This year, the Fashion Council Germany, together with The King's Foundation, formerly The Prince's Foundation, once again hosted the annual FASHION ZUKUNFT conference in Scotland on November 15th. As a long-standing partner of the Fashion Council Germany, His Majesty King Charles III's Foundation supports various initiatives that work towards a more sustainable world. Together with eBay Germany, The PVH Foundation and TENCEL™, the FCG invited people to the conference at the historic Dumfries House in Scotland for the third time. 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 schoolchildren from both countries were allowed to take part.

As an extension to the conference, participants from two other FCG projects were also invited to Scotland: 24 selected students from GENERATION ZUKUNFT and the 6 participants of 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 lessons, laying 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 about the fashion industry in more depth in various workshops with partners eBay and TENCEL™ and, for example, learn more about the topic of upcycling.

Under the motto "Disruption", the FASHION ZUKUNFT conference aimed in particular to promote intergenerational learning and to promote 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 also came together for an exchange. Following the workshops, the young guests had the opportunity to present their findings in "Youth Pledges".

On the INDUSTRY afternoon, important representatives of 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 addressed in various panels. The highlight of the conference was two keynote speeches by top-class 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).

More information about the FASHION ZUKUNFT conference can be found at the following link.