Dear Friend,
Sustainability in fashion has become an overused and sometimes misused word in the past decade, as the fashion industry has become the second highest polluting industry on the planet after oil... But looks like Summer of 2017 is redefining sustainability along with overconsumption. Marie Claire launched its first sustainability-focused issue, Vetements sends message of overconsumption through Saks Fifth Avenue windows, Stella McCartney pushes the boundaries of ethical movement in fashion by her latest campaign shot on a landfill, an ethical fashion show during fashion week was held in Berlin last month, Miroslava Duma launches fashion tech accelerator focusing on sustainability... And I'd like to encourage myself and my readers to actively take part in this meaningful trend. I've been wondering for years: how to support sustainability in fashion industry when fast fashion brands and retailers force us to buy their products using low prices, not bad (knocked off) designs and even seemingly acceptable quality as an incentive? You may already know that it is not at all easy to consume fashion consciously. Most of us can admit that we continue buying more than we need, just because we can + strive to look and feel different each season. As a result, about 26 billion pounds of clothing gets thrown away annually and ends up in landfills globally - mostly due to overconsumption and because people became too lazy to take items to a donation centers or sell to a second hand store. I thought it would be fair to start this article series by listing fashion tech companies which help us easily sell or donate our no longer needed clothes. So the first step for choosing sustainability mindset is to engage in fashion cleanse.
Highly recommend my personal favorite app Poshmark for posting old but still good looking clothes and accessories. It is very easy to sell and ship using this app and it has the most seamless user experience. Ebay is my second choice, as it's best for more unique and hard to find pieces, like those we impulse buy on sample sales and never end up wearing. Tradesy is great in making your less than professional photos of old clothes actually look appealing. Vinted has a feature to swap items without incurring any fees. Check out Mercari, Listia, Depop platforms for more of a flee market feel where you can list nearly anything. And finally, ThreadUp does all the work for you - all you need to do is just send your stuff to them and they'll chose what to donate and what to list on their site.
Happy Cleansing!
News Digest:
- ‘We’re at the onset of an industrial revolution’: The rise of robotics in retail - Glossy
- Miroslava Duma on the biggest sustainability problems facing the fashion industry - Marie Claire
- Snapchat’s e-commerce boss says World Lenses could transform how brands convert online shoppers - The Drum
- Legacy retailers define strategy in competitive terms. Retail upstarts define it in terms of their customer - LeanLuxe
- The permanent future of conversational commerce: eBay’s RJ Pittman on AI and chatbots - Forbes
- Comment Counts: How Ai Is Key To The Future Of Retail - Fashion & Mash
- China’s Store of the Future Has No Checkout, No Cash and No Staff - Business of Fashion
- Forget Sustainable Collections, We Need A Sustainable Fashion Industry - Hufflington Post UK
- Stitch Fix is Letting Algorithms Help Design New Clothes — and They’re Allegedly Flying Off the Digital Racks - Quartz
Events
Tuesday, August 1st
3:00pm - 8:00pm FASHION & BEAUTY ON THE HUDSON
When Pavan, Rob and Mark launched Fashion Is Your Business in January of 2015, their goal was to highlight people that do great work in our fashion tech community. Today this podcast is a global leading voice to the fashion tech industry! This event celebrates the 200th recording, I'm co-hosting it and I hope you will be able to join us! Password: mouthmedia Price: Free Location: LA MARINA NYC, 348 Dyckman St
6:00pm Virtual Reality for Design- How To Create Fashion Designs with 3D Painting
This is an event to understand how Virtual Reality is a tool for creating fashion designs in ways that cannot be done as conveniently or as effectively via paper, pen, sketching, photoshop, etc. Price: Free Location: The Mirror Tea House 575 Union St, Brooklyn, NY
6:00pm Entrepreneurs Roundtable w/ Google Ventures
With Erik Nordlander (Partner, Google Ventures). Format: Introductions, Q&A, 5 Pitches & Feedback. Price: Free Location: Microsoft HQ, 11 Times Sq
7:00pm A VC Glance Into Silicon Valley
With Sophie Bakalar (Investor, Collaborative Fund), Sumeet Shah (Principal, Brand Foundry Ventures), Will Szczerbiak (Investor, Greycroft Partners), Anna Whiteman (Sr Assoc., Tribeca Venture Partners), Randy Adler, Jr (Partner, Fox Rothschild). Price: Free Location: Galvanize, 315 Hudson St
Wednesday, August 2nd
6:00pm SeamlessGov x HackerNest - Women In Tech
With Ilana Sufrin (Software Developer, Refinery29), Meg Hewitt (Dir. Sales, Handshake), Flavia de Faria (Dir. Growth & Programs, Findyr), Rachel Shatkin (Product Mgr, SeamlessGov). Price: Free Location: Rise NYC, 43 W 23rd St, 2nd Fl
6:00pm Year Of The Rooster - Innovation Festival For The Future Of Digital Business
Year of the X is a series of innovation festivals made in Germany which are centered around topics such as robotics, mobility, VR, IoT, biohacking, digital health and mindfulness. The selected speakers will be holding a keynote speech on topics around future of work, digital innovation or social impact Price: Free Location: eBay, 625 6th Ave, 3rd Fl
Thursday, August 3rd
6:00pm Bots & AI - Teaching Machines To See & Create Intelligent Machine Agents
This month, we will learn about how to teach machines to see and how to build a bot to handle all those annoying times while on customer service hold. Price: Free Location: Thought Works, 99 Madison Ave, 15th Fl
5:30pm Travel Startup Happy Hour
This happy hour is dedicated to entrepreneurs and enthusiasts in the travel industry. Hosted at Voyager Clubhouse in NYC, the community and space that brings together travel-centric startup founders, investors, and partners. Price: $5 Location: Voyager Clubhouse, 137 W 25th St, 11th Fl
Saturday, August 5th
11:30am MusED Hackathon
Explore experience design in arts, technology & education. The day will feature concerts, demos, talks, hacks. Price: Free Location: Venue, 45 W 18th St, 3rd Fl
Monday, August 7th
7:00pm NY Tech Meetup + Afterparty
Join us for NYC's most famous and longest running monthly tech event! You'll see a fantastic lineup of New York tech companies presenting live demos of their products, followed by an afterparty where you can network with the community and meet our demoers and sponsors. Price: $10 Location: AppNexus, 28 W 23rd St
Wednesday, August 9th
6:30pm - 8:30pm Why Learning Difficult Things Will Change Your Life
An inspiring talk that will leave attendees with a battle plan for mastering the skills and mental strategies that will help them produce more creative work, make more money, and become valuable to employers in the new economy. Price: Free Location: General Assembly, HQ 902 Broadway, 4th Floor
Thursday, August 10th
6:30pm - 9:00pm Redefining Media
We're excited to be sitting down with Nick Rockwell, the Chief Technology Officer of the New York Times, in an exclusive pre-launch event for our brand new floor in our Chelsea flagship location that we're opening, in partnership with Verizon. Everyone knows The Times, but we'll be diving deeper into Nick's understanding of technology with real insight into the challenges of digital media, how The New York Times is ever-evolving, and wildly innovative products that they're creating. Price: Free Location: Alley, 119 W 24th St
Monday, August 14th - Thursday, August 17th
10:00am - 7:00pm Nadi X Trunk Show and Yoga Classes
Nadi X is activated yoga apparel with embedded technology. The sensors in the pants know what pose you are in, in real time and give you feedback with gentle vibrations on the body. Like a subtle massage the pants guide your attention in yoga. Visit this pop up to test drive the pants, purchase them and take yoga classes! Price: Free Location: 390 W Broadway
Cool Products and Long Reads:
- BookAuthority - Personalized book recommendations from top industry leaders
- Pitch Decks From Top Startups - A collection of startup pitch decks that raised $700million!
- How Filter Bubbles Distort Reality: Everything You Need to Know
- A 15 Minute Mind-Hack to Massively Enhance Your Brain Power and Emotional State: Vishen Lakhiani
Stay inspired,
Nataliya