Circular Fashion Summit by lablaco x MEC by Santoni Shanghai
Circular Fashion Summit unites 24 Cross-Industry Innovators Who Are Accelerating Fashion Towards Digitized Circularity
Circular Fashion Summit (CFS), the world’s largest annual VR gathering in fashion, was created to accelerate the actions and transition towards the digitized circular economy of the industry, and inspire innovation, creating positive change through design, technology, and sustainability. To support and inspire this necessary innovation, Circular Fashion Summit runs its innovation Hub program each year at the CFS Summit (happening this year from 9—12 December), calling for next-generation innovative solutions, from innovative materials, design process, manufacturing, retail to end-to-end transparency and traceability—all of which can accelerate fashion transformation towards digitized circularity and sustainability.
Alternative materials market is set to become a $2.2 billion industry by 2026. While creating a more sustainable fashion industry requires the end of fast-consumption as we know it, it will also open the door to new opportunities in other spaces. New materials innovation is this year’s great focus, with 4 honorees out of ten in this space. This includes innovators in materials like Finnish sustainable material company Spinnova (which is inspired by how spiders weave their webs and uses cellulose to create a textile fabric that can be as warm as wool), alternative materials company AltMat (creating Alt Yarns, Alt Fibers, and Alt Fabrics and the winner of Beyond Form x CFS Innovation Award 2021), green chemistry company Evolved by Nature (which creates Activated Silk Technology), and Material Experience Center (MEC) (a combined creative forces by Santoni Shanghai and Studio Eva x Carola).
This year will also highlight innovation in manufacturing including 3D printing technology EOS, and Coloreel, a Swedish textile innovation brand with a ground-breaking more sustainable technology for embroidery that enables high-quality coloring of textile thread on demand, unlocking a world of potential.It will also celebrate innovation in traceability and transparency by featuring transparency technology business FibreTrace. “Sustainability is everyone’s sons and daughters. It’s the future we promised them and forgot to keep along the way to creating the advanced world they are going to live in. Sustainability is the fuel for my innovation because it’s become a personal responsibility,” says Sanjeev Bahl, co-founder of FibreTrace.
Last but not least, digital fashion and upcycling design are definitely two of the most popular topics of the year. Innovators such as DressX (digital fashion marketplace) and The Revival, a community-led sustainable design initiative creating awareness, art and jobs with upcycled global textile waste coming to Ghana, and Thrill Digital who gamifies digital fashion, will be showcased at Innovation Hub. DressX will also provide a selection of digital garments available for CFS 2021 attendees to dress their avatars.
Through amplifying industry leaders across all areas of innovation, Circular Fashion Summit will showcase the sustainable future possible for the fashion industry and ignite cross-industry pilot programs connecting talented impact designers and innovators. All innovators will take part in pilot projects over the course of 12-months (starting January 2022) to create fully traceable and circular products together through IoT technology by lablaco with the designers from the Impact Design Hub, putting these future possibilities into actionable change towards a digitized circular economy for fashion.