Looking back: The best of Fashion Revolution Week in the East Coast
BFDA Open Studio in Brooklyn
The BF+DA’s event featuring Launch Night for Fashion Revolution USA’s Open Studios attracted about 150 people over the course of 3 hours. In addition to shining a light on our own production space through 1/2 hour guided tours, we offered a shoppable meet and greet with 10 of our in-house fashion brands. People were also able to shop from the sustainable designers fabric and trim table. All the fabric and trim were end run and overstocked materials from the designer’s own labels.
We also partnered up with Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion author Elizabeth Cline, Wearable Collections and BF+DA business The Weaving Hand using post-consumer textile waste to weave works of art and to show that “clothing is not garbage.”
The Weaving Hand team had 10 table top looms set up for attendees to sit and weave using denim and other cotton waste utilizing strips of fabric they cut up on their own. The people who did weave were able to take their works of art home as a reminder that waste can be recreated in many forms.
The final part of the event involved a open Q&A with the BF+DA designers from questions written from the attendees as they checked in for Open Studios. I pulled about 10 questions from a fish bowl and directed them towards one or two of the designers who I knew would have experience answering them.
Iconable event in New York
A big THANK YOU to everyone who came and contributed to make this event a great success! If you could not not get a ticket this time, we’ll have lots more to come! Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to know!
Events in Washington D.C.
This is the first time Fashion Revolution Week is organized in Washington DC. We managed to put together 5 events, one factory visit, two screenings and two open studios. The biggest turn out we had was during the DC Fashion Incubator open studio.
We were happy to attract a diverse group of people, from different socio-cultural and professional background, bringing people together from different race and age group, all of them united around one common interest: sustainability.
It was amazing to be able to discuss and celebrate sustainability with individuals that don’t work in fashion but are involved with human rights, transparency, garment workers, the environment, plastic issues etc. They were very enthusiastic to learn more, very impressed by Fashion Revolution and its impact and they express a huge interest in wanting to be involved.
DC is a city of intellectuals and policy makers, with experts and specialists, so we should as much as we can be inclusive and use the knowledge available in order to be able to advance and make a change. Ironically, what is an advantage (being surrounded by so many experts) can also play against us, as many of those people do not take fashion seriously and won’t participate in a “fashion” event.
Insight into a Changing Landscape: The role of sustainable and ethical fashion in the new landscape of retail
On Tuesday, April 24, the five year anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse, leaders in the sustainable fashion industry gathered in Manhattan to discuss how emerging models in social, tech, and material innovation are changing the sustainable and ethical fashion landscape. The event, held at Ideal Glass Studios, brought together Shivam Punjya, Founder and CEO of behno; Kristin Schneider, Chief Marketing Officer of Nest; Mara Hoffman, President and CEO of the privately owned label of ner namesake; Amanda Curtis, Cofounder and CEO of Nineteenth Amendment; and Celine Semaan, a designer, writer, advocate, speaker, and founder of Slow Factory and The Library, who moderated the evening.
One theme proved to be apparent throughout the evening–leaps and bounds forward with technological research and capabilities for the fashion industry need to be coupled with sustainable and ethical practices. New innovations and technology enabling designers and business owners to get a holistic view of their supply chains are a top priority, with many on the panel citing the power of businesses like Sourcemap and others to reveal this information. Each of the panelists approach to the triple bottom line–the emphasizing of people, product, and profit in their businesses–are unique in their own way, yet together show the impact of making stand against the normalized practices of the fast fashion industry.
Over 100 individuals were in attendance, making it one of the largest Fashion Revolution Week events in New York. Attendees included aspiring sustainable fashion change-makers, students inspired by the ethical fashion movement, and local and international fashion influencers and activists. Many thanks to Willard and the Ideal Glass team for helping organize this wonderful evening.
A Fashion Revolution Panel & Social Event, Brought you by Get The People and Balanced Fashion
On April 26th, Get The People, a NY based purpose-driven digital creative agency, teamed up with Balanced Fashion and global movement, Fashion Revolution, for the first of many impact driven events – How The Power of Brand Stroytelling Can Reshape the Future of Sustainable Fashion.
The event went down at the stunning Freehold Brooklyn space featuring an outdoor consicious fashion pop-up shop featuring – Emme by Korina, Take Me Alive, Jibs Life, and Querencia Studio.
We heard from a rockstar panel of experts paving the way to a more ethical and sustainable fashion industry – Dana Davis, Director Sustainability of Mara Hoffman, Shivam Punjya, Founder of Behno, Tabea Soriano, Founder of Futuremade, Scott Tatelman, Cofounder of StateBags – moderated by event organizer, Creative Strategist and Cofounder of Get The People & Take Me Alive, Megan Murphy-Bratich.
Megan Murphy-Bratich of Get The People lead the discussion with a topic that would lead most of the conversation throughout the evening; why your ethical or sustainable story isn’t necessarily your brand story.
A key focus for the event was to explore the fact that while sustainable fashion isn’t a new concept it unfortunately hasn’t been able to achieve mainstream success. The major takeaway of the night was, product first. The panelists were in full agreement that many brands are leaning too heavily on presenting their ethical or conscious story, but are falling flat when it comes to producing a solid product and creating a brand experience that connects to a broader audience.
Yes, social mission and being environmentally responsible are critical elements to building a business for good, but that can’t be the only strategy for attracting and retaining consumers. Brands must lead with a great product and a unique brand story that resonates with their consumer, then bake in the sustainable narrative to build loyalty.
Final thoughts were positive as the concensus was that there is much work to be done but we are making incrideble progress. Movements such as Fashion Revolution and are making waves and helping to inspire a new set of standards and expectations from the global consumer.
About Host – Get The People
Get The People is a New York based purpose-driven digital creative agency founded in 2011 by social entreprenuers and husband and wife duo, Rad Bratich & Megan Murphy-Bratich. They are your modern day mom and pop shop, specializing in branding, designing and building beautiful peformanced-based websites to help support the ongoing growth of socially and eco conscious brands in the lifestyle, fashion, tech and media spaces.
Most recentely they’ve launched the Get The People IMPACT Series – events empowering the impact community. Each event is dedicated to building awareness around soically and environmentally driven topics. The series is a combination of panel events, dinner parties and other activations geared around building community and spotlighing the brand and people building business for good and changing the world.
GFX x Fashion Revolution x The Regeneration: NYC Global Swap Event
On Sunday, April 29, New Yorkers were welcomed to the Soho Grand Hotel for a global swap event hosted by the Global Fashion Exchange (GFX) and Fashion Revolution, with exclusive items available from Faubourg and a celebration of the launch of the Fashion Issue of The Regeneration Magazine.
This free event invited anyone and everyone to bring as many of their previously loved garments and accessories as possible to swap for new-to-them items, and in total, over 500 pounds of clothing were swapped. Jamie Clayton, the Sense8 actress and cover star of the Eco-Fashion issue of The Regeneration Magazine, signed copies of the issue for attendees, with a tree being planted for every purchase by Tree Era.
The power of swapping clothes is extraordinary, saving millions of clothing items from going to the landfill and giving them a new life with new owners. And, might we add, it’s much more fun swapping items with friends new and old! Check out upcoming events from GFX, who hosts international swap parties and educational events, here.
