There’s power in numbers and The LIONS Management and Fashinnovation event proved exactly that.
The two powerhouse brands, The Lions, known for their talent roster, and Fashinnovation, known for their community building across tech and fashion, combined forces for an earth month panel.
Fashinnovation’s co-founder, Jordana Guimarães expressed her excitement on the partnership with The Lions. “We really connect people globally to speak about the importance of innovation in the fashion industry. It really includes four pillars, which are sustainability, entrepreneurship, inclusivity, diversity and technology and it’s all about how we use these technologies across the supply chain for a more sustainable industry,” she shared. “So, The Lions, they have the talent, they have the models etcetera and I feel like for me when I think about sustainability my mind immediately goes to people. And for me, its super important when we think of people it includes everyone. So really the partnership with The Lions is a way for us to really push out the importance of people in terms of sustainability in the industry in bigger ways.”
The panel, led by Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins from Business Insider, featured Ngozi Okaro, founder of Custom Collaborative, Leonard Marano, President of the Americas, Lectra, and Yao Huang, founder of Hatchery and a board director of Carbon Optimum. They spoke about the collaboration of technology and people, what this looks like and how it will impact us in the future.
“One of the things we’ve heard about is on demand manufacturing. On demand manufacturing changes some things but not everything. Even the [Kornit Presto Fabric Printer demo] we just saw, the printing and the cutting still requires someone to put the pieces together, it’s just a little bit easier and faster because the lines are already drawn there. So I think that that’s important to talk about. But some things we don’t know right? Because we don’t what the technology is going to be five years from now, let alone ten years from now. But I think the more on demand manufacturing is really important,” said Ngozi Okaro. “A friend has a company in the Bronx that is doing some data driven on demand manufacturing, for his company and others, so there are jobs that people are doing now, that we will just need to transition people to, to learn new skills so whatever it is people will be able to do as long it’s designed intelligently.”
Aside from the insights, the event lent itself as a networking and educational opportunity as well. Guests mixed and mingled while snacking on authentic Brazilian hors d’oeuvres and cocktails, including Astral tequila and Starla alcohol free wine, throughout the Lectra office space. Lectra staffers demoed the Kornit Presto direct-to-fabric printer, a technology that saves 55,771,899 liters of water in a year compared to traditional printing methods. Meanwhile, a few feet to the right, mannequins donned impressive gowns from the Custom Collaborative training program, a nonprofit dedicated to giving low to no income women the skills to run their own design business.
Be sure to click through the gallery for an inside look at the event.
