Dear Friend,
TONIGHT: I'll be moderating a GreenHomeNYC x NYCFTC - Sustainable Fashion Panel: RSVP here + first 5 people who reply to this email will get a complimentary ticket. I'm especially excited for this event because the speakers are top-notch in terms of combination of high consciousness, professional background and a powerful vision for our industry: Deanna Ansara, Owner/Designer, Vincetta, Andrea Reyes, Chair, NYC Fair Trade Coalition & Founder, A. Bernadette, Daniela Blanco, PhD Candidate, Chemical Engineering & Co-Founder, Sunthetics and Ozgem Ornektekin, Founder, KO2 Consulting & Petit Pas. It will be a powerful conversation and I'd love to see you there.
PERSONAL-ish update: I've always been fascinated by social and cultural movements and how they shape industries and promote the new, fresh and promising better world's view. This curiosity has kept me loyal to the fashion business for all these years + inspired me to experience as much as I could - starting in fashion design, then exploring buying, merchandising, sales, PR, planning, consulting, innovation, technology product management, community building, event production and communications. This journey and friends I've met along the way have taught me that we have so much power as conscious fashion professionals to share our perspectives on the way we'll be interacting with fashion, art, urban environments and nature in the future. To explore the concept of shaping the new aesthetics of fashion futher, join me on Newlife.ai - an app that helps us vote for what the future will LOOK and FEEL like, thus creating the new aesthetics economy curated by you and me, and powered by artificial intelligence. Register with my invite code: nataliya. I'll write more about New Life AI in my upcoming newsletters, so stay tuned...
In the past two years, a lot has cleared out for me and shaped my perspective on our industry. Leaving behind the brainwashed world of the hyper-consumerism culture of the US and spending time in Europe & South East Asia led me to discover an array of forward-looking technology companies that are quietly shaping the New Industry layer. I joined the New Life AI network, learned about the variety of blockchain applications for creative industries crafted by LUKSO (more about them to come!), attended Berlin Fashion Tech & Be-In Open - as I like to call them, "the new fashion industry festivals"... which brought me to meet The Fabricant's team in Amsterdam and fantasize about the future of digital fashion, support Lablaco's work in circularity amd CALA's work in on-demand, small-batch production. I've observed BCOME transform from a conscious consultancy based in Barcelona into sustainability true storytelling & coaching think tank. I have built deeper connections with many of my European innovative fashion friends who inspired me to dive deeply into the core of it all: how conscious, woke Millenials & Gen Z interact with fashion & technology outside the parameters of the expired, consumerist view of the old industry.
These days I'm especially fascinated by the patterns & trends I've been spotting thanks to Instagram, Tumblr & Newlife.ai holes. Digital Culture Digests by Digi Fairy & Depop do a great job curating and packaging trends that explore social media, social currency, and the resale revolution in the context of fashion. Download the latest digest here to dive into Gen Z's own fashion universe of today that so many of us, who are coming from the traditional fashion industry are actively ignoring. The expert from the latest report:
"All around us, value is being revalued. Never before have purchase cycles been shorter, fashion trends faster, or teens hungrier to shop looks and lifestyles platform-first. 💸💸💸 This is DEPOP ECONOMICS, our deep dive into a revolutionary new Gen Z social value system. Next-gen consumers are skilfully navigating media platforms to create new social currencies, convert clout into cash, and generate staggering amounts of social and economic capital. 🤳🤳🤳
In future emails, I'll be diving deeper and sharing more of my discoveries around the topics of the new aesthetics economies that navigate us to the fashion of the future. I've always shared that my vision of the future of fashion is phygital. As a confirmation, just take a look at A Hot Second and their first London pop-up where the fashion tech visionary Karinna Nobbs is merging the concept of digital and physical fashion to showcase her vision of future of consumerism. "Overall, this retail prototype aims to induce a new kind of retail alchemy where the physical and digital combine co-creating a distinct and individualized experience that is both fun and thought-provoking." I like it a lot, let's bring this level of innovative thinking to NYC!
OLD INDUSTRY NEWS
- Come On, Brands, Publish Your Lowest Wages - The Cut
- Recycled plastic isn't going to save us - Fast Company
- The Direct-to-Consumer Reckoning - Business of Fashion
- The Troubling Ethics of Fashion in the Age of Climate Change - Washington Post
NEW INDUSTRY NEWS
- Shoptalk invites only women to speak at its 2020 event - Retail Dive
- Brand collaborations: What worked in 2019 - Vogue Business
- How to sell fashion on Instagram without traditional influencers - Vogue Business
- The Power of a Global Fashion Boycott - Highsnobiety
- Prada Becomes First Luxury Brand to Sign Loan Tied With Sustainability Conditions - Hypebeast
- Fashion Editors to PR Firms: Don't Send Swag, Save the Planet - WWD
FASHION AS ART
- Sun Lee reworks traditional Korean craft into clothes made from paper - Dezeen
- The Beauty in Restriction: How MAKE Is Tackling Fashion's Sustainability Crisis - Highsnobiety
- Thom Browne: Choosing authenticity over hype - The Current Daily
FASHION AS SERVICE
- Adidas is learning it’s not easy to make 100% recyclable sneakers - QUARTZY
- The Retailer Tapping The Billion-Dollar Gen Z Resale (And Sustainability) Opportunity - Forbes
- Past Trash: The Future of Retail - Medium
- Tricky tights: do you know how sustainable your tights are? - Evening Standard
FASHION AS EXPERIENCE
- Popping up for 3 Days Only, Concept Store Where You Can Try On Digital Fashion - Fashnerd
- Inside the physical store that only offers digital clothes - Vogue Business
- How Poshmark uses small local events to drive engagement and retention - Modern Retail
How Digital Fashion Could Let You Own Clothes That Don't Exist - Bustle
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.
Wednesday, November 20th
November Monthly Forum: GreenHomeNYC x NYCFTC - Sustainable Fashion Panel (I'm moderating this panel!)
GreenHomeNYC and the NYC Fair Trade Coalition bring you a curated panel discussion on sustainable fashion. While the fashion industry and its practices have been shifting more into public awareness, the challenges to better the industry are great. Through the lens of design, community organizing, and science, our panelists will touch on their own work, progress made within the industry and the issues they are working to tackle. This panel will be moderated by Nataliya Makulova, Founder of Conscious Fashion Tech. Come along to November's forum with your questions ready! Price: $4 – $10 Location: Fujitsu Airstage 1450 Broadway 42nd Floor
1:00pm The Loop For Good - The Sustainable Fashion Pop Up @ FIT
Come out to our event to test your knowledge on sustainability and have a chance to win some our raffle prizes such as naturally made lip balm from FIT’s beehives, essential oils, hand sewn tote bags as well as gift certificates. The event will also feature four industry designers dedicated to sustainable fashion design their fabulous garments will be showcased in The Loop for Good’s upcycled design exhibition Price: Free Location: Fashion Institute of Technology 227 West 27th Street The Pomerantz building lobby
Thursday, November 21
4:30 - 9:00pm Impact Track: Sustainable Fashion Forum
On November 21, The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York (SACCNY) invites you to hear directly from the bold players who canceled Stockholm Fashion Week and be among the first to hear what their strategy for influencing the global fashion industry toward a more sustainable system is. You will also be able to hear, meet and get inspired by Swedish trailblazers in fashion who are weaving sustainability into, not only the fabric of their designs and clothes but into society at large. Price: $20 – $30 Location: 900 Third Ave
Saturday & 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
COOL EVENTS OUTSIDE OF NYC:
Nov 19 - 21, London: A Hot SecondWorld-first circular economy concept store trading physical products for digital experiences. The purpose of the beta pop up store is to challenge the notion of clothing ownership, to explore a potentially more sustainable and conscious cycle of production and consumption AND to introduce as many people as possible to try digital fashion garments for the first time. (This is one of the most important aspects of the future of fashion, don't miss it if you're in London)
Will present the 20 best startups that SBC have selected out of the 1,200+ startup and scale-up applications from all around the world. They have personally met 170+ of these startups during the FastTracks in 12 international capitals. (I've been to their event in NYC at PRADA and it was next level deep dive into fashion tech)
Online: DIF by Ellen MacArthur Foundation is an interactive online event series that aims to shift mindsets and inspire action towards a circular economy by sharing and exploring a variety of disruptive ideas and stories. Sharing here my top list of videos to watch:
- What will the clothes of the future be made of?
- How data can drive circularity?
- The repair revolution
- What would a circular fashion economy look like in Los Angeles?
- A new consumption model: the rise of fashion rental and recommerce
- How do you redesign the clothing industry? The story of Rapanui
- A new story about the future of fashion
- Why the rental and subscription-based model will lead the new generation
Stay Inspired,