‘Collaboration’ emerged as a common theme among the various speakers at the Fashion Re:set Summit held on October 11, in York, UK. The event was organised by the Association of Suppliers to the British Clothing Industry (ASBCI), the only association in the UK that brings together the clothing industry from fibre to garment manufacture, retail and aftercare.

TexPro, the market insight tool from Fibre2Fashion, was a supporting partner at the event. As a market research partner for the global textile and apparel sector, TexPro helps decision makers create data-driven strategy using the latest information about textile, apparel and nonwoven textile industries. Right from raw materials price to current trade data and from existing government policies to global tariff information, TexPro brings the most relevant data to fingertips.

‘Collaboration’ emerged as a common theme among the various speakers at the Fashion Re:set Summit held on October 11, in York, UK. The event was organised by the Association of Suppliers to the British Clothing Industry (ASBCI), the only association in the UK that brings together the clothing industry from fibre to garment manufacture, retail and aftercare.

The Fashion Re:set Summit was held around four key themes – ESG, sourcing, digital transformation, and staff wellbeing and talent management. There was a combination of presentations and panel discussions.

Ben Hanson, editor in chief of The Interline, opened the summit with a keynote presentation on the current state of the industry.

The first panel on ESG in the fashion industry was moderated by Suzanne Ellingham from fashion trade show organiser Hyve Group Plc. The panel featured Peter Hughes, head of sustainability business development at Eurofins; Anne Peirson-Smith, professor of fashion, School of Design, Northumbria University; Stella Claxton, lecturer and senior research fellow at Nottingham Trent University; and Helen Colebourn, technical consultant at Bureau Veritas Consumer Products Services.

The second panel saw an open and honest discussion on Sourcing. It featured Jennifer Holloway, CEO of Fashion-Enter Ltd; Kate Hills, founder of Make it British; Phil Oakley from Kornit Digital; and Angela Gaskell, group sourcing, sustainability and fit director, N Brown. The discussion was moderated by Suzanne Ellingham.

Jason Wang, chief operating officer, Alvanon, joined virtually for the session on digital transformation. Joining next virtually was Morgane Lopes, digital marketing director at French luxury retailer Printemps, who talked about the launch of their first metaverse store.

The final panel was moderated by Ton Wiedenhoff from Alvanon. It featured Sue Mardon form Alison Hayes; Michael Lock, VP of software sales at Lectra; Nigel Read from DeSL; Richard Jessup from gold sponsor Optitex; and Stephen Taylor from IBM who discussed the impact of consumer behaviours and how they have changed in recent times.

The Fireside Chat saw Jennifer Holloway and Kate Hills discussing the skills shortage in UK garment manufacturing.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)