Fashion Summit in Copenhagen

 

by Deborah Miarkowska

As the world’s most powerful leaders debated climate change in Copenhagen, the world’s fashion leaders gathered in the same city to participate in this year’s most important fashion event: The Fashion Summit, tthe industry’s summit on sustainable fashion, part of the NICE project  and organised by the Nordic Fashion Association was held at the prestigious Copenhagen Opera House, Copenhagen, on Denmark, December 9th 2009.

The Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical (NICE) has been established to motivate and assist companies in the Nordic fashion industry in becoming more sustainable. NICE is a groundbreaking collaboration that brings together the entire Nordic fashion industry around the shared goal of incorporating sustainable values, principles, and practices into the industry and making a difference globally.

On the brink of potentially dangerous climate change and with attention on corporate social responsibility soaring to new heights, the world needs innovators who can lead the push toward a more sustainable economy. The fashion industry has the potential to be one such innovator, working proactively to address critical environmental, social, and ethical challenges on a global scale.

Fashion Summit will start this process by catalyzing a discussion on the evolution of a successful fashion industry in a world where new business models are required to tackle the growing sustainability challenges facing the planet and our societies. What does a sustainable fashion industry look like and what does it take to get us there?

These questions have been discussed at the one day event, which took place on the 9th of December at Copenhagen’s Opera House, including lectures, presentations, a gallery of sustainable materials - and will conclude with a runway show of sustainable fashion, made by the best new generation of Nordic fashion designers, using unique eco-materials supplied by C.L.A.S.S. Twenty designers have competed to win a coveted prize of £6000.

The Judges  attending the Fashion summit included Fern Mallis, Senior VP IMG Fashion, Laird Borelli, Senior Features Editor, Style.com, Ann-Sofie Johansson, Head of design H&M , Margareta van den Bosch, Creative Advisor, H&M  Erin Mullaney, Buying Director, Browns.

Keynote speakers at the Fashion Summit were Laurent Claquin, Senior VP, Corporate Social Responsibility at PPR Group; Julie Gilhart, Senior VP, Fashion Director at Barneys New York; Ingrid Schullström, Head of CSR at H&M
Christian Kemp-Griffin, Chief Mission Officer at Edun; Vanessa Friedman, Fashion Editor at Financial Times
Ros Harvey, Global Programme Manager at Better Work; Marjorie Yang, Chairman of Esquel; Peder Michael Pruzan-Jørgensen, Managing Director Europe at BSR.

The coveted award was presented by Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark to Saara Lepokorpi as featured.

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