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Authentic sustainability in fashion – with Stella McCartney

Posted on 9 December 2022

Mishcon de Reya's Retail Academy and Mishcon Purpose arm recently joined forces with Stella McCartney for a conscious fashion conversation exploring authentic sustainability within the fashion sphere.

Polly Green, an Associate at Mishcon de Reya, moderated the conversation with Philip Mak, Stella McCartney's Head of Content and Editorial Marketing, and Stories Behind Things CEO Jemma Finch. The panel discussed some of the biggest challenges facing the fashion industry in terms of sustainability, and steps being taken by the industry to implement sustainable innovation and technology solutions.

The discussion was followed by a private shopping experience to explore Stella McCartney's Spring 2023 and Festive collections.

Mishcon de Reya: It’s business.  But it’s personal

 

Sally Britton, Partner, Head of Brands & Co-Head of Retail
Mishcon de Reya

We are here to night to talk about all things sustainability as part of a collaboration between the Mishcon de Reya Retail Academy, Mishcon de Reya’s Purpose Team and Stella McCartney.

Polly Green, Associate, Mishcon Purpose
Mishcon de Reya

Sustainability is a hard thing to define because it means different things to different people and different players in the fashion industry but overall it describes processes in relation to the production and consumption of clothes and accessories which minimise negative impact on the environment and even have a nature positive effect.

Philip Mak, Head of Content and Editorial Marketing
Stella McCartney

It’s not just a sustainability department or a marketing department or a production department that needs to be doing sustainability, it’s literally everyone in the business needs to live and breathe the values.  Additionally, I mean when it comes to communications it’s all about just sticking to the actions, sticking to the innovation you know, don’t, don’t try and make things sound bigger or greener than they actually are, just stick to the truth and as long as you are authentic and transparent then you will be fine.

Polly Green, Associate, Mishcon Purpose
Mishcon de Reya

What measures can small brands who are at the beginning of their, of their journey, take to ensure that as a starting up they do have a transparent and a sustainable supply chain?

Jemma Finch, CEO
Stories Behind Things

A good place to start would be certifications, getting that third party accreditation, there are lots of amazing ones like BCorp as well as just hiring sort of third party consultancy firms to make sure that your definition of sustainability matches up with you know, other bodies definition as well, you know really getting that human environmental, social, animal aspect across the board.

Kate Higgins, Corporate Partner
Mishcon de Reya

It’s just been fantastic to be here and to meet real thought leaders in sustainable fashion but we’ve learnt some incredible things not only on the one side about the way that fashion can be a big polluter but on the other hand, some of the really real solutions which here at Stella you’re pioneering with your young innovators.  So I think it’s just been inspirational for everyone and I can’t wait to just get shopping to be honest.

Sally Britton, Partner, Head of Brands & Co-Head of Retail
Mishcon de Reya

The topic of authenticity and sustainability is so relevant for the fashion industry because as an IP specialist and as a consumer I see lots of claims everywhere and not all of them are backed up and I think it is really important to have a conversation around the claims that are made and how they are provided and look for brands like Stella McCartney that really are backing up the claims that they are making.

Jemma Finch, CEO
Stories Behind Things

My top tips for spotting greenwashing would be looking past those glossy terms and statistics and looking on to the brand’s website and seeing what public available information they are offering their consumers about their sustainability journey.

Nadim Meer, Corporate Partner
Mishcon de Reya

Hearing about the move that fashion’s making towards becoming circular I think is absolutely huge.  The negative environmental impact that fashion is having at the moment really needs to be addressed and moving towards a more circular type of industry, I think it is going to be really, really fantastic.

Philip Mak, Head of Content and Editorial Marketing
Stella McCartney

Downstairs we actually have our new S-Wave bag which is made from a grape-based alternative to animal leather which comes from winery waste from Italy, not too far from where the bags themselves are made.  Stella herself has been working on the S-Wave logo for many, many years, it’s inspired by DNA strings and sound waves and it’s a circular within an S.  It represents circularity and it’s, we put it on to our most conscious products so that our customers and our audiences in the world overall just know that this is a product that is especially conscious, sustainable, responsible and I think it’s really, I think it’s just really important to kind of communicate that in subtle, beautiful ways.

Sonal Thakrar, Partner
Mishcon de Reya

It’s so incredible to collaborate with a brand that has such the ethics and the sustainability and it’s just wonderful to be able to share this with our clients, our contacts, to bring my partners here, to have a really incredible fun evening, it’s buzzing, the energy is electric here.  We had an incredible panel talk before, it was just like a phenomenal time for us to really tune in with what’s important in the world, let’s get rid of the plastic, let’s bring the correct technology in place, let’s have fun doing it.

Retail Academy

Mishcon de Reya
It’s business.  But it’s personal

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