The biggest groups and brands are looking for innovative solutions and are fixating on precise objectives to become responsible and exemplary. Report with interviews from Marie-Claire Daveu (Chief Sustainability Officer & Head of Institutional and International Affairs of Kering), Stella McCartney, (Designer), Hanna Hallin (Global Social Sustainability Manager-H&M), Julia Duhamel (Head of Communication – H&M France). Fashion and in particular the luxury world finally seems ready to act and to talk more openly about environmental awareness and eco-responsibility. Ethically conscious brands, lines, and collaborations are on the increase whilst the large groups like Kering are looking for concrete solutions through innovation.

Julia Duhamel: We have two objectives, we hope that in 2020 all our cotton sources that we will be using will come from eco-responsible sources, so no more conventional cotton in 2020, it’s an extremely ambitious goal but one that we can achieve. And the other objective that we have is more short term, in 2015 300% more recycled products in the shops, compared to what we did in 2014. So clearly the idea is that we are a shop that’s becoming more and more responsible in terms of materials, in terms of manufacturing, it’s already completely responsible, but it’s with the fabrics that we want to go even further.

In the luxury market, the dedicated Stella McCartney remains a pioneer just like H&M, the worldwide ready- to-wear giant, who for more than 20 years has been fixated on precise objectives in order to become an exemplary brand. Interviews: Marie-Claire Daveu: I think sustainable development in fashion is not an option, but really a necessity. We have quantified objectives, for example to reduce our CO² emissions by 25% by 2016, and to eliminate PVC from our products. It’s what we have to do and what’s also a very good thing is to open up to the outside, so working with experts, working with universities, to find innovations. If we want the sustainable development to become a working reality, we have to be innovative. And we have brands like Stella McCartney who have really been on point with this subject for a number of years now.

Stella McCartney: This season I just wanted to show everyone you don’t need to wear fur, like fur can be removed from the world of fashion, and actually fake fur is really relevant, really cool, really young. You know I think there’s more youth to it, there’s more to say with fake fur. Hanna Hallin: Our strategy has always been to be on the ground, so for us it has not been so much about control as it has been about building strong and long term relationships. We see that it has to make good business sense for our supplier to drive and perform better on sustainability.

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