The fashion industry has woken up to sustainability in a major way in the past few years. Designer Eileen Fisher and Yael Aflalo, chief executive officer and founder of Reformation, are ahead of the pack, having made sustainability core to their businesses and seen considerable growth as a benefit. The executives discussed their philosophies on sustainability and business along with Cara Smyth, founder of the Fair Fashion Center and vice president, executive board member of the Glasgow Caledonian University, on a panel moderated by WWD news director Lisa Lockwood.
In 2015, Eileen Fisher implemented her Vision 2020 commitment to making her company completely sustainable. Making sustainability part of her business model had a core part of the company culture for years. “We’ve had a head of social consciousness and sustainability for 25 years now,” Fisher said. “It’s very embedded but we didn’t talk about it because it never felt good enough.” When she put Vision 2020 into the public domain, it was a result of a “leadership moment,” Fisher said. “We decided at a large offsite to commit to this idea to become 100 percent sustainable, and I remember thinking, ‘I have no idea if that’s possible.’”
Accepting the fact that addressing
Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
Read More…