Water-Peace-Fashion : Fashionsustain Berlin Announces Topics And Speakers

November 2018 :Water. Peace. Fashion. Neonyt Fashionsustain, the progressive conference format of the global hub for fashion, sustainability and innovation, is taking a neo-new view of the subject of water in the textile industry.

On 16 January 2019 at Kraftwerk in Berlin, top keynote speakers from the industry, civil society and the textile supply chain, such as from Vogue Australia, WWF and Spindye, will, together with many other speakers, be proving that the solution-oriented focus on the future use of water as a resource has gained global relevance for the industry. At its upcoming January edition, the Thinkathon, which is taking place at the same time, is presenting the Otto Group and Bikini Berlin as challenge hosts.

Technology, sustainability and innovation are important drivers of the fashion and textile industry that will revolutionise the sector and its processes and production methods. On 16 January 2019, international conference format Fashionsustain will be dedicated to precisely these topics, with a focus on the omnipresent challenges of sustainable water management currently facing the textile industry. The conference, organised by Messe Frankfurt, will be showing how the interplay of collaboration and competition for new and sustainable technologies is leading to innovations that are driving the paradigm shift of the industry.

“For the third time in a row, relevant decision-makers from the industry will be presenting practical solutions, technological innovations and the latest market developments at the Neonyt Fashionsustain conference in January,” says Olaf Schmidt, Vice President of Textiles and Textile Technologies at Messe Frankfurt. “With our future-oriented conference format Fashionsustain, we are inviting all visitors to Berlin Fashion Week to come and enter into an interdisciplinary dialogue on truly sustainable concepts of fashion,” continues Schmidt.

Fashionsustain: Four neo-new perspectives on the topic of water

A global look at water as a resource, a look at cotton from the perspectives of both large-scale and small-scale farmers, a fashion heritage look at denim and an abstract, glocal look into the future of fashion – Fashionsustain will be dedicated to the complex topic of water in the fashion and textile industry; not one-dimensionally, but four-dimensionally.

With her opening keynote “We Are Water. Inspiration & Respiration.”, Clare Press, Sustainability Editor-at-Large for Vogue Australia, book author and fair fashion activist, will be starting off the conference day with a strong and emotional appeal.

In the first session, Fashionsustain will then take a critical view of the topic of water and examine it from a global level. Philipp Wagnitz, International Director of Freshwater Resources at WWF, will be highlighting and discussing the critical impact of textile production on inland waters together with various players from society, the fashion industry and the field of scientific research.

Throughout the conference, Fashionsustain will also be delving into the high environmental impact of cotton and denim, and asking the provocative question: what would happen if an entire sub-sector of the industry were to really initiate the change towards sustainable value creation? Is that even possible? With an eye to finding solutions, a critical and open-ended dialogue will be conducted on the value-based transformation of supply chains and the limits of this change. A case study from Pakistan will also show how a water-intensive supply chain can be sustainably implemented in a country with an acute water shortage.

In the subsequent session, Fashionsustain will really zoom in and raise the topic to a higher level of abstraction: cradle to cradle, ocean plastic, the social-economic impact of natural fibres and alternative crops with twice the added value, as well as innovative, technical recycled and viscose fibres will all be discussed in terms of their water-relevant aspects. The list of speakers includes Micke Magnusson, CEO of sustainable Swedish textile dye company Spindye, and Amira Jehia, co-founder of fair sweater label Blue Ben.