ReMode Aims to Change the Industry’s Vision for Sustainability and Innovation
As an entrepreneur, Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel never starts anything he can’t finish. And the proof is in the pudding—as Hurstel now boasts a career that has reimagined and, more importantly, remade the modern fashion industry.
Hurstel’s pursuit of the next big thing in innovation fashion began in 2007, when he co-founded Kpress, a media tool that helped to increase the impact of organizations’ latest news and updates. Later, in 2010, he co-founded Blue Change, a change and strategy management consultancy boutique firm that consults (mostly luxury and fashion) businesses through various transformation projects, including mergers and management restructuring.
These early initiatives planted the seed for Hurstel’s newest venture, one that he founded with INFORMA (previously UBM) just this year: ReMode.
ReMode is the premier global fashion event for disruptive and sustainable fashion. It will bring together innovators across the entire value chain of the fashion industry to share ideas, find practical solutions, and forge new connections.
“The mission of ReMode is ambitious: to promote responsible growth for the fashion industry by redefining the narrative and catalyzing success for brands and retailers, while encouraging them to operate more responsibly on all fronts—socially, ethically, and environmentally,” explains Hurstel.
In short, ReMode’s speaker sessions, workshops, and exhibitions were created to highlight the industry’s many disrupter brands and simultaneously offers insights into sustainable sourcing, the shifting retail landscape, and new technologies in the process, with an emphasis on verticalization and omnichannel success.
In fact, the changing fashion industry and evolving shopper served as the driving force behind Hurstel’s inspiration for ReMode. A more discerning, equipped, and increasingly digital consumer means brands and retailers must adapt—and fast. At the same time, there is mounting pressure on the fashion industry as the environmental and social impacts of apparel production, manufacturing, and consumption have become increasingly public and more acutely felt. If the industry continues as is, Hurstel points out, it will account for a quarter of the global carbon budget by 2050—and that’s a lot of blame to bear.
Furthermore, climate change is one of the reasons why ReMode emphasizes bringing retailers, brands, and solution providers together to find a solution. And Hurstel and co. have been pleasantly surprised with the result—for an industry synonymous with competition and secrecy, ReMode has seen an incredible desire, from both established retailers as well as emerging startups, to create a brave new world of collaborative, sustainable fashion.
“At Allbirds, we’re dedicated to rethinking the way the footwear industry operates and bringing a new level of sustainability to all our products. We’re passionate about creating new materials and processes that have the power to spark industry-wide change, and that’s why we’re so excited about ReMode. This conference is an amazing opportunity to come together with other leaders in fashion and retail to discuss the current hurdles to sustainability and collaborate on innovative solutions that can make a real impact,” says Joey Zwillinger, co-founder and co-CEO of Allbirds.
Emerging solution providers represent an especially important element of ReMode. Its layout was designed to put both established and emerging innovators at the very core of the two-day event. ReMode’s center, the Agora, named after the Greek pavilion used as both a public center and marketplace, serves as the event’s informal meeting place, co-working space, and showcase for innovative startups. After all, it is these innovators that are pioneering sustainable new materials, omnichannel shopping platforms, AR and VR shopping experiences, blockchain, textile recovery, and supply chain solutions, that Hurstel believes exemplify the future of the fashion industry.
“Technology and innovation will solve the previously intractable issues the industry faces,” Hurstel urges. “For example, AI will help brands better understand their customers, predict trends, and calculate demand, making the right amount of the products people love and producing less waste—good for the bottom line and for the planet.”
Hurstel’s own ideas and solutions for fashion’s sustainability crisis along with his extensive contact base from many fruitful years in the industry allowed him to curate ReMode. Take, for instance, his time as chief executive officer of Curvexpo, the leading tradeshow platform in North America for intimate apparel and swimwear, or now as EVP of Strategy and Business Development for INFORMA’s fashion group (previously UBM Fashion), the largest events organizer in the world—all of which were venues that allowed Hurstel to connect with some of the top executives within fashion.
And many of these executives will be speaking at ReMode. The event’s lineup of more than 150 confirmed speakers includes CEOs and senior executives from fashion brands, retailers, investors, and sustainability experts from well-known brands, including Laurent Claquin, head of Kering Americas; Kelly Kowal, managing director of Farfetch, Black and White; Michael Preysman, founder and CEO of Everlane; Joey Zwillinger, co-founder and co-CEO of Allbirds; Rosario Dawson, co-founder of Studio One Eighty Nine; Rati Sahi Levesque, chief merchant of The RealReal; Paul Dillinger, VP of Product Innovation of Levi Strauss & Co.; Amy Hall, director of Social Consciousness of Eileen Fisher; Lawrence Lenihan, co-founder and co-CEO of Resonance; and many more.
“We are attracting speakers who are solving the industry’s greatest challenges,” notes Hurstel. “From the first string of yarn to the final consumer, ReMode is bringing together all sectors of the fashion industry to collaborate, innovate, and take action towards a responsible growth. Attendees will leave the event equipped to break barriers and understand how to truly make a difference within their organizations.”
In the spirit of breaking down these age-old industry barriers, ReMode has curated over 75 workshop sessions to equip attendees with a strong action plan for an omnichannel growth strategy that can be executed in a responsible and sustainable way. Sessions and workshops will be organized into four pillars, each representing the different ways to solve problems holistically and approach meaningful change from all angles. Sessions will be tagged so that brands and businesses of all sizes can attend the sessions most relevant to them.
So what are these all-important pillars? Rest assured they will carry a certain sense of familiarity for ReMode’s attendees, as the show will be challenging the fashion industry to ReThink, ReMake, ReMarket, and ReInvest through its two-day run.
ReThink, the first of the pillars, provides insights into understanding the changing customer, learning from other industries, and understanding new, groundbreaking technology. ReMake will allow participants to explore new and sustainable design and production, learn how to accelerate their time to market, understand what’s needed to digitize their design process, and discover emerging wearable technologies. With a Focus on omnichannel success, ReMarket will discuss a variety of marketing, sales, and retail strategies, share how to develop and grow a direct-to-consumer business, and uncover what it means to have a winning wholesale strategy. ReInvest will cover new ways to finance with a particular emphasis on raising money, important KPIs, valuations, and possible exit strategies.
“The rapidly evolving fashion landscape challenges designers to grow their businesses in new and innovative ways,” says Steven Kolb, president and CEO of the CFDA. “By partnering with ReMode, we can help our designers navigate the new realities of the fashion business.”
While certainly spoiled for choice when it comes to panels and workshops, attendees will also have the opportunity to complete their profile on ReMode’s AI-powered matchmaking app. The app allows showgoers to receive customized recommendations on fellow attendees who share similar interests and expertise, speaker sessions that they would benefit from, and solution providers who can help them address their own business’s needs and goals. Additionally, organized dinners for attendees at trendy LA restaurants, networking mixers, and morning fitness classes will keep the conversation going and further encourage collaboration among participants.
“We’re only going to get better together. Making fashion truly sustainable is unbelievably complex, and we can only get there if the best minds are willing to come together and deeply collaborate,” says Andréa Mallard, chief marketing officer of Athleta.
ReMode will also showcase several unique installations, one of which is the U.S. premiere of X-Ray Fashion, an immersive, multisensory virtual reality experience directed by Francesco Carrozzini. X-Ray Fashion premiered earlier this year at the 2018 Venice Film Festival, and explores the darker side of the fashion industry, bringing participants face-to-face with the reality of cotton fields, dyeing vats, sweatshops, and landfills the industry is ultimately responsible for—a reality that Hurstel seeks to change in the mission fostered at ReMode.
Another must-see at the event, LA-based ethical boutique, Galerie.LA, will create a concept shop featuring a curated selection of contemporary sustainable apparel and accessories brands. Kestrel Jenkins, host of the popular sustainable fashion podcast Conscious Chatter, will be on-site powering the digital element of the Galerie.LA installation, live interviewing innovators and leaders in the industry.
Finally, ReMode is also working with the Conscious Fashion Campaign and the United Nations Office for Partnerships to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, as part of a larger partnership with Informa’s Fashion group. The initiative aims to harness the power of retailers, media, and celebrities to embrace impact driven fashion brands to create positive change and drive conscious consumerism.
“I hope that attendees walk away from ReMode with actionable insights, invigorated networks, and the solutions needed to change fashion for good,” Hurstel says.
Therefore, with visionary executives like Hurstel at the helm, there’s no doubt that fashion will undergo a new renaissance of sustainability and alacrity—a sort of remake, if you will.
ReMode will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Downtown LA on November 13-14, 2018. For more information or to register online, visit remode.com.
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