The Fashion Council Germany e. V. is the interest group for fashion “designed in Germany”. Even seven years after it was founded, there is still a lot to do to establish German fashion design as a cultural and economic asset. The association promotes young designers from Germany, offers free workshops and webinars on topics such as sustainability and technology and last year also initiated discussions with other European fashion associations.
Scott Lipinski has been managing director of the association since 2017 and in this interview tells us where the Fashion Council Germany is going this year and what exciting projects are pending.
What does the Fashion Council Germany want to achieve in 2022?
Scott Lipinski: The Fashion Council Germany, as the interest group of the German fashion industry, has big plans for this year as well. The fashion industry is positioned between the creative and cultural industries as well as business and industry.
Our focus in 2022 will be on expanding the existing benefits for our 200 members, promoting young designers and strengthening German fashion as a cultural and economic asset at home and abroad. We do this through our numerous projects and partners.
How are you going to achieve that?
Our focus is on lobbying, networking and presentation projects and funding initiatives by our members. It is important to make fashion visible as a cultural and economic asset on a political and social level. There is still a lot of upside potential here, especially in Germany. In addition, we work with national and international players from business and industry who help us to promote the uniqueness of the fashion industry and its creative minds. One of our projects “The New European Bauhaus” aims to position fashion as part of the European creative and cultural sector as a catalyst for innovation, sustainability & craftsmanship and digitization. To achieve this, we work closely with the other fashion councils from Europe and the rest of the world.
How is the German fashion industry doing? What findings does the study commissioned by the FCG show?
Our study “Status of German Fashion” shows that the German fashion industry is an enormous economic heavyweight. The total contribution of the fashion industry to the German gross domestic product amounts to 66 billion euros in 2019. The fashion industry in Germany, including all of its cross-sectional sectors, had 1.3 million employees in 2019. The fashion industry lacks social acceptance and political support, for example in other European fashion nations such as France, Italy or Great Britain. It must be emphasized here that Germany is in second place in Europe when it comes to the production of fashion products – ahead of France or Great Britain.
As a continuation of the study, we will publish a study on the ecological footprint of the German fashion industry in the first quarter of this year, which we will publish together with Oxford Economics. The study is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented in cooperation with the Society for International Cooperation (giz) and the creative strategy consultancy, studio mm04. We will probably present the results of the study together with our partners during the upcoming Berlin Fashion Week in mid-March.
What topics do you address as an interest group?
The status of German fashion study showed us the areas in which German fashion has some catching up to do. At the same time, of course, it serves as an instrument to highlight the importance of the German fashion industry on a political level. For us, the study was just the beginning to record the status quo in Germany in a European comparison. In addition to the study on the ecological footprint, we will be working on an update of the study on the status of German fashion. We will probably start work on the new edition in the second half of the year. With the new edition, we will for the first time fully take into account the economic effects of the pandemic and present it in the form of our study.
In addition to the publication of studies, one of our core tasks is not only to convey the findings through webinars, workshops and training, but also to actively and long-term promote the areas in which there is a lot of catching up to do. One example of this is our #DFFR (Digital Fashion Future Readiness) project, which we launched for the first time in 2020 in cooperation with the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises. Ten Berlin fashion brands were specifically promoted by providing digitization services, so-called solution partners. The pandemic has shown here in particular that there is enormous potential for growth in the areas of digitization and sustainability. The project was so well received that it was continued in 2021 with ten other Berlin brands.
How does sustainability take place at FCG?
SL: The topic of sustainability takes place at different levels for us. Of course, the topic also plays a role in the selection of new members. However, we do not see our task in evaluating new members accordingly, but on the contrary to look at how they, whether as an expert: in or project participant: in, can make a meaningful contribution within our organization on the topic.
The topic of sustainability plays a major role in education. In addition to our free webinars and expert workshops, we work here with a large number of local and international experts in order to provide our members with the best possible support. One project that I would like to mention at this point is our collaboration with The Prince’s Foundation. The HRH the Prince of Wales Foundation supports a range of initiatives that promote sustainability in a holistic way. In our latest project Fashion x Craft together with the Swarovski Foundation, we will select six young designers for this year who will receive a tailor-made funding program that not only deals with sustainable practices in the production of fashion products, but also with interdisciplinary manufacturing processes from the Handicrafts area will bring the participants closer to the inside.
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Last but not least, mindfulness also plays an important role within our organization and so decisions are always made taking sustainability aspects into account.
That sounds like a lot of exciting projects! What does a membership in the Fashion Council offer?
We provide a range of benefits that are of value to large corporations as well as small companies, start-ups or private individuals. We are constantly working on expanding the benefits for our members. This ranges from the use of our office space as a meeting room or showroom area to access to exclusive webinars and workshops on future-relevant topics. The most important thing is the integration into our network. Last but not least, it is up to the member himself how much he wants to “get involved” in the association. We provide the relevant projects and funding, and ultimately the members themselves get the ball rolling.
Our task as “referee” is to network the members with one another, so to speak, which we have already proven in numerous projects and events such as our fireside chats. Our vision here is that we will initiate digital networking opportunities within the Fashion Council in the coming months so that the members have even more opportunities to exchange ideas without a referee.
A very current example of an exclusive membership benefit is, for example, our Frankfurt Stage project, which we launched in cooperation with Frankfurt Fashion Week. Here our members could apply as a collective and win a complete fashion show including production and sponsoring as part of the next Frankfurt Fashion Week in January 2022.
What are the next steps for the Fashion Council Germany?
We have planned an exciting range of different projects with national and international partners for 2022, which we will gradually implement. We also have numerous new well-known members such as the KaDeWe Group, MCM or Dr. Hauschka (Wala Heilmittel), with whom we will specifically talk about joint projects. In addition to project-based education programs and our webinars and workshops, as already mentioned above, the benefits for our members will be further expanded. The focus will be on education. It will be an exciting year for the Fashion Council Germany.
What are your plans for the upcoming Frankfurt Fashion Week?
We will present a collective fashion show Frankfurt Stage designed by our members in the former Neckermann company headquarters, which is now known as Danzig am Platz as an event location. To do this, we have to call on our members to participate in the competition in advance. The Berlin made-to-order label Susumu Ai ultimately convinced the jury consisting of members of the FCG and Messe Frankfurt with its “Continuous Love” concept. Our members Anna Auras, Ms. Frieda, ITEM m6, Maison Baum and Leinz will also be part of the collective fashion show. The focus is on sustainability, craftsmanship and inclusion.
Before our show, we also invited to the Neonyt installation in the same location, which specializes in promoting young talent. Due to the current pandemic situation, we canceled a final dinner on the evening with national and international guests as well as our fireside chat as the opening event of the Frankfurt Fashion Week. In addition, we have our planned two-day Summit Frankfurt Agreement, to which we have invited all European Fashion Councils and which should serve as a continuation of the workshop of the Future Conference, which took place for the first time last July as part of The New European Bauhaus and Frankfurt Fashion Week postponed to a later date.
