Johan Kryger
The Danish Fashion Institute initiates the so-called Nice project, to ensure that the Nordic countries will become pioneers in sustainable and ethical fashion. Project manager Johan Kryger is at the thick of it all, and we caught up with him to learn why it is that sustainability is so NICE.
The Danish Fashion Institute has joined forces with the fashion industries from the rest of Northern Europe in the so-called NICE-project. The biggest step in the process so far will take place in May, when Copenhagen will host the world’s largest summit on the matter, the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. We talked to Project manager at Danish Fashion Institute, Johan Kryger.
First, tell what NICE is all about.
NICE stands for Nordic Initiative, Clean & Ethical. Put briefly, NICE is a pan-Nordic project with the primary objective to position the Nordic fashion industries in the field of sustainability. NICE is by no means a holy crusade against conventional production methods used today, but it’s a pragmatic approach to how we can secure the Nordic fashion industries in a context of tough global competition. At Danish Fashion Institute we don’t believe that sustainability will be the decisive factor when it comes to fashion – that will still be the cut, colors, and the design. People buy fashion to feel sexy and comfortable, but I believe they will go for the sustainable alternative if they had the option.
It sounds like you’re saying that ultimately NICE is more about money than ethics?
No, but in the real world you can’t really have one thing without the other. At the end of the day, you can talk as much about as you want about ethics and sustainability, but if it doesn’t affect the bottom line figures, it won’t really matter.
Most of the influential designers are located in Milan, Paris, New York, or London, while the majority of the production takes place in Asia. Can the small Scandinavian countries really change all that much in the big picture?
Yes! There’s no doubt that Copenhagen will have a hard time competing against the so-called “big four” [Milan, Paris, New York, and London], but by focusing on green innovation, we can create a fifth fashion-group with our own characteristic. Sustainability is simply a natural extension of what we already think of as the DNA of Scandinavian fashion; values such as democracy and cleanliness. Back in the ‘90ies Denmark focused a lot on renewable energy, which has made us [Danes] the world’s leading country in windmill technology and production. Basically, we’re looking to achieve the same thing for the Nordic fashion industries.
How receptive do you sense the industry is towards sustainability? Like, how long do you think it will be before we can actually see measurable results of your work?
The results are there already, but whether it’s because of our work is hard to answer, since we’re just supporting a process already in progress. What we can do is just continue our support in the best way possible, and make sure that Denmark and the rest of the North makes the agenda on sustainability their own, which we achieve by doing things such as organizing the world’s largest summit on sustainability and fashion, the Copenhagen Fashion Summit in May this year.
What are you more specifically looking to achieve with the Copenhagen Fashion Summit?
Well, a big, international event of those proportions as the Fashion Summit, and with partners such as the United Nations and the European Union backing us, we can’t help but to gain attention from all over the world, which is exactly what we want. We want there to be more focus on sustainability in fashion, and to show people that sustainable fashion doesn’t have to be boring or unsexy. We want to spread knowledge, e.g. by informing that the fashion industry is world’s second most polluting industry globally, and that a regular t-shirt that most of us own, can “cost” 2.500 liters of water to produce – and that’s from places where water is already a meager resource. In other words, we simply just want tobring some attention to the huge problem that hides behind all the pumps and champagne.
What will your role be at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit?
Given my academic background [in political science], my primary objective will be to activate the political sphere in relation to the Fashion Summit and our further engagement at the Rio+20 negotiations this summer. It’s really important to make sure that the right politicians show up and that they will take ownership of the subject. Also I’m working on a side-project, the Youth Fashion Summit, which is a summit for young designers, business school students, and youth politicians. Apart from that there will be tons of hands-on tasks to attend to.
You just mentioned your academic background, but you have a lot of practical experience working with fashion. Which of the two – the political science or the fashion – is most important to what you do?
Well, I will actually say it’s the combination. A big part of my job is in “translating” fashion to something that the politicians and officials can understand and vice versa. Take for example next week: Wednesday I’ll be having a meeting at the EU commission in Brussels, and Thursday I’ll be going to the Paris Fashion Week – they’re two very different worlds that we need to get to work together on sustainability.
So what can you do as a regular consumer, if you want to support the bigger cause?
The consumer has an enormous impact when it comes to fashion. If the clothes are of a decent quality, about 50% of total energy consumptions come from washing the garments. Most laundry detergents on the market today work perfectly well at as low as 15º C, but still most people wash at 40º or 60º C. Also there’s a tendency to over-wash your clothes. So the big difference you can make as a consumer would be to be more rational when it comes to washing your clothes.
Finally, what are your own personal ideas on the whole sustainability subject?
Well, like most other Danes, I’ve been brought up with drinking organic milk and economizing on the electricity, but regarding fashion I must admit that before it wasn’t really an issue to me. However, after becoming a part of the NICE project, with all the knowledge I’ve acquired in this position, my view has changed dramatically. The way clothes are manufactured these days is simply not, well, sustainable in the long run, and whether we want to or not, I think it’s simply something we have to do something about sooner rather than later.
The Copenhagen Fashion Summit will be held on May 3.
19 / 06 / 2012 // von Soren Romer
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