WGSN x Berlin Fashion Week

Ashley Krupnik, Senior Director at WGSN’s Mindset attended Berlin Fashion Week and delivered a keynote speech on ‘Your Future Consumer – a Catalyst for Redirection’ at Fashion Council Germany’s METAMORPHOSIS - dialogues about change event.

Ashley Krupnik’s keynote conversation explored how fundamental consumer mindsets and behaviours – largely driven by emotions – are impacting evolutions in circularity, innovation and sustainability for the fashion industry.

Three key strategies were covered while exploring Future Consumers:

• Nudge toward solutions: address consumers’ behavioural shifts and the intention-action gap by nudging toward solutions with small, attainable actions
• Lead with value: adapt to trend tensions and disruption of the micro-trend cycle by leading with value to counter unattainable trend micro-trend cycles
• Embed transparent action: as we see a shift in responsibility led by consumer burnout, brands are expected to be transparent about their sustainable actions from the outset

The general sentiment that the fashion industry is in an era of polarised consumption triggered the question – how can the industry incite change? While there was no singular answer, the direction was equally about sustainability measures as it was about the forces pushing the fashion industry forward – creativity and passion.

Creativity during Berlin Fashion Week was at an all-time high with Taskin Goec’s Digital collection on show at the MOTOR: The Berlin Edition, a digital fashion gathering on February 2. The line-up of Berlin’s up-and-coming designers at DER BERLINER SALON in the Gemäldegalerie museum was a beautiful curation.

Rebecca Hill, author of Drapers & Marie Claire, led a brilliant panel on the topic of the changing Retail Landscape. Robin Balser, Founder & CEO of VINOKILO, spoke of the platform’s success – from bringing vintage shopping to the industry in 2016 to selling over a million kilos of vintage clothing since its activation.

Sydney Nwakanma, designer and founder of Emeka Suits reminded us of the vast amount of unseen clothing waste. Emeka Suits’ collections work with a collective of tailors in Africa, using donated and offcut fabrics that are shipped to Africa in large bundles.

APOC’s co-founder, Jules Volleberg, spoke about creativity online and offline, celebrating and spotlighting conscious artists and designers while fueling style and individuality. APOC is a combination of the words ‘Anthropocene’ – a time where human activity dominates the world we live in with enormous consequences – and ‘epoch’ while playing on the word ‘apocalypse’. The company is hosting a pop-up event in Paris from February 26 till March 2.

Niki de Schryver, CEO & Founder of COSH!, a conscious shopping platform, shared compelling data on tracking the closets of Gen Z x Millennials consumers, highlighting true, generational habitual differences in their approach to sustainability.

Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week, and Scott Lipinski, CEO of the Fashion Council Germany, showcased how their respective fashion weeks are piloting sustainability requirements for all participating brands. The complexity of the process was made clear – from aligning the most impactful sustainability requirements to be included in the criteria to the need to incorporate external agencies’ support in implementing the verifications. The successful team effort with brands achieving B-corp certification after meeting these requirements validates that change is possible.

This event and the dialogues bear testament to the inspiring conversations that can help us consider our actions more carefully to design a better, more sustainable future for all.

The whole of Fashion Council Germany – including Stefan Bruner and Daniela Eichhorn – and Ann Claes from Masjien Agency provided not only a platform to showcase A/W collections but also an avenue to discuss the ideas and foundations that will shape the future of fashion.