Can you guess which is the most polluting industry in the world? Yes, oil. How about the second one? That is fashion. Unbelievable, right? Especially when you think about the end product of the fashion industry and the first impression it gives regarding pollution issues.

The fashion industry worth $1.5 trillion to the global economy, engages millions of people around the world and connects companies in supply chains that surround the planet every day. Not surprisingly, fashion is known as the design discipline that defines our identity the most. In fact, the fashion industry is heavily challenged by environmental, social and ethical matters.

Eva Kruse, the CEO of the Danish Fashion Institute believes that by changing the mindset of the world's second most polluting industry, style and sustainability can go hand in hand". How true and yet, how hard to achieve is that? But it seems that Eva Kruse knows how to make a difference and in 2009 she created Copenhagen Fashion Summit, the world's largest conference for sustainable fashion.

On April 24th, the third edition of Copenhagen Fashion Summit took place at the Royal Opera House in beautiful Copenhagen. Under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, Copenhagen Fashion Summit highlighted the global fashion industry's most innovative solutions to environmental, social and ethical challenges. This year Summit gathered 22 international speakers from the fashion industry, NGOs, media and politics. -Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, wearing a sustainable custom-made Designers Remix white and blue dress, was opening the Summit by welcoming each one to Copenhagen and by calling to action "everyone involved in the fashion life cycle, from production to consumption".

Marco Bizzarri from Bottega Veneta, the Italian luxury fashion house, talked about the role that preservation of craftsmanship has in the success of a fashion brand. Preserving the craft and transferring it to the next generation is one of the company's main design challenges.

Giusy Bettoni, the founder of C.L.A.S.S. - the worldwide multi-platform that creates textiles using sustainable technology and resources, addressed sustainability by presenting the developments in the textile industry. C.L.A.S.S. showcased an exhibition which included unique sustainable fabrics and outfits from the Spring/ Summer 2014 Weekend Max Mara collection, made in the high-tech fabric, New-life. New-life is a certified fabric having threads that are entirely made in Italy, fully traceable and obtained from 100% post-consumer plastic bottles. Moreover, ten Nordic fashion designers were supported with textiles from the C.L.A.S.S. eco-library and showed their creations in a fashion show outside the Royal Opera House, in front of a jury of fashion professionals like, Peter Copping from Nina Ricci, Kai Margrander from Harper's Bazaar or Margaretha von den Bosch from H&M.

Vanessa Friedman - Fashion editor for Financial Times talked about how our consumption behaviour influences the global status of sustainability in fashion. Opening her speech by throwing pairs of jeans in several styles (skinny, flared, washed or low-waist) on the stage, Vanessa Friedman states that transparency is the key in making fashion sustainable and suggests to build a sustainable wardrobe and buy clothes in our own financial interest, not in the brands’ financial interest.

Livia Firth, a professional agitator, as she is known, started by turning her blazer inside out, a sign of respect for the workers that made it. Livia Firth makes a call to action to be active citizens and marks in her speech the consequences of the short supply chains, fast response and low prices on the garment workers. Only by being at the other end of the supply chain, doesn't mean that the garment  workers have to be "completely removed from our thoughts" she said. 

Jason Kibbey - Executive director at Sustainable Apparel Coalition addressed the Higg Index. The Higg Index is the standardized tool for measuring the apparel and footwear products' environmental and social impacts. Asked about the Higg Index developments, Jason Kibbey talked about future possibilities of rewarding the sustainable businesses.

Copenhagen Fashion Summit third edition closed with Eva Kruse’s inspiring speech, inviting the audience to share the  knowledge and be ever conscious about its choices, which I  dare to ask from you too.

By bringing together top executives from fashion companies, media representatives and leading experts together with 1.100+ public, Copenhagen Fashion Summit is the most important fashion event of the year.

Cover image source: https://globalfashionagenda.org/