Fashion Council Germany and The King's Foundation bring the fashion industry together

Once again Fashion Council Germany and The King's Foundation, formerly The Prince's Foundation, organised the annual FASHION ZUKUNFT conference in Scotland on the 15th of November. As a long-standing partner of the Fashion Council Germany, His Majesty King Charles III's Foundation supports various initiatives that work towards a more sustainable world. Together with eBay Germany, The PVH Foundation and TENCEL™, FCG hosted the conference for the third time at the historic Dumfries House in Scotland.

Under the motto "Disruption", over 100 participants of different generations from Germany and the United Kingdom came together for workshops, panel talks and guest lectures. Students from the UK as well as industry experts, press representatives and pupils from both countries were participating.

"For many years, The King's Foundation has been supporting people of all ages to learn textile skills that will help them in their future job search or in starting their own responsible fashion business. The King's Foundation has always championed the importance of conferences, so it was an honour to have so many influential figures from the fashion and textiles industry from around the world visit us here at Dumfries House to share their experiences with students and young professionals."

As an extension to the conference, participants from two other FCG projects were also invited to Scotland: 24 selected pupils from GENERATION ZUKUNFT and 6 designers from the FASHION X CRAFT project. The latter is aimed at graduates in the field of fashion and textile design, who learn craft techniques and how to use sustainable resources in workshops and seminars lasting several weeks.

GENERATION ZUKUNFT

At GENERATION ZUKUNFT, pupils from all over Germany are taught about the ecological and social impact of the fashion industry in various teaching units in order to lay an important foundation for a sustainable awareness of fashion. In addition to taking part in the one-day conference, the 30 project participants had the opportunity to discuss the fashion industry in greater depth in various workshops with partners eBay and TENCEL™ and e.g., learn more about upcycling.

Create room for discussion within the industry

Under the motto "Disruption", the FASHION ZUKUNFT conference is particularly aimed at promoting intergenerational learning as well as open discussion spaces for current topics and exchange within the industries of Germany and the United Kingdom. The conference day was thematically divided into two parts - under the title YOUTH, the focus in the morning was particularly on the younger generation, where in addition to the 24 German students, 80 students from the UK also came together to exchange ideas. Following the talks, the young guests had the opportunity to present their findings in "youth pledges".

The INDUSTRY afternoon brought together important representatives of the industry. Various "disruptors" were invited to critically scrutinise the current state of the fashion industry. Disruptive questions such as "How to disrupt our perception of fashion?" or "How to disrupt materials in fashion?" were discussed and addressed in various panels. The highlights of the conference were the two key note speeches by top-class industry experts – Dilys Williams from the Centre of Sustainable Fashion with "Fashion placing earth and equity at its core” and Amy Powney from Mother of Pearl / Fashion Reimagined with "How to fix fashion and protect the planet".

The speakers at the conference also included Alice V Robinson (British Pasture Leather), Catharina Berndt (The KaDeWe Group), Christiane Arp (FCG), Emily Chan (British Vogue), Georgina Gilmore (Colorfix Limited), Jemma Tadd (eBay), Olya Kuryshchuk (1 Granary), Jörg Ehrlich (Odeeh), Patrick McDowell (designer), Sophie Claussen (AVENIR) und Tamara Cincik (Fashion Roundtable).

Promoting the next generation

Scott Lipinski, Scottish-born CEO of Fashion Council Germany, emphasises the importance of the FASHION ZUKUNFT conference for the work of the Fashion Council Germany, which focuses on promoting the next generation. "Thanks to the support of The PVH Foundation at GENERATION ZUKUNFT and the Swarovski Foundation at FASHION X CRAFT, these initiatives were brought together here in Scotland during the conference days, workshops and training sessions."