Circular Fashion Summit 2020
Embraces VR and unites industry leaders to action UN Sustainable Development Goals
This October, in the midst of Paris Fashion Week, the Circular Fashion Summit by lablaco is joining forces with AltspaceVR, Unity Technologies, Oculus, and Unilever to launch the first-ever virtual reality summit in fashion.
The Summit (CFS) will take place virtually via Oculus headsets from Paris’ The Grand Palais. Among other panels and discussions, the event will see the presidents and CEOs of the five major global Fashion Councils joining for a round table on the environmental, revenue and sustainability issues facing the fashion and retail industries today.
What is the Circular Fashion Summit?
CFS is a global gathering of industry leaders who want to champion positive change. This is the second edition of the event, as the first launched during Paris Fashion Week in September 2019. While the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the event to go digital, there is no doubt that this new approach will allow more people to join the discussion.
“Now more than ever have we felt the readiness of the market and the opportunity to truly accelerate the digitisation and transition of the fashion industry towards a global circular economy powered by collective action and technology,” explains CFS Co-Founder Lorenzo Albrighi.
Circular Fashion Summit 2020 VR - Main venue in Le Grand Palais in virtual reality by spacegrey + Chatillon Architects
The Goals
The event is officially partnered with The United Nations. It was created as a means of initiating measurable action to help push forward the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were put in place to help drive positive environmental and social change across the industry. CFS has created The Goals, as per below, which directly align with SDGs.
Goal 1 — 1,000 x Up-cycling
Aiming to crowd-source 1,000 pairs of upcycled or recycled sneakers for children in Kabul, Afghanistan, with the mission to empower young people through the power of sports. Helping kids reach their potential and empowering positive change through sharing their stories in a global conversation.
Goal 2 — 10,000 x Tokenization
By tokenizing 10,000 fashion items high in the supply chain with brands and retailers, the aim is to accelerate the digitization of the fashion industry through transparency and circularity, with traceable product information and digital ownership for customers powered by blockchain.
Goal 3 — 100,000 x Recirculation
By enabling recirculation of 100,000 fashion items, we aim to save an estimated 2,000 tonnes of CO2 and 3,000,000 litres of water from landfill, by increasing product re-circulation, such as swapping, sharing, rental, and reselling. Considered the most effective way to lower our fashion footprint.
Moving beyond discussions, The Goals are achieved by a worldwide team of ‘Catalysts’. Working together, industry leaders will achieve measurable and immediate action within their companies to be actualised within a 12-month timeframe.
What does it mean to be a catalyst?
The Catalysts are a group of international leaders who are actively committed to supporting The Goals. Members include the likes of Burak Cakmak (Dean of Fashion, Parsons School of Design), Orsola De Castro (Founder, Fashion Revolution) and Julie Pelipas (Fashion Director, Vogue Ukraine). “Collective partnerships are the core spirit for us to experiment the new sustainable experience and practices for the Fashion Industry,” says ShihYun Kuo, Co-CEO & Co-founder at lablaco.
“Collective partnerships are the core spirit for us to experiment with new sustainable experience and practices for the Fashion Industry.”
We are delighted to say that Black Neon Digital Founder Jodi Muter-Hamilton has been invited to be one of the Catalysts. Using the newly launched, Project2030 as a vehicle, Jodi will work to achieve Goal 2. “An extremely important part of the Circular Fashion Summit is to ensure the positive impact of the event extends beyond these two days,” Jodi says on the power of Catalysts.
On 4th October, Jodi will also moderate the Catalyst panel in Virtual Reality, where they will discuss their approach to achieving The Goals. The panel (and fellow Catalysts) include Florian Vernay (Global Communication and Sustainability Director at Unilever), Isaac Nichelson (CEO, Circular Systems), Patrick Lundstorm (CEO, Renewcell), Sara Sozzani Maino (Deputy-in-Chief, Vogue Italia; Head of Vogue Talents) and Saleem Ahamed (Chief Marketing Officer, Plastic Bank).
“We still have a window of time to take action and that starts with radical change in our business models”
Though this discussion, the CFS hopes to highlight the urgency of the situation surrounding the industry. “The world is going through biological, social, economic and equality crises simultaneously. But we cannot forget the environmental crisis – we still have a window of time to take action and that starts with radical change in our business models,” says Florian Vernay, Global Communication and Sustainability Director at Unilever, a major corporate partner of The Summit and CFS Catalyst.
Why is it important to measure and track our actions against The Goals?
Encompassing up-cycling (Goal 1), tokenization (Goal 2) and recirculation (Goal 3), The Goals have been chosen by CFS to target the areas of the industry that most urgently need redressing, and have the most power to implement industry-wide change. However, making the goals alone is unlikely to produce genuine long term change. It is therefore extremely important that these goals are able to be tracked and those who have committed to change are held accountable.
In order to address this, lablaco, the circular fashion tech start-up behind CFS, have defined each goal clearly, to ensure no ambiguity. The Goals are also measured and published within the brand’s annual Circular Fashion Report. Currently, CFS has over thirty international partners committed to implementing The Goals. Through their efforts it has also saved one million litres of water from going to landfill, as well as six thousand tonnes of CO2. Anyone is able to sign up to pledge their Commitment to The Goals and brands are able to pick anywhere from one to three of the goals on which to focus, ensuring long term change is both realistic and achievable.
Notes
As mentioned above, the CFS round table will involve the presidents and CEOs of the 5 major global Fashion Councils uniting to discuss the status and the new system of the fashion industry, during Paris Fashion Week.
These include the following individuals:
Pascal Morand, Executive President of Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode
Caroline Rush, Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council
Carlo Capasa, President and CEO of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana
Steven Kolb, President and CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America
Lv Xiaolei, Vice Secretary-General of Shanghai Fashion Week
Tickets to CFS2020VR are sold out.
Images throughout courtesy Circular Fashion Summit
02.10.2020
