Polestar x Swedish Fashion Council: driving change through collaboration

After cancelling Stockholm Fashion Week in 2019, the Swedish Fashion Council (SFC) came back wearing a whole new costume. An unconventional one. They became an organisation with a mission to bring the fashion industry into the future by working to promote, educate, and innovate the Swedish fashion scene and make it competitive.On November 9^th SFC gathered its international and local communities to highlight the new era of Swedish fashion with the launch of ‘Fashion Transformation’, a report series that explores the expansion of the second-hand market, the rise of digital fashion, the implication of the fourth industrial revolution, as well as the importance of social sustainability.

The two-day programme kicked off with the report launch at a fully packed Polestar Stockholm while a panel was hosted by the Swedish Fashion Council, where industry experts gathered to discuss common challenges and how to overcome them.The panel was moderated by Lucy Maguire, Senior Trends Editor at Vogue Business, and participants included Isobel Farmiloe, Strategy Director at Dazed Media; Jonatan Janmark, Partner at McKinsey & Company; Danica Kragic, Professor in Computer Science; Suzan Hourieh Lindberg, Founder of The Social Few; Linn af Klint Kansmark, Circular Business at H&M; Fredrik Timour, Founder of Fashion Innovation Center; Lisa Lang, Director of Legislation and EU Affairs, EIT Climate KIC; and last, but surely not least, our very own Komal Singh, Color and Material Designer at Polestar.

During the discussions it was said that design is a driving force in the ongoing fashion transformation and that designers, be it in fashion or cars, now have an added responsibility to address climate issues and push boundaries to redefine luxury for the sake of our environment, in addition to making beautiful things that people want.Generation Z was also mentioned multiple times during the panel, as a key player in the transformation due to their approach to sustainable fashion. Research shows that 62% of Generation Z make conscious decisions as they prefer to purchase ethically produced goods from sustainable brands, even though they might have to pay more.

As a result of the ever-growing consciousness among consumers, the second-hand market is booming, and by the looks of it, will only continue to grow. This puts some much-needed pressure on the fashion industry and its brands to not only talk about sustainability but to actually become sustainable. And the brands that do not embrace this transformation and follow suit? They will simply be left behind, predict the experts.

Throughout the event, Polestar provided a climate-neutral shuttle service that enabled international and local press, as well as other parts of SFC’s community, to travel around Stockholm and meet with some of the most innovative players within fashion today, such as Hodakova, AVAVAV’s Creative Director Beate Karlsson, Jade Cropper, Selam Fessahaye and Rave Review, among others that are part of the internationally recognised SFC [Incubator].

To wrap up the two-day [X]perience, the Swedish Fashion Council hosted a dinner on November 10^th to celebrate the beginning of the future with the launch of SFC [Fashion X], a new digital platform highlighting the voices shaping the future of fashion, as well as the SFC [BOOK] 'MODE 2022'.Interesting meetings and conversations took place at the event and it became evident that a lot of people and brands are committed to rethinking old ways and finding innovative solutions through collaboration, both within and across industries.

‘’No one can solve the challenges we’re faced with all by themselves’’, says Jennie Rosén, CEO of the Swedish Fashion Council. ‘’That is why cross-industry collaborations like the one between Polestar and the Swedish Fashion Council are key when driving change’’.