Member Article

UKTI London fashion events round-up

Sustainable Fashion Workshop

Franceska Jones, International Trade Adviser for the UKTI London Fashion team writes about her plan to incorporate sustainable fashion into UKTI London.

Reducing the environmental impact of the fashion industry is an issue I feel very strongly about, so I wanted to create a sustainable fashion workshop to educate and encourage UK companies to become more environmentally sustainable.

The Business of Fashion notes the fashion and textile industry is the world’s second most polluting after oil. Producing a single t-shirt and pair of jeans can use over 20,000 litres of water and up to 8,000 different chemicals. In addition, unsold garments are often discarded into growing landfills where their slow decomposition produces harmful carbon emissions.

Representatives from all stakeholder groups are taking note: governments, NGOs, consumers and activists are pushing for change, and companies are being held increasingly accountable for their sustainability practices.

Earlier this month we held the sustainable fashion workshop in partnership with the UK Fashion and Textile Association and The Sustainable Angle, a not for profit organisation committed to reducing the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

The event was attended by a number of high profile fashion companies and attendees were given an overview of the current textiles landscape, highlighting the need for companies to use more sustainable business practices and sourcing strategies. The discussion centred on the idea that businesses can introduce more sustainable materials and processes into the supply chain in a cost efficient and effective manner by incorporating them into existing supply chains. The attendees were also told that existing brands and suppliers can combine to create better working practice, use more sustainable fibres, processes or even develop new materials.

The Sustainable Angle presented a showcase of sustainable material innovations that companies could purchase. There were also some really pioneering materials that were still in development such as mushroom leather!

The workshop was incredibly interesting and left us all with food for thought.

Fashion Meet the Expert

Toyin Laketu, International Trade Adviser for the UKTI London Fashion team gives an insight into how UKTI’s ’Meet the Expert’ works.

Last month UKTI held an extremely successful fashion ‘Meet the Expert’ event. Over two days, 80 small and medium-sized businesses attended, meeting commercial officers from around the world.

Commercial Officers from nine markets met with fashion businesses from around London to give them advice on how to export into new markets and, over two days, 250 speed-dating style meetings were held. The countries represented were Ghana, Australia, France, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Italy, France and Russia. Each Commercial Officer was there to give a unique insight into exporting in their own market, giving businesses access to valuable on-the-ground knowledge.

The companies ranged from large fashion brands to smaller labels starting their exporting journey. London companies came with a variety of products ranging from shoes to bags. Companies who attended included Louche (by Joy) and Wool and the Gang and The Healthy Black bag.

We were so pleased to be able to offer assistance to companies enabling them to get specific face-to-face market advice without having to leave London.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by UKTI London .