Future of Fashion 2020 indaba to explore African sustainability

The South African fashion indaba applies a locally-relevant lens to the topic of ethical and sustainable fashion and creates space for collaborative knowledge-sharing between all stakeholders in the fashion value chain. Through sharing tools, frameworks and ideas between South Africa, Africa at large and Sweden, Future of Fashion aims to facilitate the development of a thriving, inclusive, ethical and future-fit local fashion industry. The indaba is open to anyone connected to and interested in the fashion industry: this includes manufacturers, retailers, designers, fashion institutions, fashion academia, consumers, clothing industry policy-makers and influencers.

This year, Future of Fashion will explore the theme 'African sustainability – our way of being'. While the concept of sustainability seems to be a relatively new concept to many of us living in a largely Western and modern world, many indigenous groups in Africa and across the globe have been living in harmony with the environment for thousands of years. There is much to learn about sustainability, circularity, the shared-economy, sustainable material sourcing and more from these communities whose sustainable practices have stood the test of time.

Here’s what to expect:

Fashion film 

A locally-produced fashion art short film that explores the importance of caring about sustainability and climate change for a developing country such as South Africa will be screened. The concept of sustainability and climate change might often seem removed from the realities of people who live below the poverty line. By unpacking the lessons to be learnt about sustainability and slow fashion from ancient and indigenous cultures in Africa and Sweden, the film aims to debunk this idea and rather create an inclusive, relatable and locally-relevant narrative on sustainability, climate change and slow fashion. The short film is shot in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Northern Cape, Kinshasa and Jokkmokk.

Nominations now open for Twyg Sustainable Fashion Awards 2020

3 Sep 2020

Twyg Sustainable Fashion Awards 

The Sustainable Fashion Awards, in collaboration with Twyg, will be hosted at Rewoven and available via livestreaming on the virtual event platform.

Sustainable design showcase 

The exhibition aims to showcase and celebrate the work of South African sustainable fashion designers. This year, the exhibition will be a video exhibition, which will be livestreamed on 19 November 2020.  In total 15 designers will be showcased.

Addressing sustainable fashion 

Founder of Lagos Fashion Week, Omoyemi Akerele, will be speaking on the topic of “The Future of African Fashion”. The second speaker is the sustainability manager of Fjällräven who will be sharing the experience of the company on “Designing for circularity, recyclability and slow fashion”. Fjällräven was voted Most Sustainable Brand in its industry, according to Sweden's Sustainable Brand Index in April 2020.

Digital shopping

The virtual marketplace is a platform that shares, amplifies and celebrates sustainable businesses that are contributing to a sustainable and ethical fashion future. The virtual marketplace mimics a marketplace at an in-person event where there are multiple businesses on display that event attendees can interact with. By utilising this platform, the aim is to showcase sustainable fashion businesses and provide them with an opportunity to directly interact with event attendees who could become potential clients/collaborators.

The event is free, to register click here.