Last Friday, the 15^th of September, NK in Stockholm and Gothenburg invited the public to a conversation on trends, sustainability, innovation and ownership within the fashion industry. The conversation series is called “NK Talks” and stretches  from the 15^th of September to the 30^th of September. Amongst others we will see Kristina Tjäder, Head of Design and Founder of House of Dagmar, Niklas Berglind, Stylist and Head of Fashion at Metro Mode and Frida Bard, Head of Design at HOPE. If you haven’t already, sign up here.

At the first talk for this season Elin Frendberg from The Swedish Fashion Council moderated the conversation on sustainability and ownership. Guests of the evening were Frida Bard, Head of Design at HOPE, Robert Rydberg, Stylist and Editor-in-Chief as well as Elin Larsson, Sustainability Manager at Filippa K. When asked, “who owns fashion?” all three of them agreed that brands and designers no longer dictated the streets. Today’s industry can be seen as a give-and-take relationship between the consumer and producer. What we see on the runway is wearable. This is also one of the reasons why see-now-buy-now is taking more ground. The fashion consumer of today is an informed consumer who makes quick decision and creates his or her own hype. Brands cannot afford to wait six months before releasing their collections.

Now that consumers can be seen as trendsetters themselves and fashion in some ways is democratized, who is responsible for sustainability? Elin Larsson, Sustainability Manager at Filippa K, said that it should be easier for consumers to care for their clothing. Extending the average life of your clothes by just three months leads to a 5-10 percent reduction in carbon, water and waste footprint according to Larsson. Therefore Filippa K does no longer only sell clothing, but also garment care items. She also pointed out that that wool, for example, is a self-cleaning material that only needs to be aired to regain freshness and if there is pilling you can use a sweater stone to remove it. Furthermore you should invest in an old-school clothing brush to reduce pilling and add shine to your special items.

Next weekends NK Talks invites consumers to a conversation on digitalization, interior design and beauty. Check out the full schedule and get inspired for fall.