Global Fashion Agenda Sets New International Summit Agenda and ‘Alliances’
Global Fashion Agenda has unveiled new international aims and strategy under new leadership and a new namesake for its flagship event.
Renamed the “Global Fashion Summit,” the forum formerly known as the Copenhagen Fashion Summit then CFS+, will take place in various key cities in the future, beginning with its flagship edition in Copenhagen, in person, June 7 to 8 in the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen, Denmark. A location in Southeast Asia will follow.
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The 2022 edition of the summit will be themed “Alliances for a New Era” and aims to “form previously inconceivable alliances within the fashion industry,” examining “atypical cross-industry alliances” in a bid for a net positive fashion reality, per the organization.
While details are nascent, “alliances” are said to exemplify pre-competitive innovation and policy moves. In past event programming, GFA convened executives from Hermès and Patagonia to speak to brand heritage. GFA’s recent media partnership with the Financial Times Live, the global conferences and events division of the Financial Times Group, is another example of new alliances formed.
The organization is approaching things today in “a very cavalier way,” GFA’s chief executive officer, Federica Marchionni, told WWD. “I want to showcase what companies can achieve by having new alliances and that could be between brands that compete with each other [in the pre-competitive space] and within the consumer space but also show what fashion can learn from other industries.”
In April 2021, Marchionni succeeded Eva Kruse, who left her position in February last year after 15 years of service, to join material innovations start-up Pangaia.
Since 2009, GFA has pushed for sustainability in fashion providing media communications workshops, proprietary reports and executive agendas, but is best known for its flagship summit.
Marchionni mentioned GFA’s increasing sights on proprietary data and case studies. She cited the Circular Fashion System Commitment that was signed by 86 companies in 2020, representing 12.5 percent of the global fashion market, as a way GFA has helped to “clarify the set of priorities” for the industry and mobilize fashion to become even bolder.
For the first time since the organization’s inception, ??there will be an in-depth impact assessment of the event, addressing “concrete outcomes” and partnerships or “alliances,” as the theme calls for.
As to how she is addressing greenwashing, Marchionni said, “This is very challenging, but this is what I always enjoy — to tackle the challenges…The role of GFA will be even more crucial for the future, we have to be even more ambitious. Yes, sustainability is the first priority but we need to achieve net zero and net positive, because we also need to achieve social [impact].”
This, she finds in unpacking the nuance. “It’s very important we take care of the environmental issues and the social issues…We start very high with the Paris Agreement [net zero].”
In a November press event, GFA revealed findings from its mandatory final report as part of the close of its 2020 Circular Fashion System Commitment (also called the 2020 commitment) and ushered in its newest endeavor focused on scaling fabric scrap recycling in Bangladesh, called the “Circular Fashion Partnership.”
“Now, we are trying to make sure there is implementation on the ground from Bangladesh protagonists,” Marchionni said. “GFA is trying to scale this and make sure this can go on in other countries to ensure reduction in virgin materials and waste and GHG reductions.”
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