
Mediterranean Fashion Revolution – The Future is already here

While the Mediterranean fashion industry has been having the talk on transparency, ethical standards and reducing environmental degradation, it has not always been walking the talk. If fashion houses want to remain avant-garde, they must redesign their thinking beyond next season, and take part in the sustainable fashion revolution.
Textile is the second-biggest consumer of water, and you may not be aware of it, but the textile industry has a dark stain. Textile dyeing is the second-largest polluter of clean water globally. Polyester microfibers add to ever-growing volumes of plastic in the environment. Most garments are not biodegradable, and present serious threats to our oceans and wastelands. Growing cotton increases the impact of toxic chemical use in agriculture. Let us not even touch upon gender, human and labour rights.
Most alarmingly, consumer behaviour has shifted, and consumer purchases have increased by 60% in the past 20 years. Eighty per cent of discarded textiles ends up at landfills. Only 20% of clothing globally is reused or recycled, and less than 1% of collected clothing is recycled.
The circular economy as the upcycling, recycling, decomposition, re-assembling, conversion, repair, composting or smelting of products and materials, which have served their purposes. The fashion industry should redesign its social and environmental footprint. It should be more mindful of diminishing natural resources, environmental pollution and the exploitation of nature, people and animals, and it should tackle the unequal distribution of commodities.
20th November 2019
#MediTex19
Programme
9:00 – 9:15
Registration
9:15 – 10:30
Consuls Room
Official Opening of the First Day of MedaWeek Barcelona 2019 and the Mediterranean Textile Forum
The 13th edition of MedaWeek Barcelona (Mediterranean Week of Economic Leaders) will focus on the Mediterranean textile sector, which has many challenges to face, notably thanks to the Fourth Industrial Revolution which promotes environmental and social sustainability as well as the inclusion of innovative technologies.
10:30 – 11:00
Coffee Break
15:30 – 17:30
Daurat Room
The Future of Mediterranean Textile
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is here and it is disrupting fashion as much as other businesses, and the industry is facing many challenges that need to be tackled systemically.
Due to the swift pace of change and disruption in business and society, the time for the Mediterranean textile industry to join is now.
The Fashion Revolution is already affecting businesses through digital fabrication technologies, sustainable manufacturing, 3-D printing and new computational design techniques. How can the fourth industrial revolution affect in the Mediterranean fashion industry?
Mediterranean textile also has to face the issue of human dignity in global supply chains, outlining the evolution of worker rights, norms and standards, and revealing key monitoring and tracking technologies. Given the pressure that the fashion industry faces to manufacture products ever faster and cheaper — and the high-profile factory tragedies in some sourcing countries in the Mediterranean region and globally — fast-fashion and high street chains are particularly concerned.