NEWS: Fashion Council Germany and The King’s Foundation bring the fashion industry together for the FASHION FUTURE conference in Scotland.

Dumfries House, November 16th, 2023: This year, the Fashion Council Germany, together with The King's Foundation, formerly The Prince's Foundation, organized the annual FASHION FUTURE conference in Scotland on November 15th. As a long-standing partner of the Fashion Council Germany, the Foundation supports His Majesty King Charles III. various initiatives that work for a more sustainable world. Together with eBay Germany, The PVH Foundation and TENCEL™, FCG invited people to the conference for the third time in the historic Dumfries House in Scotland. Under the motto “Disruption”, over 100 participants from different generations from Germany and the United Kingdom came together for workshops, panel talks and guest lectures. Students from the United Kingdom as well as industry experts, press representatives and students from both countries were allowed to take part.

Ashleigh Douglas, Future Textiles Manager at The King's Foundation, said: "For many years, The King's Foundation has been supporting people of all ages to learn textile skills to help them find future jobs or start their own responsible fashion business. The King's Foundation is committed to have always championed the significance of conferences, so we were honored to have so many influential fashion and textile industry figures from around the world join us here at Dumfries House to share their experiences to share with pupils, students and young professionals."

As an extension of the conference, participants from two other FCG projects were also invited to Scotland: 24 selected students from GENERATION ZUKUNFT and the 6 participants from the FASHION X CRAFT project. The latter is aimed at graduates in the field of fashion and textile design who learn craft techniques and how to use sustainable resources in workshops and seminars lasting several weeks.

At GENERATION ZUKUNFT, students from all over Germany are taught about the ecological and social impacts of the fashion industry in various teaching units in order to lay an important foundation for a sustainable awareness of fashion. In addition to their participation in the one-day conference, the 30 project participants had the opportunity to exchange ideas in more detail about the fashion industry in various workshops with partners eBay and TENCEL™ and, for example, to learn more about the topic of upcycling.

Under the motto “Disruption”, the FASHION ZUKUNFT conference was particularly aimed at promoting intergenerational learning as well as discussion spaces for current topics and exchange within the industry between Germany and the United Kingdom. Thematically, the conference day was divided into two parts - under the title YOUTH, the focus in the morning was particularly on the younger generation, where in addition to the 24 German students, 80 students from the United Kingdom came together for the exchange. Following the workshops, the young guests had the opportunity to present their findings in “Youth Pledges”.

On the INDUSTRY afternoon, important representatives from the industry came together. Various “disruptors” were invited to critically question the current state of the fashion industry. Disruptive questions such as “How to disrupt our perception of fashion?” or “How to disrupt materials in fashion?” were discussed and worked on in various panels. The highlight of the conference was two key note speeches from top industry experts: Dilys Williams from the Center of Sustainable Fashion with “Fashion placing earth and equity at it's core” and Amy Powney from Mother of Pearl / Fashion Reimagined with “How to fix fashion and protect the planet".

Other speakers at the conference included Alice V Robinson (British Pasture Leather), Catharina Berndt (The KaDeWe Group), Christiane Arp (FCG), Emily Chan (British Vogue), Georgina Gilmore (Colorfix Limited), Jemma Tadd (eBay ), Jörg Ehrlich (Odeeh), Patrick McDowell (designer), Sophie Claussen (AVENIR) and Tamara Cincik (Fashion Roundtable). The Scottish-born managing director of the Fashion Council Germany, Scott Lipinski, particularly emphasizes the importance of the FASHION FUTURE conference for the work of the Fashion Council Germany, which focuses on supporting the next generation. "Thanks to the support of The PVH Foundation at GENERATION ZUKUNFT and the Swarovski Foundation at FASHION X CRAFT, these initiatives were able to be brought together here in Scotland in workshops and training sessions during the conference days."

Photo Credits: Eleanor Kenny for Fashion Council Germany