“As consumers, we’ve probably never been safer, as citizens, we’ve probably never been as unsafe. But people don’t see that yet; they see a few more storms, a few more dry periods.” – Phil Patterson on the current state of the industry and its contribution to climate change
“When I was sitting here today listening to the presentations at Planet Textiles, honest to god we could have heard some of that four years ago from the very same people, and what that tells me is that more of the same is not going to get us to where we need to go.” – IPE ambassador Linda Greer on greenwashing by brands
“I’ve been in the denim business for 40-something years, and I’ve almost never been asked about the social compliance of my factory. So we said we would ask everybody at our Kingpins show to have a social compliance standard. We don’t think that’s a big ask; we don’t care what it is – just have one. And my rhetorical question back to the brands and retailers would be: ‘well why would you want to buy from any factory that doesn’t have a social compliance standard?” – Andrew Olah on Kingpins Amsterdam’s new stricter exhibitor guidelines
“Fast fashion has been toxic for sustainability and fashion in many ways, but fast fashion has also taught brands to be fast, agile and innovative in keeping up with consumer demand. And what that means is that they’re good at hunting, spotting and creating innovation.” – Lea Esterhuizen, founder of &Wider, on the retailers of fast fashion
“Innovation should be about making a difference. So we need more partnerships between the brands and the manufacturers, and when I say partnerships – the way we use the term now is not good enough. We need joint ventures. We need skin in the game from both sides to say: ‘hey, we’re mission driven, this is where we want to get and this is our strategy’.” – Pete Santora from SoftWear Automation on innovation
“I’m sitting here at ITMA, where you have a huge number of companies doing a lot of innovation. Lots of new technologies, all the way from process, machinery, chemistry, fibre, all sorts of innovations are happening. So this industry is innovative by nature, however I would say the brands probably are not as receptive to innovation, not because they’re not interested in it, but because of a sense of urgency – its ‘what can we do for the next season?’” – Sudhakar Puvvada, CEO, Indigo Mills talks technology
Further quotes from the interviews conducted at Planet Textiles 2019 will appear in the August/September issue of Ecotextile News. Click here to sign up today.
