Wearing green

How can we reduce the massive carbon footprints of the fashion industry? During the first workshop of DEDI Green Gate 2022 held in August, the 22 participants were looking for answers to this question and sharing experiences and knowledge.

By Rowan El Shimi

It’s an unusually hot day in Copenhagen. A group of Danish and Egyptian youth sit in a circle in the garden outside the Danish Design Museum reflecting on the past three days together exploring the sustainable fashion scene in Copenhagen. The oddly scorching heat Europe has been seeing over the summer is the perfect backdrop, illustrating the importance of this conversation taking place.

“One of the big challenges when you want to do something sustainable is lack of knowledge,” Ioana Opris reflects. “You can only address that through reading and networking with people who have that knowledge. I think that’s what Green Gate does – it really opens us up for new knowledge that we are lacking.”

Iona Opris is the founder of NORDKONCEPT, a brand producing innovative two-piece zip on jumpsuits operating in a circular concept, and one of the 19 participants. The project is bringing together Danish and Egyptian entrepreneurs, designers, consultants, and students in the fashion field with a focus on sustainable practices for two workshops. The first took place in Copenhagen in the first week of August and included visits, dialogue, inspiration, and talks by experts.

“I’ve met Haidy El Gendy who has connections to sellers of Egyptian cotton and knows a lot about it. I’ve also met Menna Remah who makes patterns and now the three of us are really connected in a dialogue. Another participant works with recycled material – something I had not thought about using but now I think some of my garments can be made from that fabric. This week has been very fruitful. I have a lot of partnerships in mind that can be carried out,” Ioana Opris says.

New insights

The workshop was focused on inspiration and innovation while exploring diverse business models. This manifested in visits to organizations and key players in the fashion and design industry in Denmark such as the Royal Danish Academy, one of the most prestigious design schools, the Lifestyle and Design Cluster, a creative lab for innovative design startups, and Creative Denmark, a public-private partnership fostering relations between international stakeholders and Danish design industries.

During the visit to the Danish Textile and Fashion Association, Marie Busck, head of CSR and Sustainability gave a presentation of the latest report on the state of affairs of the Danish fashion and design industry. The central question, that we are all trying to answer, she explained, is how we can turn a linear ecosystem in the fashion industry into a circular one?

And indeed, this question was on everyone’s minds throughout the week. It manifested itself in conversations, reflections on the projects of the participants and questions to the speakers who were invited to engage with the participants.

To Haidy El Gendy, it was an eye-opener when Jørgen Sevild introduced the use of 3D software during the visit to The Lifestyle and Design Cluster. Jørgen Sevild is Chief Growth Officer at Bandicoot Imaging Sciences, one of the resident startups at the Cluster.

Bandicoot offers a simple service that allows designers and manufacturers to digitize fabrics to work with on 3D software for fashion design. Working this way means minimizing fabric waste during the design and manufacturing cycle.

“I have been focusing on how to upcycle factory textile waste into new products, but this talk opened my eyes to the possibility of minimizing the waste to begin with – something I hadn’t thought of before. This was very inspiring,” Haidy El Gendy says.

Haidy el Gendy is the founder of Cotton Town, a marketplace for all stakeholders working with Egyptian cotton. During the days in Copenhagen, she also found possibilities to collaborate with other participants who were interested to incorporate the textile waste in their work.

Besides the visits, another pillar to the program was for participants to gain new skills through peer-to-peer exchange.

One of the participants, Ioana Opris, gave a workshop on sustainable business models and pitching your business to collaborators and investors.

“It was really incredible to gather so many brilliant minds,” says Youssef Anwar, a footwear designer starting his own sustainable brand and administrative manager at his family business that provides chemicals for footwear soles. “Exploring pitching and discussions around business models’ discussion with Ioana comes to mind. The whole workshop was incredibly interesting because it was really detail oriented.”

On the workshop’s first day, a panel discussion took up central question of “Who is responsible for sustainable fashion?”. The speakers included designer and consultant Olivier Ishimwe, vintage fashion blogger and founder of online store ‘FredFoundit’ Frederikke Riisberg and sustainability fashion consultant Nanna Graversen.

“The panel discussion provoked us into a very interesting debate because all the speakers had very different points of view,” Basma Tawakol, founder of Dayra, an online platform for selling used clothes says. “Everyone has a role to play; governments, civil society, retailers and consumers. I think it’s a collective effort that starts at the individual level; every small action has an impact.”

Dialogue and collaborations 

Since the core of what DEDI Green Gate is about is the peer-to-peer exchange, plenty of time was allocated to that – both in a facilitated manner and leaving it to happen naturally over dinners, in free time or while exploring the city together. And many of the participants were excited to start partnerships together or simply support each other in their work.

Basma Tawakol found many promising opportunities for partnerships. “Because I’m in retail, I can collaborate with 90 pct. of the participants. It’s amazing growth potential for Dayra to find partners with similar values,” she says commenting that she already has a solid partnership in place with designer Menna Remah. “We are discussing launching a collection of upcycled garments made of Dayra’s deadstock as a part of Dayra originals partnerships campaign with fashion designers,” she adds.

While some gains from dialogue can be tactile others can be more subtle.

“Shahin told me you just have to go through it when it’s rough,” Jeanette Loua, co-founder of Copenhagen based MUNK&LOUA design studio for textile production says about fellow participant Ahmed Shahin founder of Noon Leather Handcraft in Cairo. “It sounds very simple but it’s not always easy because life as an artist or an entrepreneur is so romanticized. Still, there are very unromantic aspects of having your own business. There are many ups and downs. What I got from these conversations was not necessarily something concrete but that these feelings are universal.”

Next stop: Egypt

This October, the participants will be coming together once more for a workshop in Egypt. They will be exploring the sustainable fashion scene in Cairo, learning about options for micro-financing and developing the burgeoning collaborations and partnerships that initiated in Copenhagen.

“This was one of the most valuable exchange programs I’ve ever been on. It made me realize the importance of continuing to be in this kind of setting which you tend to forget in your day-to-day life in business,” Norhan Elsakkout, founder of slow fashion brand Saqhoute says. “It’s important every few years, or whenever you can to put yourself in such a setting where you can open yourself up to others, have a safe space, not feel threatened by competition and really be present to try and find solutions to a challenge we’re all facing.”

For Ioana Opris, a common concern is vital in bringing people together. “Because we have similar goals, everyone cares about the environment, everyone cares about producing sustainable products we had really good communication between us,” she says. “It shows that if you’re in the right room with people who care about similar things you really can achieve a lot together,” she concludes.

This project was managed by Civic Partnerships Manager Rana Khamis, Project Officer Yousra Fouda and consultant Sonja Katharina Zipelius.

 Read more from DEDI:

Meet the participants for DEDI Green Gate 2022

Why is DEDI working on sustainable fashion

DEDI Green Gate 2021: Urban agriculture and sustainable leisure.