Jul 7, 2020
6 min

Fashinnovation’s Worldwide Talks 2020—Second Edition: Sustainability, Innovation and Inclusivity

Insight Report
Event Coverage Registered Event Coverage

DIpil Das
Fashinnovation, which connects entrepreneurship, innovation and technology with the fashion industry, hosted the second edition of its Worldwide Talks 2020 digital event on June 5 and 8. The event was held in partnership with Oceana and the Conscious Fashion Campaign, with support from the UN Office for Partnerships. It featured 50 panels and over 150 industry participants and saw more than 20,000 attendees.
Insights from the Event
The two-day virtual event was held on World Environment Day and then on World Oceans Day, which tied into its two major themes of sustainability and technological innovation—addressing companies’ environmental and social responsibilities as well as the new technologies that are emerging in the Covid-19 environment. The conference provided a platform for the leading voices of sustainability in today’s fashion industry to discuss business, fashion and sustainability in the context of the current coronavirus crisis. It also covered social justice and equality—encouraging charitable donations and discussing Black Lives Matter, for example. Environmental Sustainability: Pushing the Fashion Industry Forward Throughout the event, multiple speakers from various countries discussed sustainability in the fashion industry, covering key topics such as environmental preservation, ocean pollution, ethical practices and climate change.  From major brands like Hermès to commercial manufacturers, there is a continuing shift to sustainable, ethical practices. Part of the effort has been empowering small manufacturers in developing countries to adopt sustainable business practices and become a larger part of the global supply chain. Many people and organizations, such as Rebecca Van Bergen of the non-profit group Nest, are focused on supporting the expansion of artisan and craft-maker businesses, as well as working with large companies such as Hermès and Target to enhance their use of artisan supply chains. With the coronavirus crisis presenting unprecedented challenges to multiple industries, the Fashinnovation event highlighted the retailers and groups such as Mercado Global (a Brooklyn-based accessory brand and non-profit that empowers rural Latin American women to become entrepreneurs) that have been using their networks to supply personal protective equipment to front-line workers—providing steady income in highly unstable markets while supporting the fight against the global pandemic. These groups and the support they receive from major companies illustrate the fashion industry’s growing commitment to ethical practices and a global community. Recycling continues to be a major theme, as the fashion industry grapples with integrating sustainability across the global supply chain. For example, Theodore Hamalis, Director at fashion design house Thread Apparel, explained that the company sources polyester pellets from recycled plastic bottles. Thread Apparel is just one of a number of organizations that are committed to making changes to their operations to become more environmentally friendly. Innovation: A Requirement for Adapting to a Post-Covid World Innovation was a focal point of Fashinnovation’s event, which hosted a virtual runway show with digitized human models. With events being canceled worldwide, this was not the first fashion show to be held digitally amid the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, Bigthinx—a Prada Group-backed tech startup specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) for the fashion and retail industry—livestreamed a fully digital 3D virtual fashion show for Paris Fashion Week. The company’s technology can perform body scans that collect 44 different measurements of a human form, which it reconstructs into a 3D avatar. Using a digital photograph, it then completes the creation of the avatar, providing skin tone, facial features and other details to replicate the user as closely as possible. To digitize clothing, Bigthinx has developed an AI-driven process that identifies clothing size, fit, drape, material and pattern—recreating an item of apparel in 3D from a 2D image. Speaking to Fashinnovation’s Co-Founder, Jordana Guimarães, at the Worldwide Talks 2020 event, Bigthinx’ CEO Shivang Desai said, “It is as simple as you putting on your clothes. It is draped on the avatar the same way, and you see it in front of your own eyes.” Desai hopes that his work will help designers and brands in the future. “Post pandemic, this could be a way for designers to use platforms and services to be able to showcase fashion shows, photoshoots and so on. Being first is not our priority—it is to help,” he said. Desai believes that 3D shows will become a complementary offering to live shows, enabling brands and designers to sustainably showcase collections at a lower cost. Inclusivity in Fashion: Amplifying Diversity and Transparency Throughout the event, various panels addressed the current Black Lives Matter movement and its impact, considering how black- and minority-owned businesses fair differently in the economy. As pointed out in a panel with Blakely Thornton, CEO of Civil Jewelry, fashion in many ways is a reflection of culture, so while 15% of the population is black, there needs to be ample representation in stores, fashion lines, etc. to match that. Thornton also discussed the notion that amplifying the right voices is incredibly important, alongside the need to create a workplace culture in which people are not afraid to speak out and challenge previous norms. Transparency is a term often associated with the supply chain and its applications in reducing environmental impacts, but it is also relevant to the diversity and inclusivity of brands throughout their companies. With added transparency, brands and retailers can ensure that diverse opinions—from both internal and external sources—are being added throughout the production process to create the most complete product possible. This is likely to resonate with consumers, as we discuss below.
What We Are Seeing
Interest in sustainability did not go away with the arrival of Covid-19; it was just momentarily superseded by concerns around health, access to essentials, jobs and household finance. Among consumers, values and priorities have thus shifted, placing an increasing focus on brand values that resonate with them personally, from inclusivity to sustainable or local sourcing initiatives. Investors’ interest is growing as well. BlackRock noted that during the crisis, as investors sought to rebalance their portfolios during market turmoil, they increasingly preferred sustainable funds over more traditional ones. In the first quarter of 2020, global, sustainable, open-ended funds (mutual funds and exchange traded funds) brought in $40.5 billion in new assets, a 41% increase year over year. US sustainable funds attracted a record $7.3 billion for the quarter. For retail businesses, the coronavirus pandemic revealed the fragility of global supply chains and disparate workforces. The community is therefore looking to adopt environmentally friendly, sustainable practices that do not add cost but provide cost savings. The good news is that although many sustainable business practices may require high upfront costs, they prove profitable in the medium to long term.  

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