Indian Innovators Who Are Presenting at Fashion/textile Innovation Platform FFG's Fashion Week in Amsterdam

What effect does Fashion Week have on consumer buying behaviour? In recent decades, the concept of fashion week has changed and fashion weeks have grown in parallel with the ongoing commercialization of the fashion industry. This results in growing marketing budgets at fashion houses and clothing brands who organise ever larger fashion shows. Products are copied directly from the catwalk by 'fast fashion' brands and in addition to spring/summer and autumn/winter collections, evermore collections are added. Consumers are used to this rapid output of new products in stores, buying more clothing and swiftly discarding them for the next trend.

The unsustainable nature of this fast pace has been widely criticised: collections become irrelevant once fashion week is over and the industry is already looking to the next season. On the other hand, fashion weeks have become more democratic, images are immediately shared online, everyone can get an unfiltered look of the shows and can form their own opinions about it.

The Fashion for Good (FFG) Museum opens a new exhibition “Fashion Week: A New Era” on May 20. Every year during Fashion Week the latest fashion is shown on catwalks in Paris, Milan and New York and other metropoles across the globe.

Indian Innovators Who Are Presenting at Fashion/textile Innovation Platform FFG's Fashion Week in Amsterdam
Fashion for Good Museum new expo  [credits - Kyla Elaine]

This iconic event has a major impact on the fashion industry and on our own wardrobes. In 'Fashion Week: A New Era', the Fashion for Good Museum unpacks the Fashion Week, delving into its past, present and future. View historic looks from the runways of Balenciaga, Versace, Moschino and many more; discover the innovative work of Dutch fashion designer Ronald van der Kemp and digital fashion house The Fabricant. 'Fashion Week: A New Era' celebrates fashion through the years and explores how this phenomenon influenced the fashion industry and what the future of Fashion Weeks will look like.

An important focus for the exhibition is a glimpse into the future of fashion weeks which includes a showcase of unique sustainable looks from the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) with Lakmé Fashion Week, composed of collaborations between fashion designers and start-ups. Presenting this in the exhibition is significant to the story exploring the future of fashion weeks as it demonstrates a future that celebrates a recent push towards more collaboration and accountability when it comes to the industry.

Below are the Indian Innovators who took the Lakme Fashion Week by the storm and are now presenting their work at FFG's fashion week in Amsterdam.

ALTMAT

AltMat is an alternative materials company closing the gap between the waste of today and the materials of tomorrow.

One of its key technologies transforms agriculture waste from food crops into a rich natural fibre called Altag. Altag is made through a scalable technology and extensive ecosystem that helps thread sustainability, inclusivity and performance into one. Altag is not only apt at saving water, carbon, chemicals and energy but also performs par excellence.

Passed through tests and pilots, the materials are now made at industrial scale and are selectively commercially available. AltMat eyes continuous scaling to bring materials change for the world with 0% guilt, 100% sustainability.

GRAVIKY LABS

Graviky Labs uses carbon sequestration to store carbon from the atmosphere. They process those emissions into usable carbon. From fueling a jet to inks that print the most incredible art – this usable carbon changes the world, quite literally. Plastics, Ethanol, Liquors, AIR-INK Paints and more can be made from sequestered carbon. Their invention AIR - INK is made from upcycled carbon emissions - it is black, carbon negative, and directly usable in existing production lines.

KBCOLS SCIENCES

KBCols Sciences, a biotech studio fueled by innovation, is producing sustainable natural colours from living, safe microorganisms. Microbes, which are omnipresent in nature (and not visible to naked eye), are sourced by KBcols Sciences through their technology to get natural colours of choice. The food which is supplied to microorganisms to produce colours is composed of agricultural waste, thus making a completely circular production process. The final product (bio-colours free from any microbes) can be used as a universal drop-in solution to dye the majority of natural and synthetic fibres.

What Is the Future of Fashion Week Worldwide?

The new exhibition from the Fashion for Good Museum lets visitors discover how the 'Fashion Week' began at the end of the 19th century as intimate salons and which clothes were on display. Travel through the timeline to get a closer look at the highlights and the iconic runway looks from the likes of Balenciaga, Versace and Moschino.

The Future Is Sustainable

For all the praise of the fashion novelties on display during Fashion Week, there is also criticism of major fashion shows as sustainability is becoming indispensable in the design and production of clothing. FDCI x Lakmé Fashion Week (India) raises awareness of this and has been organising a Sustainable Fashion Day during the fashion week for more than five years. 'Fashion Week; A New Era' features several sustainable looks from a collaboration between the Fashion for Good Museum and The Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) with Lakmé Fashion Week. The looks created by fashion designers Divyam Mehta, Ka-Sha and Nitin Bal, together with Fashion for Good innovators AltMat, KBCols Sciences and Graviky Labs respectively, show for example, how agricultural waste can be converted into a new material and how carbon dioxide is converted into a type of dye.

Indian Innovators Who Are Presenting at Fashion/textile Innovation Platform FFG's Fashion Week in Amsterdam
Helsinki Fashion Week digital village - credits Evelyn Mora

Due to the COVID pandemic, a lot of activities shifted online, including shopping and work. The fashion industry also continued to develop online, physical shows were cancelled and new creative presentations took their place. In 'Fashion Week; A New Era', discover how runways, shows and entire collections look virtually. Attend digital shows from The Fabricant or Tommy Hilfiger (Decentralands' Metaverse Fashion Week) and explore what a fully digital Fashion Week looks like (Helsinki Fashion Week). Finally, you can also enter the metaverse yourself. In the new expo you will find the Digital Village installation where you can build your own digital model and have it walk in a digital fashion show designed by you.

Street Style Photo Wall

Not only are the fashion shows themselves a highlight, but also the visitors of those shows have become part of Fashion Week. On the streets outside of the show locations, photographers shoot Fashion Week visitors in their most beautiful outfits. Street style photography is an essential part of the exhibition, and the Fashion for Good Museum has selected works from New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham on display. He photographed the first Paris Fashion Week, but in the 1970s he became best known for his street photography which captured the intimate atmosphere around fashion shows, the visitors on the street and the goings on behind the scenes. Become part of the 'fashion scene' yourself; pose at the photo wall and shoot your own 'street style photography'.

Why This Exhibition?

What effect does Fashion Week have on consumer buying behaviour? In recent decades, the concept of fashion week has changed and fashion weeks have grown in parallel with the ongoing commercialisation of the fashion industry. This results in growing marketing budgets at fashion houses and clothing brands who organise ever larger fashion shows. Products are copied directly from the catwalk by 'fast fashion' brands and in addition to spring/summer and autumn/winter collections, evermore collections are added. Consumers are used to this rapid output of new products in stores, buying more clothing and swiftly discarding them for the next trend.

The unsustainable nature of this fast pace has been widely criticised: collections become irrelevant once fashion week is over and the industry is already looking to the next season. On the other hand, fashion weeks have become more democratic, images are immediately shared online, everyone can get an unfiltered look of the shows and can form their own opinions about it.

Discover the evolution of the Fashion Week in the new exhibition "Fashion Week: A New Era" from May 20, 2022 to October 2022 at the Fashion for Good Museum.

Fashion for Good Museum is located at Rokin 102 in Amsterdam. The museum is open from Wednesday to Monday from 10am to 6pm (closed on Tuesdays only).

To visit the museum tours with a private guide are recommended, this can be done both virtually as well as physically in Amsterdam. For more information, visit www.fashionforgood.com/museum

ABOUT THE FASHION FOR GOOD MUSEUM

The Fashion for Good Foundation, with ANBI (Public Benefit Organisation) status, opened its doors in October 2018 as Experience and is an interactive sustainable fashion museum at the Rokin in Amsterdam. The museum tells the stories behind the clothes you wear and how your choices for those clothes can have a positive impact on the fashion industry. Fashion for Good believes that this industry can and must change, and helps to spread the right knowledge about this. A must-visit for anyone interested in fashion, sustainability and innovation.

Fashion for Good not only works as a changemaker with the museum, but also brings the fashion industry together through their Innovation platform. This platform brings together innovative solutions and international fashion labels and manufacturers to drive and scale new technologies and business models to transform the industry.

The organisation is supported by the Laudes Foundation as initiator and also receives support from the AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts), the Kickstart Cultuurfonds and the European Union through the Allthings.bioPRO project, part of the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The Fashion for Good Museum is officially registered with the Museum Register and the Museum Association.

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