The second speaker was Burak Cakmak, who has been involved in mass market and luxury for over ten yeas, and is former director of CSR at Gucci Group, speaking about ‘Luxury Brands as Sustainable Role Models’.

He began by stating that ‘the textile indusHe began by stating that ‘the textile indus-try is one of the major polluters’, and that between the 1980s and 2013 it is estimated that the amount of cotton produce went from 18 to 59 tonnes, and therefore we need to look to alternatives, saying that ‘brands need to look at where their sources are coming from’.coming from’.

Burak detailed the idea of a zero waste policy, focusing on the three key areas of product level, brand level and corporate level. Brands involved in this zero waste policy are Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein.

Luxury businesses are using interest in craftsmanship and heritage to promote sus-tainability. Burak’s list of examples in-cluded the creation of a Gucci bag with profits going to UNICEF. While not sustain-able itself the brand is still identifying itself with sustainability. Similarly Yves Saint Laurent’s New Vintage Collection used left over fabrics to create a window display in New York, meaning les waste on a product level. Other example included Livia Firth’s Green Carpet Challenge, Manolo Blahnik’s Eco Show and Yves Saint Laurent’s ‘Muse two’ bag was made from recyclable plastic bags and cotton.cotton.

Burak declares that ‘it is becoming more fashionable to create green products’.

Joanna Norman was the first to address the conference, highlighting Kingston University’s ongoing involvement in sustainable industry. These involvements include the Green Growth Bootcamp launched in November 2011, and the rematerials library, which was started in 1994 based on the fact that 90% of material that is thrown away is recoverable.

Connections that the University has formed with the industry are founded on a combination of ‘enterprise and partnership’, holding the belief that it is now fashionable to be sus-tainable.

Of Kingston University, Joanna states that ‘sustainability is core to our thinking and being’, and that they aim to develop a liaison between industry and academia.

Kinston University and InCrops benefit from mutual publicity and awareness, inspiration and enterprise, students gain experience and funding, and employability. For the collabo-ration between InCrops and the MA Fashion Design course at the university, the Student’s design brief was to ‘identify one or two key areas that marry your fashion practice and the introduction of bio materials, to the luxury high end fashion sector’.