Fashionsustain to discuss sustainability in textile & fashion sector

24 Jun '21

4 min read

Pic: Texpertisenetwork Messefrankfurt

Fashionsustain, the international and multi-disciplinary conference format of Neonyt, will be held from July 6-8, 2021, during the digital FFW Studio of Frankfurt Fashion Week. Sustainability, technological innovations, and new value creations will be discussed in the conference in the form of panel discussions, talks, keynotes, and interactive formats.

Held digitally due to coronavirus restrictions, this summer’s edition of the Fashionsustain conference is the place to be for all fashion enthusiasts, drivers of innovation and creative minds who wish to join forces and play an active role in this process. The future-relevant and challenging topics of sustainability, digitisation and innovation will be examined in great depth from different perspectives during keynotes, interviews, panel discussions and interactive formats, offering a trailblazing, progressive and future-oriented contribution to the current fashion discourse, according to a press release by Messe Frankfurt.

The key topics that are currently challenging the sector, such as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the international fashion industry; the extent that textile production will shift from global to local in the long term; or how sustainability can be holistically integrated into processes and become a permanent fixture, will be discussed by moderator Alex Bohn (style director of F.A.Z. Quarterly) with Christopher Veit (CEO of Veit), Mariska Schennink (sustainability manager at Euretco Fashion) and other speakers from various fashion brands in the panel ‘Global supply. Local demand. Total change?’ In the panel ‘Same Goals. Different Systems. How transparency triggers responsibility’, initiated by Grüner Knopf and the German Society for International Cooperation, experts from Gru¨ner Knopf, fashion labels and, among others, Veronika Bates Kassatly (Woolmark) will be speaking to moderator Max Gilgenmann (founder and CEO of Studio MM04 and Neonyt’s Sustainability Content Consultant) about social justice within the textile supply chain and how to achieve it, according to Messe Frankfurt.

The correlation between finances, sustainability and fashion: by specifically choosing credit borrowers based on their sustainability efforts, the financial services sector can contribute to a more sustainable future. What that really means, which repercussions this can have on lending and how else the industry can contribute to the transformation of the textile and fashion industry will be debated by Frank Wächter (global director treasury & insurance at Puma), Viktoria Kalb (global ESG & sustainability analyst at EMEA ESG research, UBS), Andreas Wagner (sustainable finance lead commercial banking Western Europe at HVB/Unicredit) and Ullrich Hartmann (partner, auditor, tax advisor, financial services, FS compliance at PwC) in a discussion entitled ‘Finance. How it triggers sustainability in fashion’.

The two central topics of the second conference day are highly topical and, particularly in the context of FFW, take on a pivotal role. In the panel ‘Digital transformation. It is what you make of it’, initiated by PwC and moderated by Tim Dörpmund (head of online at TextilWirtschaft magazine), Patric Spethmann (COO of Marc O’Polo), Susanne Arnoldy (CIO Advisory at PwC), Andreas Krostewitz (senior manager valuation, modelling and analytics at PwC) and Philipp Vospeter (CEO of Westphalia DataLab) will be showing us how data and artificial intelligence can be key to excellent customer experiences and optimised forecasts and examining the significance of digital platforms for the retail business. Afterwards, Sam Field (RYOT international at The Fabric of Reality), Damara Inglês (designer at The Fabric of Reality), Kim Bernd (3D digital designer and founder of @3MBASSY Digital Design Studio) and Esther Perbandt (founder & designer at Esther Perbandt) will provide exciting insights into avatars, NFTs, virtual fashion shows and answers to questions about the future of fashion in the ‘Virtual Fashion. Me, Myself and avatar’ panel.

Transparency along the textile supply chain is becoming increasingly relevant. And as the topic is closely linked with digital innovations, Lukas Pünder (co-founder and CEO of Retraced), Marian von Rappard (owner of Dawn Denim), Gediminas Mikutis (CTO and co-founder of Haelixa AG) and Shannon Mercer (CEO of Fibretraced) will be presenting various technical solutions that enable more transparency when buying clothing in the panel entitled ‘Transparency. The tech solutions for new supply and value chains’.

In the ‘Sustainable Branding’ Design Talk by the German design council with experts including Lutz Dietzold (CEO of the German Design Council) and Bernd Draser (ecosign/Academy of Design), the focus will be on sustainable brand management, the development of a corresponding brand strategy and the crucial role of good sustainability communication.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (GK)

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