Sustainability In Textiles | Gilles Lasbordes, Premiere Vision Director

Première Vision introduces 'a Better Way' in its Summer 2023 edition, taking place from 4th to 6th July. It is new sustainability and innovation program. We interview Première Vision General Manager, Gilles Lasbordes, to know more about the fair and next steps the textile industry should take for a more eco-conscious and transparent future.

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Première Vision Paris is one of the most global fashion trade shows and events that plays a role as the biggest platform for the fashion and textile industry. Held twice a year in Paris with over a 1,000 exhibitors, it offers a massive source for fashion. It brings everything you need to know about current trends in designs, including innovations in fabrics, leather and accessories. In the July 2023 edition, Première Vision Paris is coming back with “a better way”, a new program to be more committed in sustainable garments and eco-responsible fashion future. Their goal is to bring together exhibitors and visitors around the themes of social and environmental responsibility.

RESPONSIBLE DESIGNERS AND EXPERTS: DO NOT MISS THIS!

Smart Creation is a space dedicated to sustainable innovation from 56 exhibitors: Smart Materials zone: 33 exhibitors, Smart Tech zone: 20 exhibitors, Smart Services zone: 3 exhibitors. In the Smart Creation area, you can also find 5 visit itineraries dedicated to eco-responsible sourcing. Visitors will have access to a large choice of conferences dedicated to the challenges of eco-responsible fashion. They will be held at the show in the brand-new PV Hub (Hall 6) and online. In addition, a half-day event on July 5 will be dedicated to Smart Tech.

Visitors will also discover the latest study carried out by the Institut Français de la Mode as part of the IFM-Première Vision Chair regarding consumer behavior towards eco-responsible fashions in Europe and the United States. The results will be unveiled during a conference hosted by Gildas Minvielle, Director of the Institut Français de la Mode’s Economic Observatory. Tuesday, July 4, 4pm - Talks Area (Hall 6).

The Trend Tasting Eco-Innovation fashion seminar (Talks Area, PV Hub - Hall 6) will be also a must. Created by the Première Vision fashion team to better target industry expectations, this presentation takes a concrete look at Autumn-Winter 24-25’s eco-friendly developments for impactful and committed sourcing focusing on key trends and sustainable innovations in fabrics, leathers and accessories. It will take place on Tuesday, July 4, 12 noon; Wednesday, July 5, 11 a.m.; and Thursday, July 6, 12 noon.

The Eco-Innovation zone in the new SOURCING SOLUTIONS forum (Hall 6) will allow you to discover the most inspiring and innovative eco-responsible products selected from exhibitors’ collections by the Première Vision fashion team. A space that will also feature: Première Vision’s 5 eco-responsibility criteria / A Smart Creation exhibitor index / An index of fiber producers and spinners at Yarns.

DEADSTOCK NOW FEATURED AT SMART CREATION : because the development of more responsible fashion is intensifying and needs to be accelerated, Première Vision has been proposing a dedicated deadstock trail on its Marketplace since the February 2023 edition. Exhibitors can present collections and stocks of materials from prior seasons. At the July 2023 show, the Smart Creation space will host 4 players specializing in the resale of deadstock. Each in their respective domain will be offering visitors a means of sourcing upcycled creative materials and giving manufacturers the chance to resell their stocks from past collections. This new service addresses not just the issue of small quantities, which are often desired by designers and young brands, but also to matters relating to budget reduction and sustainability.

Luxiders Magazine interviews PV's General Manager Gilles Lasbordes for better understanding about the fair and to give you some exclusive information about it, providing valuable insights and personal thoughts straight from him as a director of the show.

INTERVIEW WITH GILLES LASBORDES, PREMIERE VISION'S GENERAL MANAGER

How is Première Vision contributing to sustainability in fashion, and what can we expect to learn from the July 2023 edition?

Since 2015 and the launch of Smart Creation, the universe encompassing the sustainable and technological innovations of Première Vision exhibitors, the goal has always remained the same: to bring exhibitors and visitors together around themes such as social and environmental responsibility. With this in mind, Première Vision Paris is now launching ‘A better way’ : the sustainable program for more transparent sourcing.

You have launched a new program called “A Better Way”. What difference will this program make compared to last year’s show?

The new solution ‘A better way’ analyzes exhibitors’ eco-responsible initiatives and highlights exhibitors’ efforts to buyers and visitors, using pictograms displayed directly on the stands of this year’s 290 participating exhibitors, and in the Première Vision Marketplace. Deployed on a voluntary basis, the «a better way» approach is intended above all to be positive and virtuous, and will not propose any ranking or rating. The visual display on the stands, consisting of pictograms, aims solely to qualify an exhibitor’s level of sustainability in the following 5 criteria: Social Initiatives; Product Composition/Processes; Traceability; Production Sites' Impact; Finished product durability and end-of-life.

©Alex Gallosi for Premiere Vision

Gilles Lasbordes, General Manager at Premiere Vision

As director of the show, you are the main witness to how the industry is changing in this respect. How do you feel about the change? Are companies ready to create truly sustainable products in a sustainable way? Is the government ready to lead the change? Why is the change not happening as fast as it needs to according to the EU Sustainability Goals?

In terms of eco-responsibility, consumers have high expectations: they are looking for a more environmentally-friendly fashion. The fashion industry, for its part, has been interested in eco-responsibility for several years now; there has been a real awakening to the issue, and many initiatives have been launched.

"In France, there are many different requirements governing these issues. At European Union level, 16 laws are currently under discussion to specifically regulate the fashion industry." - says Gilles Lasbordes, Premiere Vision's General Manager.

Première Vision's role is to support the industry by giving it the resources it needs to understand what's on offer, what the regulations are and everything else that's going on. Companies are becoming increasingly responsible, but the transition may take a little time. The transition is progressing more or less quickly, depending on the company and its resources.

What are the biggest innovations or changes in sustainability you’ve seen at the show over these years?

There's innovation at every level, in every sector of the industry: new materials, new industrial processes, new chemical products... But it's in the world of Tech and Fashion Tech that we've seen a lot of new solutions arriving, like the digitization of textiles.

Indeed, Digital Fashion, AI and the Metaverse seem to be the pillar of the new change. What innovations have surprised you today in this respect?

Recent developments in AI technology and the innovation sector, raise a lot of questions about fashion's relationship with design and creation. How will brands work tomorrow? How will each part of the fashion industry work in the future? On the Smart Tech zone of the Smart Creation Area (Hall 6), we are presenting many tech innovations, such as artificial intelligence, algorithms, traceability, and blockchain, etc, to support the sector in its digital and ecological transformation with optimized design and production processes, for a more sustainable and traceable industry: Trend data and online listening, market analysis, labeling...

The cost of implementing sustainability in companies and products is the main brake on change. In your opinion, what developments are really needed to bring sustainability fully into the industry meanwhile saving costs, which is the main accelerator of change?

Total traceability will certainly be one of the most important factors of transformation. Total traceability will bring best practices within the fashion industry. With the new regulations - that will gradually be introduced in the European Union - all parties involved will have to be 100% transparent, according to the same criteria. A single set of criteria for the entire industry will bring transparency, coherence and ease of control. This transformation obviously has a cost, but I don't think that transparency in traceability is the most expensive aspect.

What would the next step be for both buyers and manufacturers in order to accomplish better sustainability?

The biggest challenge is to come to an agreement on common criteria. Today, governments and manufacturers do not really agree on the criteria or strategy to be adopted to promote eco-responsibility. The level of requirement is different from one player to another. So, it's very complicated for manufacturers, who have to deal with different demands from one buyer to another, each with their own criteria.

"The fashion industry’s players, from manufacturers to brands, have all different criteria and requirements when it comes to being transparent and eco-responsible. So, it's very complicated for industrials, who have to deal with different demands from one buyer to another, each with their own criteria. All players must agree on the same strategy and references."

To do so, the next big steps should come from the governmental and European rules which should help the whole industry being more coherent. By our side, we are trying to help them through different tools I talked about: from our new ‘a better way’ programme to our dedicated conferences, and pedagogic seminars and forums’ information.