Fashion & Sustainability Masters to Youth Fashion Summit

A little about the Youth Fashion Summit:

In May 2016 the next generation of fashion designers, communicators and business executives will gather at the world’s largest event on sustainability in fashion – the 2016 Copenhagen Fashion Summit – to engage with world leading brands, manufacturers as well as retail and government representatives. They will also present the industry with a framework to implement and operationalise the United Nations’ new Sustainable Development Goals into the value chain.

In partnership with Copenhagen School of Design and Technology (KEA), the Danish Fashion Institute and Nordic Fashion Association will initiate the third occurrence of the Youth Fashion Summit (9 – 12 May 2016).

As part of the renowned Copenhagen Fashion Summit, the world’s largest event on sustainability in fashion, this platform has proven to be a solid launch ramp for the next generation to speak their mind about the development within the industry that they are to inherit.

Focus on Sustainable Development Goals

The 2016 Youth Fashion Summit will focus on the United Nations’ new Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and give more than 100 selected design, communication and business students from all over the world the chance to show the fashion industry how to change to ensure a better future. The task will be to operationalise and make a framework for implementation of the UN SDGs across the value chain. The work should inspire decision makers within the United Nations and within EU’s flagship initiative on textile and garments.

A little about us:

Sophia Butler has a love for natural textiles and dyeing with a strong moral compass, directing her work to be both environmentally and socially responsible. Her previous experience includes working with ethically woven silks and recycled and deadstock materials to create her 2015 graduate collection Un-broken. In her Masters practice, Sophia is investigating the local processing of wool with an eye to working in established fashion companies developing a more ethical and sustainable chain of manufacture and supply.

Benjamin Alexander is a fashion designer based in New Zealand, his mission is to build long-term sustainable practises within a luxury brand and to exhibit transparency over all sectors, mixing rich tradition with contemporary innovation.

By supporting local manufacturers, cultural traditions and ethical supply chains, Benjamin Alexander is able to produce highly considered clothing and accessories, with a focus on fabric and quality. Partnering with local and international artists and artisanal practices, his modern vision of luxury clothing is considerate to the effects on the future of design, and the planet.

Courtney Harper is an artist and designer based in New Zealand. Her work looks in depth at the "fashion system", and the relationship between humans and clothing. Fashion is an intrinsic part of the human experience: a simultaneous celebration of culture and individuality with far reaching effects across humanity and the natural environment. Her work aims to reconceptualise this relationship between people, clothing and nature, so that we don't live in a world where this connection is fragmented and destructive.

Courtney's designs strive to balance creativity, functionality and sustainability in all aspects of the design process and garment lifecycle. Focusing particularly on natural renewable resources and tackling throwaway culture through reusing existing materials. Her designs have a strong emphasis on hand craftsmanship and sustainable concepts that promote connectivity throughout the production process as opposed to social harm.

Zuzana Kristofova is committed to creating ethical and sustainable clothing by using natural materials and traditional methods in creative processes and questioning some of the environmental, social and economic problems the world is facing today. She is passionate about identity and traditional craft methods; using fashion and textile design as a way to reconnect with people and build strong relationships, encouraging both the wearer and viewer to ask deeper questions about their sense of place in a world of throw away fast fashion. She utilises her fashion practice as a platform to bridge the gap between textile traditions, crafts and contemporary design.

A little about our plans:

All money that is donated to this cause will be used to pay for our flights to and from Copenhagen as well as our accommodation while we attend the Youth Fashion Summit.