Webinars and other events worth tuning in on

Webinars seem to be the newest craze for businesses to spread information about sustainability. In this summary of events for the following weeks and months of sustainability and ethical fashion events there's an overweight of webinars. Here's a few of the ones I'm looking forward to.

Textile Exchange Collaborative Learning Series - Topic 3 Holistic Value Chains

May 13 or 14. This one is a great perk I get for working at a member company of the Textile Exchange. Last session on sustainability measurements was very interesting and I'm sure this one will be too. The conversation will be on how vertically integrated textile businesses benefit from a shorter and more secure supply chain. There's a cost if you're not a member, check it out here.

Accenture Sustainability24 - one day to set the future for business

May 15. This global broadcast is a 12-hour marathon of industry-wide discussions on sustainability including titles such as "Driving business growth while solving the global food challenge" and "Circular business: Value Generation in a resource constrained world". Panels will consist of senior executives based in the 12 chosen business hubs around the world. It may be clever marketing, but it's great insight into how big business think and talk about sustainability. I'll be listening in on the following sessions:

1. Sustainable Consumption: Engaging Tomorrow's Consumer
2. Sustainable Supply Chain: Why it is Good Business
3. Innovative Business Growth: How Sustainability is Reshaping Businesses for the Future

Register yourself here. It's totally free and so far I haven't had to sign up to any irrelevant newsletters.

Better Lives lecture series at London College of Fashion

My university have just recently appointed a psychologist who has put together this series of lectures exploring the link between fashion and psychology. Over the course of 4 free lectures held at the Oxford Circus building leading psychologists are brought in to discuss fashion's impact on our well-being with the researchers at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion. You can read more and register here.

Source Summit: Momentum

Following the Bangladesh building collapse the different ongoing campaigns to raise awareness of the working condistions in sweatshops across the developing world have finally received the attention they deserve. However, building momentum is a challenging task that this Source Summit will focus on. How can we accelerate the momentum created around this incident and ensure that sustainable fashion becomes larger than a fad? The event is expensive, but considering the influence of the Ethical Fashion Forum members and the programme there is no excuse to miss this highlight in the ethical fashion calendar. Read more.

H&M Conscious Talk

Really can't believe I missed this talk. H&M are buzzing with energy after they've just opened the new & Other Stories shops and really driving the promotion of this season's Conscious Collection.


You can follow the links in the box above to watch the talk that happened this morning. I won't have time to watch it until the weekend (I really do miss student life from time to time). I will probably return with some comments.

Phannatiq at Esthetica LFW

I cannot believe our house wi-fi decided to disconnect just when I have loads of material queued up for the blog. I also can't believe I survived being internet-less for 48 hours. Phannatiq is a brand that I've been super eager to share since I met Anna Skodbo at her Esthetica stall on Sunday.

Phannatiq is inspired by Hackney both on a great night out and the long walk home in the morning. The tights and ready-to-wear collection are printed with scenes of metropolitan decay using natural dyes. Like the origin of the dyes contrasts the urban motif, so do the soft and feminine silk lengths contrast with the rawness of fig tree bark. 

  

I ended up talking to Anna about the plant material used to create the yellow. Annatto is totally natural and we eat it is minuscule amounts every time we have cheese - so who's to say we shouldn't dye our clothes with it? I love the way the fabric has texture and colour depth / variance but is far from being tardy washed-out hemp. Click here to watch her SS13-film.

LFW events to go to

Oh shit. It's fashion week time again. I feel caught off guard. But I've had a look around and it seems most Ethical fashion events are spread out further than just the few official LFW dates.

Tomorrow you can catch a talk at Pure London. Safia Minney of People Tree will be there. I haven't seen/heard/met her before so I think that would be quite interesting (but guess who's got a 9-5 job now). Wednesday there's an Intelligent Futures event called 'Social Media and OpenData for CSR' presentation at the Google Campus.

During LFW itself there's of course the great Esthetica at the exhbition area where all the best ethical and sustainable designers showcase their newest collections. Hopefully they'll all gain loads of buyers and press coverage. Christopher Raeburn is the only designer in the official show programme. It's going to be exciting to see what he's come up with.

Phannatiq is one of the new exciting designers at Esthetica.

From Belgian Katrien Van Hecke's AW12

On Sunday and Monday Ecoluxe returns with a showcase of more than 20 responsible designers in the Kingsway Hall Hotel. There's a great variety of UK-based and International designer to look forward to. It will be a great opportunity to meet the creators behind the labels and meet others interested in a sustainable fashion future.

One last event not to forget is Wonder-lust. A new concept by e-tailer Fashion ComPassion that allows you to buy limited edition products made from socially responsible and sustainable sources. The evening will be a fabulous mix of fashion, art and vodka made on fairtrade quinoa. How much more do we need looking forward to? I am definitely excited about being back in London.