SOURCE FASHION LEADS THE WAY IN CREATING A POSITIVE OUTLOOK FOR FASHION

 

Day one of Source Fashion, Europe’s leading responsible sourcing show, welcomed a host of brands including John Lewis, Jeff Banks London, River Island, The Oxford Shirt Company, Finisterre, Harrods, TJX and many more, keen to be part of the journey to progressive change in the retail industry.

 

Acting as a catalyst for positive change, Source Fashion, which runs until Tuesday 16th July at Olympia London, provides a platform for the global sourcing community and hundreds of responsible manufacturers and suppliers to connect with buyers. The show also curated a fascinating and thought-provoking programme of talks and an inspirational sustainable catwalk show.

 

Visiting the show for the first time, designer Jeff Banks CBE outlined why he took the time on a Sunday to visit the show, “Fundamentally for me as a designer, what is critical is the actual source of what you are designing. So, for me, it’s important to know what manufacturers are capable of, where it’s manufactured, what the plant machinery and structure is of the factories. I find the people exhibiting here at Source Fashion actually give me all of that information, it makes my life a lot easier.

 

“There is one particular exhibitor that I came here specifically to see, that I’ve already started dipping my toe in with, an Indian manufacturer which I find really exciting, I’m not going to give you his name, because I want to keep it a secret! But the opportunity for me to meet him here, with the wide variety of products he’s capable of producing, and actually the quality, design, the ethic fits my brand, so that’s what’s interesting for me. I will be looking to come back, having seen the breadth of exhibitors here. I came today to see one specific provider, but my antenna is up now around the exhibition, and particularly in the luxury area, there are some very interesting exhibitors here. So, I am definitely coming back, and I strongly suspect there’s going to be a lot more exhibitors here next time so this is definitely one to visit.”

 

Quizzed on the subject of sustainability in his business, Banks said, “Sustainability is a big question mark, there is a lot of importance placed on ‘what is sustainable?’ and a lot of it is about ‘is something recycled, is it reused?’ I actually question all of that. To me, sustainability is about the length of time a product is actually going to last. It’s about quality, it’s about value and if you make things that are sustainable because of the length of time they can be used, that really is a benefit to the consumer so that is critically important to me. Anything I manufacture that I put my name to, I want to be assured for my own benefit that it’s going to work and it’s going to have a long life to it. But also, hand on heart, when I’m going to sell it to a customer I want them to be happy. I don’t want someone coming back and saying I bought a t-shirt and after a year it’s rubbish, that’s not good enough for me, so I’m keen to work with people who’ve got that critical effect.”

 

The Source Fashion Agenda

The Source Fashion stage opened with a live show crafted by sustainable stylist Rebekah Roy highlighting the relationship between fashion and nature. Four key trends all combined natural and alternative materials.

 

Nature’s Patina featured earthy colours feeling aged by time, with neutral tones on crochet, textured and open knits. Craft Punk reimagined leather in alternative materials, alongside denim and embroidery reigniting punk looks with extra attitude and rebellion. Emotive Nature explored the healing nature of botanicals and florals in a natural fluid context with knitted two-pieces and textured fabrics in grounded greens. Cartoon Culture is all about the influence of gaming and pop culture and its graphic representation in street wear. It’s bold, youthful, fun, and expressive trend celebrating expression and that fashion should be fun.

 

Headline designer Anna Pabissi closed the catwalk with pieces from her latest fully biodegradable eveningwear collection including bold textured quilted gowns, intricate yarn details, voluminous sleeves, and industrial style metalwork. Pabissi gives second life to antique fabrics by creating one-off statement pieces as well as utilising deadstock textiles for her most flamboyant pieces.

 

During her talk with Roy, vegan-designer Pabissi discussed the challenges, inspiration and creativity behind her brand. She imparted the importance of matching the values you live with the values you build into your fashion business.

 

Fashion futurist Geraldine Wharry took to the stage for Future Humanity Systems, unpacking the future of the fashion industry’s infrastructure, setting out the plausible and wild card futures for regenerative supply chains.

 

She outlined the need for a vision for a radically different future, that needs to be met with the strategic view on sustainable issues and a future proofing mindset. “We have to think in terms of systems and not trends. This is a marathon not a sprint, but it is amazing to see that sustainable fashion is becoming the norm. It is such an important industry that we need a vision for a radically different future and to get into a future making mindset.”

 

Wharry presented three macro trends. I Trust You Systems explored embedding trust and transparency into the industry, and the need for humans to place transparency above profits while enabling consumers to understand a products journey making it fully traceable. She stated that regenerative models and circularity were needed to eliminate waste. Scenario 1 of her 2034 Possible Futures predicts going ‘From opaque to nowhere to hide’ while scenario 2’s prediction takes us ‘From limitless stock of new fabrics to halting new manmade materials for 5 years’. Wharry’s wild card scenario explored ‘Edible Fashion packaging as a new nutrition stream with added functionalities’.

 

Wharry also presented Agency of Governing Species looking at a growing body of innovators challenging our one-sided relationship with natures, infrastructural barriers, and the rise of interest in local biomes and bio regionality. In the wild card scenario ‘Animals & plants emerge to speak for themselves’ even in basic ways as AI enables us to translate their languages and opens up an whole new other-era in conscious fashion.

 

Suzanne Ellingham, Event Director, Source Fashion says, “Our mission is to become a catalyst for positive change and doing good business and we are proud to say that day one of our 4th edition has delivered in creating many new sourcing connections and has delved deep into some of the industry’s biggest challenges. With hundreds of responsible manufacturers from around the world and industry leaders sharing their insight and strategies, we’ve helped our visitors make their journey into responsible production that little bit easier.”

 

Source Fashion reopens tomorrow at 9.30am. The Source Fashion stage opens at 10.30am with the catwalk show, followed by a sourcing and story-telling trend presentation by Insider Trends; a session on the importance of accurate environmental claims with the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA); Caryn Franklin MBE in conversation with former CEO of ASOS Nick Beighton and later in conversation with Colechi’s creative director Tina Wetshi; and fireside chats with Jo Mourant, Next Retail’s head of sustainability and product, and PepsiCo’s design director Hayley Shore.

 

View the full agenda and register at Source Fashion