On September 9th, FASHINNOVATION hosted 15-hours of programming with speakers from the USA, Europe, South America, Asia, and more.
Connections: this is all FASHINNOVATION is about. It’s impossible to innovate alone, people are the key and that mindset guided the 5th Worldwide Talks. The digital summit took place on September 9th and brought 81 creative and inspirational voices to the stage in 32 panels.
The agenda brought up very important discussions. Topics such as sustainability, alternative fabrics, technology, plus size fashion, inclusiveness, marketing, and much more were discussed at the event. Speakers opened their hearts and minds to not only inspire the audience but also provoke action to bring about the needed change.
From 8 am EST to 11:20 pm EST, 103 different countries watched the live event, showing that when it comes to fashion, there are no borders that prevent strong connections. In addition, the event had a fundraising campaign for Jcré Facilitador. The Brazilian organization that worked with Fashinnovation on its new brand, where fashion is used as a tool to elevate talent and help to break the cycle of poverty in Rio’s Favelas. This non-profit helps young entrepreneurs by offering professional training courses and help in the industry.
On FASHINNOVATION’s website, it’s possible to watch the full event. Furthermore, in the next weeks, on its YouTube channel, you’ll be able to find a few of the panels individually there to watch on-demand. Some of the most amazing panels were:
FASHION IS CULTURAL HERITAGE
With Anita Dongre, moderated by Fiona Sinclair Scott
This panel, Fashion is Cultural Heritage, led by Fiona Sinclair Scott, the Global Editor of CNN style, with Anita Dongre CCO, House of Anita Dongre Limited- Anita Dongre shares her journey to becoming a successful designer, and how she embraces her Indian culture in her collections.
In this discussion, Dongre recalls her early childhood days in India, falling in love with fashion at the young age of 15. With her love of fashion, her challenges to become a fashion designer were hard, especially in India where women were not allowed to have a job. Eventually, Dongre convinced her parents that she was to go to fashion design school and eventually became a successful fashion designer across the globe.
Famous individuals who have worn Dongre’s designs for example are Hillary Clinton and Kate Middleton. When asked about the international. recognition from around the world, and with these prominent figures wearing her garments, Dongre felt proud to be an Indian designer.
“When Kate Middleton wore my dress a few years ago, it was a game-changer in my career because it gave me a lot of international recognition.” - Anita Dongre
FASHION IS PROFITABILITY DRIVING ESG IN FASHION & SUPPLY CHAIN DIGITIZATION
With Ankiti Bose, moderated by Jade Scipioni
This conversation was led by Jade Scipioni who is the Senior Reporter of CNBC, she speaks with Ankiti Bose, who is the CEO & Co-Founder, Zilingo. With a vision of empowering small business owners and entrepreneurs through eCommerce and digitization, Ankiti co-founded Zilingo in 2015 at the age of 23.
To power, a global supply chain takes a lot of technology. In this discussion, Ankiti explains that her company, Zilingo (est. in 2015) is a sourcing platform that helps make the fashion supply chain, fair predictive, and transparent.
“As a result of that, our industry has been a big culprit of lack of transparency of contributing to climate change, as you know, having very low levels of visibility of labor laws of where the clothes are actually made and so on and so forth, and to some degree.” - Ankiti Bose
Scipioni and Bose discussed the fashion supply chain and its environmental impact on the globe, to the success of Zilingo- getting rid of the middleman and opening up more margins, when it comes to suppliers.
“Obviously you know the middlemen are making margins, but if we could just connect the people in the value chain who actually add value and remove those middlemen by creating that transparency between the two parties, obviously a lot of margins opens up.” - Ankiti Bose
FASHION IS MORE THAN CLOTHING: EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
With Ahmet Mercan
“Only if we work together as a collective we will change the industry, we need to take responsibility”. Those were the words of Ahmet Mercan, CEO of Scuderia AlphaTauri, Formula 1’s fashion brand.
In his keynote, he highlighted the importance of marrying fashion and innovation all of the time. As he stated, the offline and the online must work closely together in other to bring results and growth.
FASHION IS DRESSING AND ADDRESSING FOR EVERYONE
With Patrick Herning, moderated by Vergie Tovar
Featured in this panel is Patrick Herning who is the founder of 11 Honore and Virgie Tovar, who is a contributor of the plus-size market, Forbes.
11 Honore is a size-inclusive shopping site that gives you the latest in designer clothing. Shop luxury fashion in sizes 12 to 24 from designers around the globe. In this conversation, size inclusivity across the fashion industry is discussed, and the need for bigger brands to “set an example for the market” is highlighted in this conversation.
“When I think about the credibility and the coverage that has just lent and given and granted to the straight-size industry that just simply hasn't been there historically for plus size, and it's just really exciting too, to sort of, you know be reading those same headlines…it gave me chills because I think it really is exciting.” - Virgie Tovar
FASHINNOVATION HUB
This edition was special not only for its panels. It also marked the official launch of Fashinnovation HUB, the perfect place for fashion industry leaders to connect, discuss and create positive change. Subscriptions can be done on Fashinnovation’s website!
