“Survival is the next supertrend.”
-Cyrill Gutsch
Parley founder Cyrill Gutsch presented the vision and strategy for the Material Revolution at the CFDA’s Seventh Annual Fashion Education Summit. Held February 22-23 at the Crosby Street Hotel in New York, the event brought together educators from more 20 participating American fashion design programs, alongside CFDA program participants, members and industry for discussion around the theme ‘Materials Matter, from test tube to emerging industry innovations.’
Cyrill spoke about what motivated him to transform a career in design and product development into a new kind of environmentalism with creativity and collaboration at its core. Led by eco innovation, a process which requires questioning the status quo and harnessing imagination to invent the future, the Parley AIR Strategy (avoid, intercept, redesign) provides a flexible, scalable formula for change and a global framework for individuals, businesses and governments to create it.
Cyrill shared the stage with Marc Dolce of adidas Brooklyn Farm. In partnership with Parley and through the implementation of our AIR Strategy, adidas has committed to remove virgin plastic from its supply chain, using Parley Ocean Plastic as a messenger and early catalyst for change.
The goal of Parley and its global network is to help ensure today's fast-emerging environmental ideals are transformed into strategies, and that these strategies are implemented and acted upon at a rate that can outpace the destruction. Fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world. It is also one of the most influential. Therefore fashion designers, and especially educators and students, have the power to play a pivotal role in the creation of a better reality — one where the economic system of humanity thrives in harmony with the ecosystem of nature. In this new landscape, purpose is the new luxury. The next supertrend: survival.
