FEL Speaks at the Fashion Council Germany X The King’s Foundation Conference at Dumfries House
06-11-2024
FEL’s CEO, Jenny Holloway and Technical Development Director, Claire Solley, have just returned from the 2024 Fashion Council Germany x The King’s Foundation Conference held at Dumfries House in Scotland. The conference, held on 29th October 2024, was all about sustainability and circular business models in fashion.
Attracting an estimated 100 students from Scotland and Germany, FEL was joined by Anthony Burns – COO at ACS, Tamara Cincik – CEO & Founder of Fashion Roundtable, Beth Alexandra from eBay for Business, amongst other leading sustainability experts for fashion and textiles.
Jenny commented: “Huge congratulations to Jacqueline Farrell, Education Director at The King’s Foundation, and her amazing team for pulling off a highly interactive day of seminars, roundtables and panelist talks for the participating students.
“The core theme was sustainability in fashion and FEL was waving the flag for reprocessing, repairs and upcycling. Student engagement was awesome, continual questions were raised and a poll reflected some key points;
– Over 50% of respondents knew where their clothes were made – impressive!
– There was a growing awareness of the negative impact their clothes have on the planet. Barometer moved to 4.2 from 3.4
– When asked what could the fashion industry do to guarantee your clothes are made responsibly and sustainably there were two clear answers: Recycle and have transparency.
For the last three years FEL has worked with The King’s Foundation and YOOX Net-A-Porter on The Modern Artisan initiative, supporting on technical skills – samples, patterns and cutting. Technical Director Claire Solley was on hand to explain and demonstrate to the students about all the repair work FEL undertakes for a variety of clients.
The 2024 Fashion Council Germany x The King’s Foundation Conference was an inspiration, and it was fantastic to hear from the students about their growing awareness of what being sustainable truly means.