The Nordic fashion industry was out in full force at the Fashion Summit in Copenhagen yesterday.
The 550 participants gathered at the Royal Opera House were mostly dressed in black, but the message from the summit’s speakers was green as grass.The event launched ‘NICE’, short for Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical, a new joint commitment by the Nordic fashion industry to take a lead on social and environmental issues.
Fashion is responsible for large portions of the world’s CO2 emissions. Cotton production, for example, only makes up 3 pct. of global agriculture, but accounts for 25 pct. of pesticide use.
“Fashion is a real voice, and the advantage of that is that people listen. So there is potential to change a big part of the industry,” said Christian Kemp-Griffin from Edun, Bono’s sustainable fashion line.
With a greeting to the COP15 politicians and negotiators in the Bella Center, Eva Kruse, director of Danish Fashion Institute and co-organiser of NICE, rounded off the Fashion Summit with these words:
“Politicians cannot lift this task alone. They need the fashion industry, and we have a big responsibility. What we do, people will follow.”
Also speaking at the summit were industry leaders like Manuel Baigorri from Levi Strauss, and Julie Gilhart from exclusive department store Barneys.
The summit finished in style with a runway fashion show by 20 young Nordic designers who had all been asked to design clothes using sustainable materials.
HRH Crown Princess Mary presented the award to the winner, Saara Lepokorpi from Finland, for designs partly made of the material ingeo, based on annually renewable sugar plants.
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