Global Fashion Agenda, organiser of Copenhagen Fashion Summit has unveild the full programme for upcoming edition. It features a line-up of 75 leading voices and discussion topics ranging from robots to #metoo. On May 15-16, 2018, the 6th edition of Copenhagen Fashion Summit will open doors at the Copenhagen Concert Hall. Under the patronage of Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess of Denmark, the multi-stakeholder event boasts of an impressive line-up of no less than 75 speakers from the fashion industry, politics, NGOs, media and academia.

Speakers include: fashion designer and sustainable fashion pioneer Stella McCartney; Graydon Carter, former editor in chief, Vanity Fair; sustainability thought leaders William McDonough of McDonough Innovation and David Roberts of Singularity University; Margrethe Vestager, EU Commissioner for Competition; Tonne Goodman, fashion director, Vogue US; Dame Ellen MacArthur, sustainability pioneer; Spencer Fung, CEO, Li & Fung; Eric Sprunk, COO, NIKE; the founders of Vestiaire Collective, Fashion Revolution, High Snobiety and many more. The Summit will be hosted by Amber Valletta, actress, model and entrepreneur, and Tim Blanks, editor-at-large of The Business of Fashion.

Eva Kruse, CEO & President, Global Fashion Agenda, which organises the Summit, says, “I am beyond excited to reveal this year's Summit programme. It is not only filled with incredibly inspiring speakers, but the breadth of discussion topics ranging from robots to China to #metoo makes the full experience this year extra dynamic and diverse.”

The schedule

The Summit presents a thought-provoking line of topics to be addressed in keynotes, deep-dive sessions and panel discussions. Among these are ‘Don't mention the S-word’, a panel discussion challenging that sustainable fashion may be necessary, but it's still not cool. David Fischer, founder, High Snobiety; David Sinatra, CEO, Stüssy; Brendon Babenzien, designer, NOAH; and Matthew Williams, creative director, ALYX, will take part in the discussion. Another panel zooms in on China. What are China’s own brands actually doing, are manufacturers ahead of the game and what type of information is communicated to the growing number of concerned consumers? The panel will feature leading voices from China, such as Shaway Yeh of Modern Weekly and Dee Poon of Esquel Group.

Among the other topics at the Summit are: ‘The robots are coming’, a discussion on what impact a robot revolution will have on the industry’s sustainability performance; an ethical discussion on ‘The well-being of models in a #metoo economy’ featuring, among others, model Edie Campbell and casting director James Scully. A discussion on how the fashion industry can make sustainability less complex for consumers to grasp is titled ‘How do we talk about sustainability outside this room?’ and features Tonne Goodman of Vogue US, former model, now actress and entrepreneur Lily Cole, Amber Valletta and Tim Blanks.

The six fashion corporations that are Global Fashion Agenda Strategic Partners will also go on stage to address why sustainability should be a leadership priority and discuss some recommendations from the 2018 Pulse of the Fashion Industry report, which will be released one week prior to the Summit. The speakers represent Kering, H&M, Target, Li & Fung, Bestseller and Sustainable Apparel Coalition.

The programme this year at Copenhagen Fashion Summit is guided by the CEO Agenda, a common industry document, which was released recently. The CEO Agenda defines the top seven sustainability priorities for fashion industry executives to take action on, and it is these seven topics that interlink to the different sessions of the Summit.