What does it mean to belong? It is a feeling of fitting in, of participation, of joint ownership and of home. When we look at the local landscape of fashion’s industry and culture in Germany, are all welcome to participate, and does the industry and mainstream culture invite plural identities? Is fashion diverse, inclusive, and equitable?

This episode shares a panel from the 202030 Pop-up: Culture & Communication, which took place in Berlin on 06/02/2024, and assembled perspectives on fashion that promotes active diversity, equity, and inclusion. Beatrace Angut Oola, the founder and CEO of Fashion Africa Now, Anbid Zaman, the LGBTQ+ activist and board member at Campaign against Homophobia Germany, and Mick Morris Mehnert, actor, model, and community manager of Auf Augenhöhe Design, sit down with studio MM04’s Lou Croff Blake to tell their stories of navigating identity in the fashion context, and growing communities that engender belonging. The panel collectively asks: what might German fashion do better to create Pluriverse, instead of a social monoculture?

If your company wants to dive deeper into these topics, develop its DEIB approach, and enjoy a great team-building experience, consider studio MM04’s DEIB workshop. We tailor a package to your team’s needs and goals, ranging from 1-hour webinars to 2-day workshops.

The team of studio MM04 and 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit brings you some important news.

Learn more about the inspiring work of our panellists:

202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit is organized by studio MM04, in cooperation with the Beneficial Design Institute. It is a part of Berlin Fashion Week, and is funded by the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises Berlin.

It’s no secret that fashion has a negative environmental impact through its carbon footprint – and its carbon ‘shoe size’ is one of the largest among all global industries. There are many parallel sustainability initiatives in fashion and textiles, and one cornerstone is the movement towards decarbonization. This episode, our host Max Gilgenmann is joined by experts from Carbon Trust to discuss this emergent action area of positive change.

Laura Van De Ven and Anna Raffaelli are Carbon Trust’s Europe Marketing & Engagement Lead and DACH Regional Manager. The company consults and certifies clients through their process towards decreasing their carbon footprint, and this means going beyond carbon offsetting, where brands will engage in carbon-positive activities (like planting trees), and focusing on carbon insetting, where the brand’s own supply chain and operations change to reduce their carbon footprint. Measuring emissions is an important first step in addressing carbon impact, but our guests explain that a systemic, multi-stakeholder plan is the only way to create lasting positive change. Addressing the challenges of decarbonizing the manufacturing stages, to gaining internal leadership buy-in, to greenwash-free communication and reporting, Carbon Trust describes itself as a critical friend to companies on their sustainability journey.

Learn more about Carbon Trust at http://www.carbontrust.com/

Our guests have also provided us with some fantastic resources to learn more about decarbonizing the fashion industry:

202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit is organized by studio MM04, in cooperation with the Beneficial Design Institute. It is a part of Berlin Fashion Week, and is funded by the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises Berlin.

https://202030summit.com/

VORN – The Berlin Fashion Hub has been uniting local stakeholders, innovators, and designers for nearly two years. In that time, one of their most noteworthy projects has been the VORN Academy, a program for emerging designers to learn strategies and develop products for a circular fashion ecosystem. The 10 finalists of VORN Academy II: Loom showcased their final pieces during Berlin Fashion Week in February 2024 at VORN. The garments and accessories were paired with a virtual showroom of the work, accessible world wide.

This episode features Marte Hentschel, co-founder and co-CEO of VORN, and Lara Gesche, the Senior Manager of Corporate Citizenship at Zalando, who worked together to develop this iteration of the VORN Academy. With 202030 Podcast host Max Gilgenmann, they discuss the journey in supporting the recent cohort of emerging talent in more sustainable fashion design and circular innovation. Zalando was the key partner of VORN Academy II: Loom, and Lara underscores the importance of building up innovation topics among upcoming designers, as well as the need for innovation scouting to identify the best-in-class solutions and connect complementary skills and resources. The luxury sector in particular needs interdisciplinary collaboration, complete with a designated space for entrepreneurs to collaborate, experiment, and scale their impact.

Looking to the future, Marte and Lara tease that the third iteration “Design Academy by VORN & Zalando” is already in the making. Interested potential participants can sign up for the VORN Newsletter to stay up to date on the call for entry.

For more information on the VORN Academy II: Loom: https://vorn-hub.com/academy-program-ii-loom

Sign up for the VORN – The Berlin Fashion Hub newsletter: https://vorn-hub.com/letsconnect

More about Zalando’s corporate citizenship initiatives:

Tickets are now on sale for 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit’s 8th edition in July 2024: https://202030summit.com/tickets

Another riveting manifestation of 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit has come to pass. On 06/02/2024 at Kronprinzenpalais, guests joined us live in Berlin for the 202030 Pop-up: Culture & Communication. The stage program featured speakers leading from the sector of cultural sustainability, and included authors, activists, designers, community leaders, and public personas. Among the highlights was a keynote and book signing from Clare Press, the voice of the Wardrobe Crisis podcast and author of Wear Next.

After the stage program, our audience and speakers convened for a Community Gathering, unpacking the rich content of the program in continued, eye-level dialogue. Our colleague Carlos Urbina Sinclair mingled with the crowd, capturing an exciting array of testimonials, which we are happy to share with you in the special recap episode!

We hope you’ll join us in July 2024, when we return with our full 2-day conference. Visit our website for photos of the 202030 Pop-up, to sign up for our newsletter, and purchase your ticket for the 8th edition of 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit.

Enormous thanks to our speakers and moderators:

And to our hosts, partners, and collaborators:

Following up on our coverage of the Dutch Denim Deal, we now bring you the latest updates on a German Denim Deal. As the groundbreaking coalition for more sustainable denim ripples into an increasingly global scale, our host Max Gilgenmann sits down with two of the leaders of this next chapter to understand the vision and concrete goals of uniting a multi-stakeholder undertaking.

Laura Vicaria, the program manager of the Denim Deal, and Romain Narcy from the steering committee both have their roots deep in denim. Laura, an expert in circular denim, has been working recently as a circularity consultant under the name Rethink Fashion. Meanwhile Romain comes from a supply chain background at Ereks-Blue Matter, and his passion for addressing denim’s issues of sustainability led him to join the Denim Deal team.

The German Denim Deal sets ambitious goals. It specifically calls on German denim stakeholders to in both upstream and downstream value chains – in other words, taking the recycling system into account as well as production. The German denim market is the largest in Europe, and this deal sets the production goal of 1 billion pairs of jeans with minimum 20% recycled content. This would represent about 20% of the jeans on the German market, and aims to normalize the use of recycled fibers. In addition, by assembling denim SME’s, the power of the coalition grants access to innovative technology that might otherwise only lie in the hands of larger corporations. Signing onto the Denim Deal creates unprecedented sustainable development opportunities for the German denim sector. Ultimately, this plan for collaboration is a template for an intercontinental network of hubs.

The German Denim Deal made its today case at BLUEZONE International Denim Tradeshow: https://bluezone.show/

For questions about joining the German Denim Deal, brands can reach out to [email protected]

Stay up to date with 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit at https://202030summit.com/

“Sustainability can be lonely,” says Outi Pyy, the Head of Sustainability at IVALO.COM. For brands committed to sustainable development, transforming progressive values into feasible actions is an uphill sprint in our current global economy. And, with a growing customer base who demands radical transparency and a high bar of sustainability in fashion, values-driven brands are under pressure to perform. This, of course, is a positive shift. But IVALO.COM, a Finnish online sustainable fashion retailer, acknowledges the immense challenges that this sector faces.

In this episode, Outi sits down with Max Gilgenmann to talk about IVALO.COM’s unique approach to transparency. Using rigorously collected and analysed data, the retailer has developed IVALO.COM 360, their validation system that takes many facets of sustainable action into account, including environmental action, inclusivity, social impact, and more. Outi tells us, it’s not about a hierarchy, but about getting a clear view of a brands’ values and focus areas, as well as their needs for transformation and growth. This is where IVALO.COM is unique: more than just a retail platform, they also help their brands on their learning journey through sustainable evolution.

IVALO.COM and studio MM04 are currently collaborating on a new project, the Fashion Purpose Report. With IVALO.COM’s wealth of data collected on the state of sustainable fashion, the next step in transparency is to provide it to the public in an engaging, understandable format, for industry professionals and customers alike. Stay tuned for the launch of this report, with an exclusive press conference at SEEK Trade Show in Berlin on 16/01/2024.

Learn about IVALO.COM 360: https://ivalo.com/pages/ivalo-360

Stay tuned for the release of the Fashion Purpose Report on https://ivalo.com/ and https://www.studiomm04.com/

Stay up to date with 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit at https://202030summit.com/

What will be Berlin’s legacy? A mecca for upstarts and start-ups, not to mention international creatives of every discipline, the capital of Germany is positioned to be a global cultural leader in the decades to come. For Sascha Wolf, that vision includes Berlin becoming the global impact capital. In this episode, studio MM04’s Lou Croff Blake talks with Sascha about his vision for Berlin’s future, and the path that led him to a revolutionary approach to networking.

Sascha founded AusserGewöhnlich Berlin in 2009, transitioning from a long career in the world of diplomats. He and co-founder Giada Armani wanted to build an alternative network, one based on impact instead of personal gain. Impact alludes to sustainable development, but takes an action-based, multidisciplinary approach. As per the 4-pillar model of sustainability, it means creating environmental, social, cultural and economic positive change. Now, the concept of AusserGewöhnlich Berlin has expanded into GICA, the Global Impact Capital Alliance, which unites different cities with their own established impact networks. And to top it all off, Sacha and colleagues have founded the 17Academy – referencing SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals – to train participants on how to become impact networkers.

To learn more about AusserGewöhnlich Berlin, visit https://aussergewoehnlich-berlin.de/

At the 202030 Podcast, we have exciting news: our next live event, 202030 Pop-up: Culture & Communication will take place on 06/02/2024 in Berlin. To RSVP, visit our website: https://202030summit.com/.

Learn more about studio MM04 or book us for a consultation on our website at https://www.studiomm04.com/

Who is studio MM04? If you follow this podcast, you’ll recognize hosts Max Gilgenmann and Magdalena Schaffrin. But this week, we’re excited to share with you their origin stories, and put our hosts in the spotlight.

Organizers of 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit, co-founders of Fashion Revolution Germany, board and jury members for many environmental foundations and awards… the list goes on. Max and Magdalena have astounding career paths that led to the creation of studio MM04, where they now consult brands, start-ups, and the public sector on the sustainable transformation of the fashion industry. The heart and values that drive studio MM04’s work are manifest in our day-to-day work environment and in the passion with which we approach every project. We decided to take this special episode to look behind the curtain so you can really get to know us. Studio MM04’s most recent team member, Lou Croff Blake, interviews Max and Magdalena about their inspiring journeys that led them here.

Learn more about studio MM04 or book us for a consultation on our website at https://www.studiomm04.com/

Stay up to date with 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit at https://202030summit.com/

Are you looking for ways to become a fashion activist? Join Fashion Revolution in Germany at https://fashionrevolutiongermany.de/ or globally at https://www.fashionrevolution.org/

Where do fashion giants stand on sustainability? In this arena of multinational brands, H&M is leading the transformation with its innovative pilots of circularity and new business models. Hendrik Heuermann, the Public Affairs Manager at H&M (Central European Region), sits down with 202030 Podcast host Max Gilgenmann in an honest and engaging talk about how the industry’s major players are tackling sustainable development.

In this conversation, Hendrik and Max touch on different ways that H&M is leading industry sustainability, as well as the greatest challenges. Looking at both sustainable work culture and sustainable consumption culture, what is feasible when influencing consumer change? H&M has tested product passports, rental models, innovative materials, and alternative communication strategies regarding sustainability. In the new wave of EU sustainability regulations, the two also muse on how large scale apparel corporations can meet ever-rising standards for production and communication. This reality check lends a window to the future vision of fashion at scale.

Learn more about Hendrik Heuermann’s work in this biopic: https://de.fashionnetwork.com/news/H-m-hendrik-heuermann-wird-public-affairs-manager,1405224.html

Learn more about the H&M’s sustainable development: https://hmgroup.com/sustainability/

Max references the Anders Levermann book Die Faltung Der Welt. Learn more here: http://www.foldingtheworld.net/

For more information about 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit, including updates about our next edition, visit https://202030summit.com/, and follow us on social media @202030summit. Organized by studio MM04, in cooperation with the Beneficial Design Institute.

This episode brings the two companies into live conversation, moderated by studio MM04’s Lou Croff Blake, a writer and researcher on cultural sustainability. We’re joined by Marian von Rappard, the founder and owner of Dawn Denim, Sema Gedik, the founder and CEO of Auf Augenhöhe, and actor and model Mick Mehnert, a brand ambassador for Auf Augenhöhe. Together, our guests share their own journeys through the fashion industry, and how they each came to realise the need for positive systems change. In this discussion, it’s clear that each person’s unique experiences enrich the power and possibility of collaboration.

For denim heads who believe that this sector can be a leader of cultural innovation, this interview provides an inspiring spin on expanding body inclusivity while producing with radical transparency.

Learn about Auf Augenhöhe: https://www.aufaugenhoehe.design/en

For more information about 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit, including updates about our next edition, visit https://202030summit.com/, and follow us on social media @202030summit.

202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit is organized by studio MM04, in cooperation with the Beneficial Design Institute.