Dear Friend,

Have you ever experienced fatigue from our industry? Or should I ask, have you experienced it in the past week? (not to mention the consumerist's nightmare days of sales have just passed...I don't even want to go there) I realized I somehow avoided speaking about sustainable fashion for days now and have very little interest today in all the same news coming through for this newsletter without major and promising big shifts. You know why? Because groundbreaking companies such as LUKSO - a blockchain layer for fashion & creative industries, BCOME -  sustainability impact tracking solution, Newlife.ai - groundbreaking social network monitoring emerging trends - and many more, including CALA, Lablaco, Fabricant, are working on the background creating the real change here that takes time to manifest in our industry overall - the type of companies that change the whole blueprint of the industry, preparing the grounds for us to shift significantly in 2020. The important thing in this work is collaboration and clear communication between these companies leading the change - because alignment on the clear, mutual goal is a must at times like this. 

I keep speaking about conscious consumerism in general as a mindseft shift, and focusing on building the new fashion industry quietly is the only way to go for me in the next few months. I'm extending my pause in event production work as I'm offered to speak publicly more often these days. Many of the responsible fashion events that are being hosted are all recycling the same information over and over again - not to belittle the amazing panel organized by GreenHome 2 weeks ago that I moderated with the panelists from the most diverse backgrounds in and out of fashion: Deanna Ansara of Vincetta, Andnrea Reyes of FTC, Daniela Blanco of Sunthetics and Ogem Ornektekin of Petit Pas. We had a dynamic conversation about design and production using deadstock materials, community building and education as ground base activities for any brand that strives to bring change, astonishing facts showcasing the complexity of producing and recycling technological fabrics, and the importance of acknowledging the changing consumer patterns as we are awakening to the impact of this industry on our Planet. The photos above are from that panel event. 

Another event that made me very hopeful for the future of our industry is Karinna Nobbs' HOT:SECOND - a concept store in London showcasing what could be possible in the future we don't buy any new physical clothes but mend and re-use what we already have and only purchase digital versions of new garments to wear in the online world. Read two powerful roundups of this pop up published by Black Neon Digital and Forbes to see what my fellow fashion tech visionary Karinna Nobbs has created for us to help us imagine a possible future.

HOLD INDUSTRY NEWS

• What Does ‘Black Friday’ Even Mean Anymore? - New York Times
• Fashion is belatedly trying to save Earth’s biodiversity - Vogue Business
• Mango is building a faster fashion brand - Vogue Business
• Plastic hangers are fashion’s plastic straws - Business of Fashion
• How to sell fashion on Instagram without traditional influencers - Vogue 
• The Troubling Ethica of Fashion in the Age of Climate Change - Washinton Post

NEW INDUSTRY NEWS

• The State of Fashion 2020: Navigating uncertainty - McKinsey 
• Fashion is belatedly trying to save Earth’s biodiversity - Vogue Business
• How data helps fight fashion waste - Forbes
• The future is fluid as labels sign up for gender-free fashion - The Guardian
• 4 ways to address gender bias in AI - Harvard Business Review
• TikTok advertising is still the ‘wild west’, but it won’t stay that way for long - The Verge
• Can ‘Fast Fashion’ Be Sustainable? - Forbes
• How to sell fashion on Instagram without traditional influencers - Vogue Business
• In Brands We Trust: Why Companies Are the New Communities - Business of Fashion
• Is ‘incubating’ influencers the future? - Glossy

FASHION AS ART

• Anna Wintour urges shoppers to not treat clothes as 'instantly disposable' - The Independent 
• ‘It’s something we’re really focused on now’: Inside Burberry’s sustainability plan, post-backlash - Glossy
  

FASHION AS SERVICE

• What to know about “clothing as a service” - Vogue Business
• H&M tests renting clothing to address environmental concern - Bloomberg
• Coming Full Circle: Sustainable Retail In A Post-Recycling Age - PSFK
• How fashion brands are experimenting with resale - Vogue Business
• H&M wants a piece of the booming clothing rental market - Quartzy
• Meet the Airbnb of Fashion, HURR Collective - Vanity Fair
• 3D configurators aren’t a gimmick – they’re the future of shopping - The Next Web
• Four technologies tackling the problem of river plastic pollution - Dezeen

FASHION AS EXPERIENCE

• KARINNA NOBBS - exploring our perception of digital fashion with HOT:SECOND concept store - Black Neon Digital
• Retail Goes ‘Ready Player One’: A Hot Second, The Proto-Flagship For Our Virtual Fashion Futures - Forbes
• How brands can find their own voice in a screenless future -Daily The Current Daily
• The rise of livestream shopping: From Kim Kardashian to hypebeasts - The Current Daily
• Adidas AR activation drops shoppers into a trash-filled virtual ocean - Mobile Marketer

Follow my twitter account for the rest of the news.

TOP EVENTS in NYC:

CHECK OUT THE FULL LIST OF NEW YOUR FAIR TRADE COALITION EVENTS HERE.

Thursday, Dec 5

Zero Waste Practices & The Holiday Season

This workshop is for everyone and anyone who wants to be more sustainable, eco-friendly and overall consume less as a human. If you've given up plastic straws and carry a reusable water bottle but don't really know what else to do, this is the workshop for you! We will also focus on waste produced during the holiday season and what you can do about it! Price: $15 Location: Commons Cafe 388 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn

Friday, Dec 6

Sustainable Fashion Circle Holiday Party! Portraits and tech launch partnership

Join fellow sustainable fashion folks at the beautiful Remade in Brooklyn space for a holiday party! Drinks, snacks, conversations, and holiday portraits in front of our custom painted nature mural. Come see your friends and meet more! We are kicking off 3 weeks of reuse and remaking programming in this space and are excited to invite SFC to be among the first to visit! Cory Skuldt, a leading circular apparel strategist and consultant, will speak about the current state of the circular fashion economy and what she sees happening in the future. Price: Free Location: Remade in Brooklyn

663A Driggs AveSaturday & Sunday, Dec 7 - 8

12-7pm Gold Dust Event

Gold Dust is a two-day pop-up wholly dedicated to showcasing vintage and repurposed goods as essential to our sustainable future. Panels on clothing post-production, textile recycling, and wearing a zero-waste wardrobe, hosted by industry leaders. Workshops run by best-in-class makers and craftspeople, focused on repair, embellishment, and other ways to breathe new life into loved objects. A carefully curated vendor list to offer customers elevated and diverse merchandise of the highest quality. Price: $15-20  Location: The William Vale, 111 N 12th Street, Williamsburg Brooklyn

Thursday, Dec 12

7:00pm Heading for Extinction (and what to do about it)

The planet is in ecological crisis: we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction event this planet has experienced. Scientists believe we may have entered a period of abrupt climate breakdown. This is an emergency. In this public talk, climate speakers from Extinction Rebellion will share the latest climate science on where our planet is heading, discuss some of the current psychology around climate change, and offer solutions through the study of social movements. Price: Free Location: Space2Meditate 28 West 27th Street #7th floor

Wednesday, Dec 18

Finding Our Inner Anna Wintour with a Zine Making Party

Zine, the magazine of self, that is the DIY of all DIYs, expressing passions from all walks of life. Something that may look like a homemade booklet with doodles, can bring like minded people together, witnessing the expressive art work of a fellow human being. The theme of the night will be, human spiritual and mindful futurism. We will take a moment to look into what the future holds. What will we look like in 3007? Will there be such things as churches or temples? Will we even be here? Is yoga going to be done in our minds and we still burn the calories? Is SUPREME going to be on everything? Will Anna Wintour still be telling us what to wear? Price: Free Location: New York City Baha'i Center, 53 East 11th Street

Useful Knowledge

• BOF State of Fashion Report 2019
• BOF 500 2019
• Breaking the Pattern Podcast - Future of Fashion (hear from fashion designer Ashwini Suhas Deshpande, fashion technologist Natasha Franck, creative technologist Kitty Yeung, and Matthew Drinkwater, head of LCF’s Fashion Innovation Agency)

Stay Inspired,