Speakers

Keynote: Professor Kate Fletcher, Centre for Sustainable Fashion

Kate Fletcher’s work is both rooted in nature’s principles and engaged with the cultural and creative forces of fashion and design. Over the last two decades, her original thinking and progressive outlook has infused the field of fashion, textiles and sustainability with design thinking, and come to define it. Kate is Professor of Sustainability, Design, Fashion at London College of Fashion where she has a broad remit spanning enterprise, education and research. She has over 50 scholarly and popular publications in the field.

Exploring big change by starting small, Kate will talk about two movements for change: the ‘craft of use’ as a way to glimpse fashion beyond consumerism; and localism, as seen through her current work Fashion Ecologies.

Nik Engineer, Global Partners Lead, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Nik leads the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's relationships with its Global Partners, each of of whom are pathfinders within their respective industries, exploring the potential of the circular economy as a source of value creation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Nik worked as a management consultant helping organisations clarify purpose and improve performance in the areas of commercial development, operations and talent. He was most recently a Director of Global Client Strategy at Korn Ferry, one of the world's leading talent advisory organisations.

Nik will provide an overview of the circular economy and outline the opportunity for the fashion and textile industry to inspire a generation within a new model of growth and prosperity in the digital age.

Dr Parik Goswami, Associate Professor and Director of Research and Innovation at School of Design, University of Leeds

Dr Goswami heads the Fibre and Fabric Functionalisation Research Group at the University of Leeds. His domains of research are product development using flexible materials and application of chemistry for functionalising textiles. Dr Goswami manages a large profile of research concerned with fibre/polymer science, textile finishing and plasma technology, nonwovens, medical textiles (implantable materials, non-implantable materials), sustainable materials (fundamentally understanding the properties of new materials), textile chemistry, and fibre reinforced composites. He is a Member of SDC’s (Society of Dyers and Colourists) Education, Qualifications and Accreditation Board (EQAB) and was a member of EDANA’s Board Working Group on Sustainability.

Dr Goswami’s presentation will highlight sustainability within the technical textiles sector and he will use case studies from his research.

Emma Hamilton-Foster, Environmental Sustainability Manager, Primark

Emma Hamilton-Foster is Environmental Sustainability Manager at Primark, having spent the previous 10 years running environmental initiatives in businesses including Burberry and BHP Billiton.

Emma works as part of Primark’s Ethical Trade and Environmental Sustainability team – a team of 75+ people working on the ground in key sourcing countries to ensure products sold by Primark are made with respect for workers’ rights and the environment. As part of her role, Emma manages the implementation of Primark’s environmental sustainability programme, working closely with NGOs, trades unions, other brands and partners across its supply chain.

Emma will share Primark’s experience of working in collaborative partnerships to deliver effective change for women in developing countries. She will draw on Primark’s work with female smallholders in Gujarat, India, to help them introduce sustainable farming methods, improve their cotton yields and increase their incomes.

Debbie Luffman, Product Director, Finisterre

Finisterre is a Cornwall based clothing brand, born from needs of hardy British surfers, Finisterre designs functional and sustainable product with a strong sense of style for those who share a love of the sea. Debbie has worked at Finisterre for 8 years after previously working as a designer in high street fashion brands. As Product Director she is involved in all aspects of Finisterre product from design, fabric development, supplier sourcing through to buying.

Debbie will explain how Finisterre approaches the realities of making the best product with the least environmental impact, through unravelling the supply chain and engaging with the modern conscious consumer.

Dr Alison Gwilt, Reader in Fashion and Sustainability, Sheffield Hallam University

As a fashion design researcher, author and consultant Alison explores and promotes a range of innovative design methods and approaches that enable the fashion and textiles community, from educators, to producers, and consumers, to adopt more sustainable and ethical practices. Her work focuses on the use of positive/sustainable design interventions that challenge the current production and consumption paradigm. Alison’s books include ‘Shaping Sustainable Fashion’ (2011), ‘A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion’ (2014) and ‘Fashion Design for Living’ (2015).

In this talk Alison explores user-centred approaches to fashion that enable designers to consider and respond to people, their lived experiences, and actual and everyday problems or scenarios.

Professor William Young, Professor of Sustainability and Business, Co-Director of the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds

William’s research is focused on consumer behaviour around sustainability issues. He will be talking about the mainstreaming of sustainability issues in consumer attitudes along with some behaviours and how retailers and consumer-citizens are filling the void being left by slow government action. He will use case studies from his research such as green behaviour inventions with Asda’s customers. William will also show how big data can help us understand consumer behaviour better and linking to the environmental impacts using examples from his work at the ESRC Consumer Data Research Centre.