Last Tuesday (July 11, 2023), 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit hosted a stage program and denim pop-up, followed by a community gathering. The diverse audience from different sectors of fashion and sustainability took part in a two-hour program exploring the denim sector’s transformation from a fashion problem child to a role model for innovation, equity and positive impact.
The conference focused on successful and proven best practice cases in the denim sector that are inspiring industry-wide change. After the conference, the participants, speakers and industry representatives met outside of SEEK for the 202030 Community Gathering to deepen discussions, make new contacts, exchange experiences and think about joint projects and the special opportunity to take advantage of being featured in the 202030 podcast. The conference was moderated by the initiators Max Gilgenmann and Magdalena Schaffrin.
“Denim is known in the industry as an environmentally unfriendly material that is treated with a lot of chemicals and consumes a lot of water. Precisely because there are these issues that not only affect the environment but also the people working in the value chain, the denim industry has developed and brought to market cleaner solutions that can now act as a good example to the entire fashion industry. We were particularly pleased about the exciting inputs from different perspectives and discussions on stage and above all about the lively questions from the audience.” – Magdalena Schaffrin, Co-Ceo studio MM04, 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit
The contents of the denim pop-up were discussed and presented in open discussions by representatives of brands such as Lanius or Auf Augenhöhe, organizations from the political spectrum such as the Dutch Denim Deal or the Grüner Knopf and changemakers in the industry such as Tony Tonnaer. Alongside Mayouri Sengchanh from Première Vision, Outi Pyy from Ivalo and Tanvir Kabir from the Embassy of Bangladesh, who spoke from the perspective of international trade policy, Thomas Aplas from the CHT Group explained the role of the chemical industry in positive change. The inspirational opening keynote was delivered by Marian von Rappard, co-founder and owner of Dawn Denim. In his opening speech, he called for a new era of honesty and personality in the fashion industry, using the example of his own journey to becoming a successful sustainable denim brand. “I want us to embrace the unknown. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next five to 10 years other than that there has to be a big shift in this industry” – Marian von Rappard, Dawn Denim
The conversation with Sema Gedik and Janina Nagel from Auf Augenhöhe, the brand and community platform that paves the way for adaptive fashion on the German market and places a decisive emphasis on inclusion as a facet of sustainability, met with great interest. The word “inclusion” is not a trending topic, and it’s important to bring it inside a company. How can we change the design so that everyone can be a part of it? We want to work with more fashion labels because that means creating more inclusion in the industry.” – Sema Gedik, At eye level
The Denim Pop-up concluded with the panel “Dirty Denim’ to Sustainability Leadership” organized by the Denim Deal, a Dutch initiative to steer more sustainable supply chains in the denim sector. Roosmarie Ruigrok from Denim Deal sat on the podium alongside Annabelle Homann from Lanius, Christine Moser-Priewich from Grüner Knopf, Tanvir Kabir from the Embassy of Bangladesh and Tony Tonnaer from KOI Conscious Consulting. These powerful voices provided a three-dimensional picture of denim’s achievements and the future of its transformative journey. To achieve a green deal on denim, we needed government, private brands, collectors and sorters, spinners and weavers, manufacturers and other sustainability experts. All are gathered in the current denim agreement – 50 interest groups have signed the agreement. We aim to change the denim industry.” – Roosmarie Ruigrok, Denim Deal
202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit will return in 2024 with a two-day event. Guests can expect a program that presents the latest developments in the field of sustainability in fashion and enables face-to-face discussions in a strong community-building environment, with industry innovators and changemakers, representatives of the supply chain and politics. Meanwhile, there will continue to be exclusive sustainable fashion content via the 202030 podcast as well as other pop-up events organized by studio MM04.