Inside The Conscious Festival at La Caserne, Paris
By Marko Matysik
In the up-and-coming 19th district of Paris, you’ll find La Caserne, Europe’s largest sustainable fashion accelerator hub. During its first ever Hybrid Conscious Festival, which took place from 24-26 September, guests entered the historic courtyard filled with stands promoting innovative ideas, initiatives and regenerative products. Warmth and positive energy was flowing in abundance, giving the optimism required to rewire the fashion system, to make green the new black.
One adorable stall, for instance, was run by a trio girls from Gigi Paris @gigiparis.vintage who have a thing for Chanel buttons and linings. They adorn vintage denim Levis jackets with patches made from red Chanel jacquard monogrammed lining fabric, whilst treasured Chanel buttons are up-cycled into coveted charm pendant jewellery.
On the other side of the courtyard, the circle stand promoted sportswear, such as yoga garments and accessories made of recycled plastic bottles. To date, they have recycled 500000 bottles to make their sleek garments and that is just the beginning.
Over three days, fascinating talks with market leaders inspired guests to unlearn everything they’d known, and take a fresh outlook on regenerative practice within the realm of fashion and wellbeing.
Nora Gehrbi the Queen of Care @whocareschronicles launched her care guide in print and hosted a panel discussion with Patrick Duffy, New York's clothes swap king, and the founder of Global Fashion Exchange @GlobalFashionExchange, who has extended the life of preloved clothes and prevented them from ending up in landfill.
Christine Goulay, ex-Head of Sustainable Innovation at Kering and now Global Director of Pangaia, shared the innovative principles behind the brand’s ‘self-cleaning’ seaweed fabric infused with a mint scent. Also on the panel was Olga Chernysheva, who is the Chief Sustainable Officer at @dressxcom, a website where you can buy designer clothes that do not use any raw materials or production, instead the outfits are for your avatar or to rejuvenate your look for the digital world. There were many more fascinating discussions that you can follow, all live streamed in Singapore and London, and available for catch up here: https://hopin.com/events/the-conscious-festival-2021
In between the gripping talks, guests could take part in yoga including face yoga by @mafacialist, whist listening to live music and being immersed in art and wellbeing. Surrounding the bustling courtyard on the first floor, I found The Sustainable Angle @thesustainableangle, a not-for-profit organisation and founders of the Future Fabric Expo. They initiate and support projects with a focus on sustainable textiles, showcasing thousands of materials and sharing innovative insights on suppliers. This is a key sustainable sourcing destination for all designers and creative directors. Here you could discover the latest fabric innovations, responsibly produced materials, textiles from circular production systems and recycling technologies, as well as materials grown in regenerative organic agricultural systems.
One of the most magical moments for me was seeing the ballet dancer Gabe Stone Shayer @GabeStoneShayer who is with the American Ballet Theatre, presently a slew of major Ballet companies are fighting to have him join their company. In his impromptu performance of a classical balletic dance, he wore vintage Chanel, gliding down from the first floor to the central stage, carrying out pirouettes that made us gasp. He finished off his performance on the upper floor flanked by artwork from Fodil Drici @fodilDrici, merging music, fashion, art and dance.
Luckily La Caserne is here to stay, in facts it’s soon expanding with a vegan restaurant and nightclub serving sustainable cocktails. Watch this space.