Sustainability at Paris Textile Fairs: between visionary and greenwashing

Twice a season the fashion circus congregates in Paris not for showing their own achievements off, but rather to get inspired for their own ‘what comes next’.
For not quite a week, Paris converts itself into the Mekka for the sourcing specialists of brands of any caliber: large and well renowned household names, both premium as well as well affordable, take turns with the owners of small-scale designer labels in checking out what major European and overseas mills and manufacturers have to offer.

Considering niche efforts such as The Sustainable Angle (UK/CH; on and offline), C.L.A.S.S. (IT), or Lebenskleidung (DE) offering services to fashion brands of all sizes, or Offset Warehouse to DYI sewing aficionados, the question evidently is what is going on at most known fabric fairs in terms of sustainability efforts.
And this from more than one angle: on the one hand the promotion of ‘better’ fabrics and materials is of course of relevance, but beyond that also the stringency with which such efforts are being undertaken and promoted.

In this article, I’ll give a brief overview of 2 locations, and 3 shows: Paris’ Première Vision and TexWorld, and Italy’s Milano Unica.

Première Vision

PV, as the show is also called, is more than ‘just’ a textile fair. In parallel, and belonging to the same holding we can find: Cuir à Paris (recently acquired), Expofil, Modamont and Zoom. Together they cover the whole gamut of fashion/textile related services: from yarns, to fabrics, trims and makers of garments.

Looking through ‘Cuir ä Paris’ it is rather evident that for the leather trade, sustainability – environmentally as well as socially and lastly also animal welfare – is not a new topic. More than just a handful companies market themselves under ‘sustainability’, ‘eco’, ‘fair production’ or similar flags.

But what about the rest of the exhibitions, notably those that have come into existence from within the PV holding itself?
The first time PV offered anything on the realm of sustainability was in autumn 2012 when Sophie Bramel – a French-American journalist – put together a panel of speakers for the fair. The event was rather well visited, while the speakers not always really knew why they were there in first place.
In autumn 2013 the event was repeated, with a different set of speakers on the panel. Again there was a good amount of interest response.
This season, spring 2014, CLASS Ecohub – thanks to its director’s Giusy Bettoni’s personal connection – was sponsored a stand for their fabrics. Important to know: CLASS only and exclusively features fabrics my Italian mills that have some type eco credentials.

This all said, when I asked Philippe Pasquet, CEO of PV, about his company’s forward strategy considering double digit growth in the area AND the activities by their direct competitor TexWorld by Messe Frankfurt, the answer was roughly along the following lines:
PV does not want to do or promote greenwashing, certainly does not believe in any ‘sustainability’ labelling, specifically not within its own confines, and does generally not think that there is a specific strategy required for them to be put in place.

All fair and good. If not – here is the problem – a visit to the trade fair floor shows immediately substantial inconsistencies with the above statement, as can be seen on the pictures underneath:
PV actually does offer their exhibitors PV approved labels that identify fabrics as ‘organic’, with ‘eco-friendly finishing’, or from ‘responsible production’.
Notably: without there being any explanations whatsoever nearby or in the catalogue.

I have approached their PR person about this mismatch and the statements made by Mr. Pasquet during the press conference on exactly that topic. I am currently waiting for them to get back to me with the results of internal conversations and checks.
But – and it seems that all indicators are pointing into the same direction – PV is not taking the topic seriously, and is consciously or not, engaging in greenwashing and misleading eco-labelling.

TexWorld, Paris

Part of the Messe Frankfurt textile emporium, TexWorld has clearly taken upon itself to create competition to PV. Well, sort of. Because, were PV exercises tight control of its exhibitors through a vetting process that makes sure that only top-of-class mills, factories and companies exhibit, TexWorld organisers have realised that many brands are looking for more economic, but qualitatively none the less performing suppliers.
And this is precisely what TexWorld is catering to: not the crème-de-la-crème of suppliers, but one rank down from there at least in terms of price and originality of products.
On other words: suppliers that deliver at a relative economic price level, not quite as development savvy, but otherwise good, flexible mills and manufacturers keen on acquiring business from Europe.
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of suppliers stemmed from China, and were clearly geared towards fast fashion as well as medium to low segment brands/collections.

Messe Frankfurt started investing consistently in developing the ‘sustainability’ aspects of their textile trade fairs rather early on, and this keeps being an ongoing effort.
Initially this happened through requesting their Heimtextile exhibitors to answer to and submit a rather thorough questionnaire about any credentials and materials that they would want to promote. More recently, they have extended their efforts by acquiring the Ethical Fashion Show and the Green Showroom platforms, by integrating a ‘sustainable sourcing‘ pathway into their main fairs (TexWorld, Heimtextil etc.), and through their Texpertisen newsletter and network.

Milano Unica

Italy is not the most evident place in terms of developments in the sustainability area – yet, Milano Unica has pushed ahead over the course of the last year and a half with a stringent approach, and a slowly but surely increasing outreach.

Three seasons ago, and with a period of serious pre-screening and preparation, they launched the ‘Sustainable Fabrics and Accessories‘ catalogue.

The catalogue is probably among the most stringent that so far has been launched by any of the textile oriented trade fair organisations around.
In the first edition of the catalogue just over a ago, the number and range of (Italian) manufacturers represented was still relatively limited – result of the fact that they had been approached relatively late, and the whole concept additionally being entirely new to the fair. Ever since though, every edition of the catalogue since managed to include further manufacturers, and by now is a firm part of the Milano Unica landscape.

Alongside the catalogue, Milano Unica has further managed to show case a dedicated trend area with sustainable fabrics, as well as panel discussions – to which in the latest two editions also Greenpeace was willing to participate – along the latest developments not the least around Detox and related developments.

Conclusion

While early in the overall development, it is clear that sustainability cannot be left off the agenda of major textile and fashion trade fairs anymore.
But like among businesses, the way the three major organisers of those fairs take the topic onboard, ranges from greenwashing to re-active but stringent through to pro-active and forward looking.
The stringent approaches are laudable and exactly what it needs to built trust of apparel brands as well as the suppliers in what this development entails. However, that a huge organisation such as PV resorts to what looks akin to greenwashing, is a rather worrying perspective.