FASHION IN ANTWERP
The city boasts one of the world's oldest academies and one of the most renowned fashion colleges. Many alumni from the Antwerp Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts belong to the top of the international fashion scene. Once a year, in June, the current fashion students showcase their creations during the SHOW.
The MoMu, Antwerp's Fashion Museum, is a must-see for fashion lovers from Belgium and abroad, where every year, two themed shows are organised, turning the spotlight to a designer or a unique aspect of fashion.
The city prides itself on workshops and stores of fashion talent from Antwerp and elsewhere. Add to this the trendy flagship stores and exclusive store concepts, and you pretty much get a complete picture of fashion in Antwerp. Thanks to all these different facets, Antwerp is considered an outstanding fashion city, with good reason.
Flanders DC
Flanders District of Creativity is the single point of contact for entrepreneurs in the creative industries in Flanders. Flanders DC is a non-profit organization, supported by the Flemish Government. They actively inform, coach, promote and inspire creative entrepreneurs who want to build or grow their business. In cooperation with the Enterprise Europe Network Flanders we invite you to register for this matchmaking event to find new potential business partners.
Expert Talk
Shift towards circular fashion
1. Welcome by Hajar Zamouri, Advisor Enterprise Europe Network Flanders at VLAIO
2. Introduction: Why make the shift towards circular fashion/textiles? With examples from the Belgian fashion industry,
by Rozanne Henzen, researcher at the Expertise Center for Sustainable Transformation at AMS and author of the Little book on Circular economy for Dummies (in Dutch).
Today’s linear economic model is based on the principles of take-make-use-waste. This has made our global society unsustainable. Overproduction, loss of biodiversity, waste, climate change, resource scarcity: this economic model has reached its limits. If we want to sustain our global society and offer opportunities for a growing population, the economy needs to transition from being primarily a linear process to being a circular process of borrow-make-use-return. In this introduction we explore the basic principles of a circular fashion industry and show you local examples from Belgium.
3. Circular business models for the fashion industry.
Walter Van Andel, PhD researcher on entrepreneurship and creativity at the University of Antwerp
Given the importance of and interest in becoming more sustainable as a fashion company, the question remains how individual companies can achieve such goals? In this talk, we’ll focus on the concept of the business model as a tool for converting desired results into actionable plans. This talk will cover the fundamentals of what a business model is, and will introduce some ways in which circularity can be incorporated into a business model in the fashion industry.
4. Best practice from the Flemish fashion industry.
Mark Vandevelde, founder of the brand Komrads, sneakers built entirely from re-used and recycled materials
5. Close The Loop, by Jasmien Wynants, Flanders DC
Flanders DC and Circular Flanders have developed a Close The Loop tool to guide fashion entrepreneurs through the basics of a more sustainable way of working. With this online platform they want to encourage the industry to steer clear of a linear system (take-make-waste) and to embrace a more circular approach instead (with a focus on durability and avoiding waste).
6. Closing
Prof. Dr Annick Schramme, Academic Director of the International Fashion Management Master at AMS
6. Q&A
