Valenzia, Spain – For the second year in a row, Spain’s Future of Fashion conference has become a laboratory for ideas, reflections and conversations about sustainability in fashion. “Can a company be an activist?”, “Is it too late to change something?”, “What can I do as a consumer?”. These and many other questions were raised – and attempted to be answered – during the second edition of the event, which took place this week on the east coast of Spain.
The first edition was part of the València World Design Capital 2022 program, and now, a year later, the event has continued to gain momentum, not least through international speakers such as Natalia Culebras, Head of Sustainability at Dior Men, and Lily Cole, model, Climate activist and author of the book “Who Cares Wins: Reasons for Optimism in a Changing World.” FashionUnited captured some of the best moments from the conference.
Art as a means of expression and activism
The most anticipated moment of yesterday’s event was the conversation between British model Lily Cole and Enrica Ponzellini, a Castellón-based fashion consultant with decades of experience at Vogue Italia and Prada.
Titled “What I’ve Learned as an Agent of Change in Fashion,” Cole spoke about the power of art to “express things that society is sometimes afraid to say out loud.” For example, with regard to art, literature and of course fashion as a creative force, she recalled the life lessons of her close friend and recently deceased designer Vivienne Westwood. “Her spirit was very refreshing. “She was always looking for the truth,” Cole said, and catalyzed that desire to change things “through creative activism projects.” She recalled the silver dress she wore to the 2016 Oscars, which was designed by the punk standard-bearer and made from recycled plastic bottles.
According to Ponzellini, environmental awareness has always been in her cradle. She owes much of this to her mother, who encouraged her from an early age to care for the planet and be responsible in her daily actions. But even as a vegetarian, it was more of a genuine stance than a statement of intent for the British fashion veteran. Her professional career in the industry began very early, at the age of 15, and it didn’t take long for her to differentiate herself from other models who, at the time, “usually didn’t express their opinions loudly so as not to carry the label ‘difficult'” said Ponzellini. However, she was never afraid of this definition and, among other things, always refused to wear fur. “As a vegetarian this seemed the most coherent thing to me, I wouldn’t have felt comfortable,” she concluded.
“It was 2018, we thought we were very late, but it was a very welcome innovation within the company. Almost like a revolution.”
The “injustice” of individual responsibility
One of the biggest concerns shared by the Future of Fashion audience during these two days was powerlessness and even a feeling of individual guilt. A topic on which most speakers agreed that “being here and wanting to change something is already a positive thing”. Natalia Culebras, head of sustainability for Dior’s men’s collection, said her department was only founded in 2018 and Dior and Parley for the Oceans’ sustainable swimwear collection launched last year.
“It was 2018, we thought we were very late, but it was a welcome innovation within the company. Almost like a revolution,” she commented. Culebras, who made her debut on the EGO catwalk at the former Cibeles Fashion Week in Madrid in 2007, emphasized the importance of “small steps” and the awareness that “we are not going to change the world immediately and that you can’t start 100 percent.” to be sustainable,” but that you have to start somewhere. “We need to be honest, relax a little bit and not be so focused on being perfect,” she added.
The word “fear” was also mentioned again and again during the panel discussion “Activism and business: a possible combination?” Mimi Martínez, spokesperson for Fashion Revolution Spain, told the audience that she went through an eco-depression years ago. Among many powerful messages, the Catalan woman explained that “learning to sew is the true guerrilla marketing” and that “mending is a pure act of resistance.” And that of course you have to consume consciously and remember that your own money is a voice. Lily Cole also agreed with this discomfort, saying that “the expectations of us as individuals” are too high and that it is “unfair” to “bear the responsibility for solving the problem.”
“Learning to sew is real guerrilla marketing. Mending is an act of pure resistance.”
The importance of transparency and traceability of materials and raw materials
There were also practical workshops with national organizations such as Pyratex and Recovo. “My idea was to create a brand that offers functional fabrics in harmony with nature. When I entered this world, I knew nothing about the industry, but I knew that 85 percent of the microplastics floating in the sea come from the textile industry,” recalls Regina Polanco, founder of Recovo, a developer of sustainable fabrics. Some things never change, and when it comes to sustainability, information is power. This is one of the values advocated by the Recovo marketplace, created to promote the reuse of waste and unused textile surpluses. The platform, aimed at both large companies and young creatives, informs professionals about the liters of water saved in the production of each substance, CO2 emissions and the use of acids.
“We’ve been talking about sustainability in fashion for about 20 years and there seems to be a shift in trends. Many brands are now taking this issue as an opportunity and developing offerings that demonstrate real cultural change.”
Sustainability: from outsider problem to mainstream conversation
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“We’ve been talking about sustainability in fashion for about 20 years, and there seems to have been a turnaround: it used to be a very niche, even ‘unsexy’ topic,” said Lily Cole at the conclusion of the conference. “But now many brands are taking this issue as an opportunity and are developing offers that demonstrate real cultural change.”
María Fernanda Hernández Franco, Head of Sustainability at LuisaViaRoma, said something similar in her talk “Towards Conscious Luxury.” The family project, which began in 1929 with a small shop in Florence, has become one of the most important international players in the digital luxury market, with 53 million users and a turnover of 268 million euros in 2021. Two years ago, in the year In 2019, Hernandez led the launch of LVRSustainable, a sustainable items and brands division that “continues to grow steadily, doubling last year’s numbers.”
In an interview with FashionUnited, María Fernanda Hernandez highlighted the personality and experience of the users of Intern in this area: “They invest more time, read and usually do not leave the site without buying something”. In her curatorial work to select brands that can truly be described as sustainable, she said the most important thing was “to prepare and sensitize our buyers through specific training so that they know what to look for when it comes to sustainability and what can be really interesting for us and our customers,” she concludes.
This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.uk. Translated and edited by Simone Preuss.