202030 - The Berlin Fashion Summit: Denim Pop-Up and Community Gathering

The Berlin Fashion Summit hosted a Denim Pop-up stage program, followed by a Community Gathering. The diverse crowd, spanning many sectors of fashion and sustainability, attended two hours of programming themed around the transformation in the denim sector, from being a ‘problem child’ of fashion to a role model for innovation, equity, and positive impact.

The conference focused on denim’s success stories and best practice cases, which inspire industry-wide change. Following the conference, attendees, speakers and industry representatives gathered outside SEEK for the 202030 Community Gathering to deepen conversations, make new contacts, share experiences and think of joint projects, and take advantage of the special opportunity to be featured on the 202030 podcast. The conference was moderated by initiators Max Gilgenmann and Magdalena Schaffrin.

"Denim is known in the industry as an environmentally damaging material, which is treated with a lot of chemicals and has a huge water consumption. Precisely because these problems exist, affecting not only the environment but also the people who work in the value chain, the denim industry has developed cleaner solutions and brought them to market, which can now act as a good example to the entire fashion industry. We were especially happy about the exciting inputs from different perspectives and discussions on stage and especially about the lively questions from the audience." – Magdalena Schaffrin Co-Ceo studio MM04, 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit

The Denim Pop-up’s content featured representatives from ranging perspectives on denim, such as Lanius and Auf Augenhöhe, organizations from the political spectrum, such as the Dutch Denim Deal and Grüner Knopf (Green Button),, as well as changemakers from the industry, such as Tony Tonnaer, in open discussions and presentations. In addition to Mayouri Sengchanh from Première Vision, Outi Pyy from Ivalo to Tanvir Kabir of the Bangladesh Embassy, who spoke from the perspective of international trade policy, Thomas Aplas of CHT Group enlightened the audience on the role of the chemical industry in bringing about positive change. Marian von Rappard, co-founder and owner of Dawn Denim, delivered an inspiring opening keynote, in which he called for a new era of honesty and personalities in the fashion industry, using his own journey to a successful sustainable denim brand as an example.

“I want us to embrace the unknown. We don’t know what will happen in the next five to ten years, except that there has to be a huge change in this industry.” – Marian von Rappard, Dawn Denim

Another highly anticipated feature was the conversation with Sema Gedik and Janina Nagel of Auf Augenhöhe, the brand and community platform that is trailblazing adaptive fashion for the German market, lending a crucial emphasis to inclusivity as a facet of sustainability.

“The word ‘inclusion’ is not a trend topic, and it’s important to bring it to the inside of a company. How can we change the design so that everybody can be a part of it? We want to collaborate with more fashion labels, because this means creating more inclusion in the industry.” – Sema Gedik, Auf Augenhöhe

Tying together the Denim Pop-up was the panel “From ‘Dirty Denim’ to Sustainability Leadership,” framed by the Denim Deal, a Dutch initiative to govern more sustainable supply chains in the denim sector. Roosmarie Ruigrok of the Denim Deal sat on the panel alongside Annabelle Homann of the brand Lanius, Christine Moser-Priewich of Grüner Knopf (Green Button), Tanvir Kabir of the Embassy of Bangladesh, and Tony Tonnaer of KOI Conscious Consulting. These strong voices brought together a three-dimensional picture of denim’s successes and the future of its transformative journey.

“To set up a green deal on denim, we needed the government, private brand companies, collectors and sorters, spinners and weavers, manufacturers, and other sustainable experts. All are gathering in the current denim deal – 50 stakeholders signed the deal. We have the aim to change the Denim industry.” – Roosmarie Ruigrok, Denim Deal

202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit will return in 2024 with its immersive two-day experience. Guests can expect a program that will share the most cutting-edge developments in sustainability, eye-level conversations in a strong community-building environment, with industry innovators and changemakers, supply chain representatives and policy makers. In the meantime, exclusive sustainable fashion content will continue via the 202030 Podcast, as well as other pop-up events organized by studio MM04.