashion sectors.

 

 

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