RED ALERT IN THE GREEN RANGE?

The fashion industry as well as in all other lifestyle sectors are following the trend of sustainability. And exactly that’s where the observer has to be on alert: Where does the green marketing scheme end and the seriously meant commitment start. What part do trend forecaster, communication experts and marketing strategists, who are developing green concepts for their clients, play and what part do the media play by passing on these on? Maybe the path leading in a green future is not about “further-but-different” consuming but has to break new grounds.

Questions like these and many more will be discussed by guests Lidewij Edelkoort, Dr. Noki and Allana McAspurn.

Lidewij Edelkoort is a trend forecaster, curator, publisher and professor. Edelkoort has created her company Trend Union in 1986 and published customized trend books for the creative industries twice a year. Her magazines View on Colour, In View and Bloom have re-shaped the publishing industry by producing images that turned into ideograms of our time. Edelkoort leads trend studios in Paris, New York and Tokyo.
www.trendunion.com

In 1996, the Irish-born Jonathan “JJ” Hudson, who prior worked as a stylist for MTV Vjs and Blah Blah Blah Magazine, founded his own art brand Dr. Noki (an anagram of the term “icon”), which he understands as a statement against mass-produced fashion. By sampling used pieces, often sport wear and band t-shirts, one-of-a-kinds of his “Street Couture” are created, with which he wants to foil the fashion industry and encourage imitation. From an early stage he worked with sustained clothes and in 2008 he launched the Noki House of Sustainablity (NHS), for which he uses vintage pieces and sustainably produced garments.
The visual key image of Noki is the SOB mask (Suffocating of Branding) which should encourage the rejection of the brand cult and to focus on the essential, the humans.
www.novamatic.com

Allana McAspurn is the CEO of MADE-BY, a European non-profit organization founded in 2004 which has the goal to make sustainable clothes everyday occurring and to improve the ecological as well as the social conditions within the fashion industry. MADE-BY runs offices in Germany, the Netherlands and England and has already worked with over 70 fashion brands.
Allana McAspurn has long-standing experience in the area of fashion and sustainability and was amongst others co-founder of the Ethical Fashion Forum, where she played a major role in its growth and development. She is in close contact with important organizations and specific events and is part of the consultant team of Esthetica, the ethical section of the London Fashion Week.
www.made-by.org