Green Fashion India Conference

India is one the leading textile producing countries in the world. More than 42 million people in India are directly employed in the textile industry, including approx. 3.2 million handloom workers. More than 95% of handwoven textiles in the world hail from India. At the same time India is the biggest exporter of cotton in the word. Approx. 5.8 million cotton farmers in the country grow cotton, out of which 166.000 grow cotton organically.

 

The story of Lebenskleidung began in the year 2008 in India where the company was founded. Even if we produce much more local today, the connection and ties to the Indian subcontinent have never been lost. On the contrary they got stronger year by year.

 

Thus has the need for a sustainable shift of the textile industry become more urgent year by year. Tragic events like the Rana Plaza garment factory collapes in 2013 or steady reports about the catastrophic effect of the global fast fashion textile industry on the environment have opend the eyes of many consumers ever since. A fashion revolution is necessary.

 

Already in the year 2011-2012 Lebenskleidung was a active founding member of the Green Fashion India (GFI) initiative. We already wrote about that in the past here in our magazine.

 

Lebenskleidung Co-Founder Benjamin Itter brought together School of Fashion Technology Pune (SOFT) and Max Mueller Bhanvan (the Indian Goethe Institute) for the first GFI India event in Pune (back then GFI was called Consortium of Green Fashion). Many more have followed ever since. See all info on the past events here.

 

GFI India   Facilitation

 

From the very beginning the principal of School of Fashion Technology Dr. Hundekar and her powerful team played a vital role in making Green Fashion India a sucess story.

GFI all on stage

In the past years the Green Fashion India Conference had been held already 7 times, the last big conference before the pandemic was held in Goa in 2018.

 

But what is Green Fashion India doing exactly? The mission reads as follows:

 

"To increase and share social as well as ecological connections through a premier forum that involves an individual/ institution/organization of the Fashion arena with an active involvement of society and communities which continuously facilitates research, ideas and information that encourages Green Fashion.

'Green Fashion India aims to increase ecological awareness in the textile and fashion industry by establishing a premier forum that continuously facilitates research and promotes Green Fashion."

 

Green Fashion India sees itself as an educational platform which mainly educates student from Indian textile and fashion institutions about sustainanble practices and trends in the texile industry. Because they are the leaders and changemakers of tomorrow.

 

The network of active universities and colleges across India being involved in those activies is vast and growing. Besides of School of Fashion Technology (SOFT) Pune to name a few, the following Indian institutes are involved:

 

 

Partner insitutes from Europe include Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and Academia Costume & Moda, Rome, Italy.

 

The aim of GFI India is also to connect sustainable and ethical textile industry members with the student community. Besides stakeholders like the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) are actively involved in this honorary mission. Namely in person of Mr. Rahul Bhajekar, today Managing Director of GOTS, who is an integral part of GFI since the very beginning.

 

One important aspect of the GFI activities is to put a light onto the Indian handloom and handcraft sector. Advisors like Mr. Hemang Agrawal are shining examples for students, that this part of the industry has a future, if translated right into the 21st century.

 

The MKSSS's School of Fashion Technologie "THE CRAFT VILLAGE' has been built up to act as a platform to promote authentic traditional crafts in printing, weaving, hand embroideries an handicrafts to strengthen its network within the fashion fraternity with research, design and innovation.

 

Master craftsmen from all over India come to Pune as residents and work together with fashion and textile students.

 

8th GFI Conference

 

On November 25th and 26th, the 8th GFI main confernce was taken place in Pune, India. Due to the still pandemic situation the conference was held as a part digital, part in-person conference.

 

To get a glimpse of the activities of the two conference days check the videos here:

 

 

This years conference key notes were held by

 

 

You can find the full conference recordings here in this chanel.

 

All key note speakers gave their indivdual perspectives on sustainability and innovations and gave the students valuable insights into the industry.

 

Panel discussions, questions forums and open debates were held during the two days of activities.

 

The infamous fashion quiz, hosted by Mrs. Meher Castelino, author, fashionista and first Miss India in 1964 brought a lof of fun to the days. Competitions such as the fashion documentary competition, artisanal workshops and debates were held during the two days.

 

One of the highlights of the conference was the fashion show with sustanable student collections and the collections of sustainable fashion designers Ninoshka Alvares-Delaney from Goa and Vishwa Shah founder of the label Mhysa

 

See the full fashion show here under this link.

 

One other highlight was the signing of an MoU between the Poornam Eco Vision foundation and School of Fashion Technology, Pune working together in the future on the files of textile upcycling and textile waste management.

 

We at Lebenskleidung are proud and happy to be part of Green Fashion India and we are looking positive into the future to make the Indian textile industry greener and more sustainable on the long run.