Paris With A Conscience Part Two

I visited Premiere Vision while in Paris, for those fashion bods reading this you need no explanation. For those unfamiliar it's a huge textile fair for industry professionals show- casing the seasons fabric/trim/colour and print direction for the coming season. It's held twice yearly and this year is it's 40th year anniversary. I went with the specific task of looking for sustainable fabrics and to get a general feel for Autumn 2014/15 colour and fabric direction. I was excited to see the first Responsible Creation round table discussion with leading sustainable and ethical speakers such as, Nicola Giuggioli CEO of Eco Age, a unique brand consultancy working at the cutting edge of sustainability, which includes The Green Carpet Challenge. Sass Brown author of  Eco Fashion and writer and researcher at FIT New York. Representatives from Gucci, Max Mara, C.L.A.S.S. agency and Nice (Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical) were also on the panel. It was a lively discussion that mirrored my thinking. 

The take away messages were:

1. Networks are key for the businesses and brands promoting and selling sustainable fashion.

2. Find the big stories around Corporate Social Responsibility and put them out there.

3. Increase awareness within the public domain.

4. Change the perception of what sustainability is.

5. Responsibility of the change is down to the brands

6. Being responsible, sustainable, and ethical should be a natural usual way of life, it should not be marketed as a "thing to do" it should be part of what we are, how we live.

 7. Incentify the responsible shoppers, tax the poor responders.  

I made a bee line for the rail of fabrics in the room, an added bonus, connecting me to the sustainable sources I was searching for. Amongst the gems were recycled polyester, and I linked up with new sustainable brands and learned that I must read the Sass Brown upcoming book, Refashioned, out on the 15th October, more on this in a later blog.

In addition I touched base with Nic from Eco Age and Sass Brown albeit via an email post discussion.
I am excited by the enthusiasm being generated by sustainable and ethical fashion, however I believe we still have some way to go before we will see a true attitude change. 
Part of the challenge is perception, which was a big talking point during the discussion. The panel and audience understand the average fashion consumer, still has the perception that ethical/eco sustainable fashion is all hemp and hippy. Certainly these consumers do have a point. Where are the stylish brands selling on trend sustainable ethical fashion? They are out there, but I wonder does the average consumer know where to find them?  Perhaps you're already buying into a sustainable brand and not aware of their sustainable credentials?

What businesses must do is make the consumer aware of why we must immediately start questioning what we buy, where it comes from, how it's made and the dangers associated with buying fast fashion and over consuming. Then may be we will see some shift and a tipping point will occur. Sadly the Rana Plaza disaster has opened the worlds eyes in the most tragic of circumstances. There are many more alarming statistics that would get us questioning the quantity of what we buy and where we buy it from. In the coming weeks I will be reporting on the key sustainable fashion brands in the market and also dazzling you with key facts about why sustainable fashion must be a way of life. 

If you are wondering what all the fuss is about and are not sure what sustainability, ethical, fair-trade, organic or eco mean, then watch out for my future blog "Sustainability - what is all the fuss about"? I will attempt to explain in bite size chunks what it is and why we need to worry.