BARRIERS AND BRIDGES: REFLECTIONS FROM THE GLOBAL FASHION SUMMIT

The Global Fashion Summit always leaves me feeling a mix of emotions. There’s hope in the room. There’s urgency. And this year, a very honest recognition that the industry is still holding onto systems that aren’t built to support the kind of change we say we want.

This year’s theme, Barriers and Bridges, felt especially relevant. Every session seemed to come back to the same questions. What is holding us back, what are we building towards, and who gets to be part of that process.

There were moments of real inspiration. There were also moments that made it painfully clear just how far we still have to go. But, the conversation did surround people, systems, relationships, and whether we are willing to slow down enough to rethink how things actually work.

These are some of the insights and reflections that stayed with me.

WHERE IT REALLY BEGINS

The session on Jobs With Dignity really set the tone for me.

Kalpona Akter, Executive Director of the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity spoke about the latest protest for living wages in Bangladesh. All workers asked for was a minimum wage of 23,000 taka, which is about US$208.00 a month (not nearly enough for a decent living wage). Four people were killed during the protests and many injured. The new minimum wage achieved is just 12,509 taka (About $103.00) and rent alone can take up a third of that.

Even when wages increase, landlords often raise the rent. And most brand pricing structures still do not account for the real cost of a living wage.

The conversation also touched on how climate change is already affecting workers. Rising heat and new illnesses are creating extra medical costs, with no support system in place. There is no climate fund. No safety net. Just people absorbing these impacts on their own.

This is what a real barrier looks like. It is the daily reality for the people at the heart of this industry, so we must look at the systems and contexts we are operating in to truly understand how we can create thriving livelihoods for everyone involved in it.

THE COST OF GETTING A JOB

Another thing that stuck with me was the conversation around recruitment fees. In places like Taiwan, migrant workers can pay up to $6000 just to get a job. The lower the wage, the higher the fee. And once they arrive, they often can’t leave until the debt is paid off.

Even if conditions are poor, they’re stuck. Some pay interest on top of the fee, so it can take years just to break even. It doesn’t matter how well they’re treated if the system itself is exploitative.

Different workers are charged different rates, and the whole setup is designed to make money off of them before they’ve earned anything.

The solution is simple in theory but hard in practice.

As one speaker put it, we need to change systems with a human lens. That means starting with the basics. Everyone deserves to work without being indebted before day one.

RETHINKING WHAT VALUE MEANS

One of the most powerful undercurrents of the summit was the idea that not everything needs to scale. Growth is not always the answer.

Michael Casucci from Cerrtilogo said it clearly.  “Sometimes doing something well and keeping it small is more valuable than expanding for the sake of it.”

Veja shared how they work with about ten core materials across their entire supply chain and how that choice brings focus. It limits unnecessary decisions and it helps them stay committed to building long-term relationships, like the one they have developed with 12,000 rubber tappers in the Amazon.

I always believe in simplification and that constraint is not always a limitation. Sometimes it is what allows things to work more intentionally.

RESALE NEEDS MORE THAN A LANDING PAGE

Resale came up a lot throughout the week. It is often positioned as a solution to overproduction, but the reality is more complicated.

Resale and repair can absolutely play a role in building a slower system, but only if they are properly resourced. Right now, the biggest barriers are not interest or innovation. They are logistics, operations, and the lack of support for the people making it happen.

The potential is fully there. Resale can extend the life of products and deepen the relationship between brands and customers. But it cannot work as an afterthought. It really needs to be part of the business model from the beginning in order to have it function well.

CIRCULARITY STARTS BEFORE THE PRODUCT IS MADE

There was a lot of talk about circularity, but the most meaningful insights came from those doing the quiet work behind the scenes.

Hasiru Dala in India reminded everyone that recycling does not happen without sorting. People sorting all waste. Their teams are collecting and separating textile waste every day. It is not flashy work, but it is essential and it is a step of the value chain that goes unseen. What they really need and are asking for is support in investment and better tools, not charity.

I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but if we want true circularity, we need to have the reverse logistics in place to deal with it and that is all about people. Collectors, sorters, repairers, recyclers, the whole ecosystem  of people involved to make textile-to-textile recycling a true reality. Take a look at the work Accelerating Circularity does to see how many partners (people) are needed to make it happen!

SYSTEMS ONLY WORK WHEN PEOPLE CAN USE THEM

The conversations about digital product passports and traceability brought up a different kind of barrier.

The EU is rolling out new requirements in 2027 that will make it easier to track the environmental and social impacts of products. But most brands have not started preparing, even though they are already developing collections for 2026!

But the issue isn’t just about timelines. It’s about who is expected to make these systems function. In most factories, it is admin staff or production managers who are asked to input the data, who are often under pressure and do not have the context or time to do it well.

If we want better data, we have to make systems easier to use. That means designing tools that work within existing workflows and involving suppliers in the process from the beginning. Otherwise we are just pushing the burden down the chain and calling it progress.

INNOVATION IS NOT ALWAYS ABOUT SPEED

There were some exciting material developments this year in the Trailblazer and Innovation sections!

AmSilk is producing silk using fermentation. The process starts with microbes and sugar and ends with a protein that can be spun into custom luxurious yarns. Leaf Bio is creating BioFleax™, a cellulose-based fiber, that is positioned to replace PET with their PEF pellet and Lycra is looking at 100% biobased feedstock for their bio derived Lycra product.

These are long-term projects. They do not offer instant solutions, but they show what is possible when innovation is driven by systems thinking instead of speed.

MEMORY AS RESISTANCE

One of the most moving moments came from Andri Snaer Magnason, a writer and documentary film director, who spoke about story telling’s role in memory.

He created a memorial for the first glacier that melted in Iceland. Without it, that loss would have gone unmarked. He reminded us that fashion has the power to hold memories, but only if we let it.

So much of the fashion system is built around forgetting. Forgetting who made our clothes. Forgetting where materials came from. Forgetting the impact. Remembering is one way to resist that. To make things visible again.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Barriers and bridges are not just structural or financial. They are social. They show up in who is included, who is heard, and who gets left out.

This year’s summit was a reminder that we already have many of the tools and ideas we need. What we are missing is shared responsibility, shared decision making, shared building.

The people doing the most essential work (garment workers, waste sorters, factory teams) are still too often excluded from decisions that affect them directly. If we want to build something better, they need to be involved from the start.

Because the bridge is not technology. It is not even policy. The bridge is people. And we will not get far without them.

Until next time, always be curious and stay diligent friends x