An analysis of the Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2020
Responsibility and Collaboration: It is past time to walk the talk
During the 12th and 13th of October, the Copenhagen Fashion Summit — an annual event organized by the Global Fashion Agenda — held an online and completely free version for 2020. Recognized for being one of the most important fashion events in the world, especially when it comes to sustainability, the digital version of the event, called CFS +, had two very positive points. The first was the dynamism with live panels mixed with previously recorded interviews and well-prepared videos. Second, it was an open and free event — which allows access to a broader audience.
Under the theme Redesigning Value, fashion leaders and recognized industry voices shared what needs to be done now to face the climate crisis and ensure dignity for all workers in the supply chain. In many conversations, the starting point for this transformation is the Covid-19 crisis. How to rebuild the business, the supply chain, and the economy sustainably? During the conversation Rewiring Fashion, mediated by Imran Amed (The Business of Fashion) with the stylist Victor Glemaud, Shira Sue Carmi (ALTUZARRA), and Julie Gilhart (Tomorrow), collaboration and communication were key words. For Imran, we will only be able to help each other if we get rid of the artificiality and the forged conversations in the industry.
When it comes to content, the most impactful speeches, really capable of moving the needle, happened through visionary leaders and real talks. Korina Emmerich, from Emme, highlighted that indigenous peoples represent 4% of the world population, but are responsible for the preservation of 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. She reminds us, however, that this is not a heroic statistic: “it is loaded and violent”. Korina stressed that systemic change requires recognizing that solutions already exist, but we need to be willing to listen to people with gratitude and respect. For her, circularity is a good example.
“Credit must be given when credit is due. Circularity is an inherently indigenous concept that has existed since time immemorial. It is not a new idea. And it certainly shouldn’t be our next buzzword”, she warned.
Then, of course, there is the climate crisis, the central theme of the event. Fashion has a huge responsibility in greenhouse gas emissions, as acknowledged in Fashion on Climate, a report released days before CFS+ by McKinsey & Company after a strategic-knowledge partnership with GFA. But while their report calls for action, it fails to mention research that shows that from 2002 to 2008, 48% of greenhouse gas emissions emitted by China were related to the production of goods for export, clothes included, mostly consumed in Western Europe and the United States. This data is not new, but reveals responsibilities that were not discussed either in the report by McKinsey or during CFS+. Climate change is presenting us with immense challenges and the industry needs to start having difficult conversations on how companies are taking action within their own supply chain to reduce their emissions.
If this is not addressed, we are leaving out the “common but differentiated responsibilities”, a term adopted by the UN and by all the signatory countries of the Paris Agreement to remember that those who least contribute to climate change will be affected the hardest and first. Bangladesh is there to keep us from forgetting this. Therefore, those who contribute the most have a different responsibility to take real action. If fashion wishes to be taken seriously on the climate agenda we cannot continue to ignore this, and I believe CFS missed the opportunity to play an important role to help the industry to remember this considering climate was central in the debate and is, indeed, an urgent matter.
As Noam Chomsky stated in his most recent book, Internationalism or Extinction, “we surely cannot expect systems of organized power, state, or private systems to take appropriate actions to address these crises — not unless they are compelled to do so by constant, dedicated, popular mobilization and activism”. We, who are making fashion happen from the South, with our way of doing activism, with our social and cultural plurality, together with indigenous and rural people who are holding the last barriers that separate us from the climatic and environmental collapse, have this unique position to enforce effective action. The citizens from the North, who want to work and talk with us, and no longer for us, are more than welcome, they are necessary. Without this connection with the global South, sustainability — and other words connected to it — will be a buzzword misused by those who can’t see the opportunities that a truly sustainable fashion industry represents.
