Join us for this virtual fashion show and panel with special guests
Cyril Naicker
CEO, Imprint Luxury
Country Coordinator, Fashion Revolution (South Africa)
Ayesha Barenblat
Social Entrepreneur and Sustainable Supply Chain Advocate
Founder and CEO, Remake
Hyejune Park
Assistant Professor, Fashion Merchandising
Oklahoma State University
Tara Rangarajan
Head of Communications, Brand Relationships and Country Programmes
International Labour Organization
Please join the Unitarian Universalist Association Office at the United Nations (UUA@UN), United Nations Department of Global Communications, Fordham University, Fashion Revolution, and the United Nations Association of New York for this sustainable fashion show and panel event.
The event will feature sustainable fashion experts, economists, and global sustainable fashion activists. It will also include displays of recent sustainable fashion designs that you will enjoy.
The goal of the fashion event is to ignite discussion on the importance of sustainable fashion and showcase sustainable fashion designers at the forefront of sustainable and culturally diverse clothing and ethical consumerism.
The panel will discuss harmful practices and human rights violations of the fast-fashion industry. The fast fashion industry hurts millions of people and it has been justly criticized for perpetuating poverty in developing countries and perpetuating unsuitable manufacturing methods. Fast fashion is unsustainable for many reasons including natural resource extraction and CO2 emissions. We will also discuss the exploitation of poorly paid labor working in dangerous and unhealthy working conditions. At the same time, fast fashion contributes to environmental degradation.
This virtual sustainable fashion show and panel event will take place on Wednesday, February 24, at 9:30 am. The panelists will include: South African sustainable fashion activist and coordinator of Fashion Revolution, Cyril Naicker; social entrepreneur Ayesha Barenblat, who is also founder and CEO of Remake; Hyejune Park (Oklahoma State University), a specialist in sustainable fashion production; and Amber Barth, Senior Programme Officer from the International Labour Organization.
Panelists
CYRIL NAICKER
Cyril Naicker is a sought-after fashion consultant, mentor and influencer in the South African fashion space. He is often called upon to speak at events or write for prominent international fashion publications such as Glamour and Elle. A fashion designer by qualification, he has spent the last twenty years working in almost every aspect of the fashion industry. He has built an exceptional reputation for his ethical stance on fashion and has become one of the trailblazers leading the sustainable fashion movement in South Africa.
Cyril currently serves as chief executive officer at Imprint Luxury. He is a founding member of Fashion Revolution in Cape Town, and is currently the country coordinator for Fashion Revolution, South Africa.
AYESHA BARENBLAT
Ayesha Barenblat is a social entrepreneur with a passion for building sustainable supply chains that respect people and our planet. With over a decade of leadership to promote social justice and sustainability within the fashion industry, she founded Remake to ignite a conscious consumer movement. Remake’s films, stories and immersive journeys rebuild human connections with the women who make our clothes. Ayesha is passionate about where things come from, who made them and what their lives are like. She has worked with brands, governments, and labor advocates to improve the lives of the women who make our clothes.
She led brand engagement at Better Work, a World Bank and United Nations partnership to ensure safe and decent working conditions within garment factories around the world. She was head of consumer products at BSR, providing strategic advice to brands including H&M, Levi Strauss & Co., Marks and Spencer, Nike, The Walt Disney Company and Pou Chen on the design and integration of sustainability into business. She holds a master’s in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley.
HYEJUNE PARK
Hyejune Park is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Design, Housing and Merchandising at Oklahoma State University, who teaches fashion merchandising with courses on visual communication, digital retailing, and global sourcing. Park's research has addressed questions related to consumers’ interactions with technology in the retail merchandising context, and consumers’ sustainability-related perceptions and behavior within the apparel industry.
TARA RANGARAJAN
Tara Rangarajan is the Head of Communications, Brand Relationships and Country Programmes, based in the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva. In her role, she is part of Better Work’s Senior Management Team and oversees Better Work’s engagement with international brands, the global communications team, and country programmes in the Americas. She is also responsible for working with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and U.S.-based partner organizations. Prior to her role in Geneva, Tara opened the Better Work global office in Bangkok and oversaw the global team in Asia. Tara began her career in the ILO by starting the Better Work Vietnam program, which she led for five years.