Kerry Bannigan has dedicated her career to pioneering global fashion and media initiatives to accelerate transformative action for social, economic and environmental change. Most recently, she helped launch the Fashion Impact Fund, an organization to uplift the work and contributions of women social entrepreneurs with the aim to create a better future for people and planet.
The Fund hosted a luncheon on September 14th to celebrate the Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle Network, a program co-led by The Fashion Impact Fund and the Division for Sustainable Development Goals – United Nations Department of Economics for Social Affairs and the United Nations Office for Partnerships. Guests included CFDA Scholars Bailey Adams and Padina Gibbs as well as Elaine Gold Launch Pad’s Leila Du Mond of Cyril Studio and Abrima Erwiah of Studio 189 and now also the Founding Director of the Joseph and Gail Gromek Institute for Fashion Business at Parsons, The New School.
The Fashion Impact Fund’s latest initiative is the Conscious Fashion Campaign: New York in collaboration with the PVBLIC Foundation and the UN Office for Partnerships. It will spotlight 10 women social entrepreneurs transforming the fashion industry in a collective billboard campaign during New York Fashion Week 2022. The opportunity is open globally to women social entrepreneurs aged 18+ who are transforming fashion by supporting the advancement of at least one Sustainable Development Goal. Applications are open now through October 20th at https://www.consciousfashioncampaign.com/newyork
We spoke with Bannigan to hear more about the work the Fashion Impact Fund is doing, and the opportunity the Conscious Fashion Campaign presents.
Kerry, it’s great to speak with you. Can you start off by telling us more about the Fashion Impact Fund as the next phase of your work? What are the goals and key pillars?
From July 2018 – July 2021, the Conscious Fashion Campaign in collaboration with the UN Office for Partnerships created high-visibility fashion event partnerships to accelerate global industry action in support of the Sustainable Development Goals. Through advocacy, education, and engagement the campaign mobilized industry stakeholders to advance solutions for social, economic, and environmental change. The campaign partners collectively represented over 800 annual events in 40 countries hosting 12.2 million industry attendees and 136,000 exhibiting fashion, textile, and lifestyle businesses.
From learnings via our global partnerships with the Conscious Fashion Campaign program as well as the stark realities exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is no understatement that for progress to be achieved it is critical that the fashion industry prioritizes gender equality with women being fairly represented throughout the value chain and those women advancing change in fashion must be represented in global media.
We have launched the Fashion Impact Fund to support women social entrepreneurs that are transforming fashion for people and planet. Through finance, media and business partnerships, the Fashion Impact Fund amplifies the visibility and advances the economic empowerment of women social entrepreneurs shaping the new era of fashion.
The Conscious Fashion Campaign is a key program of the Fashion Impact Fund. The Conscious Fashion Campaign, in collaboration with the PVBLIC Foundation and the UN Office for Partnerships, amplifies advertising representation of women social entrepreneurs who are shaping the new era of fashion for people and planet by showcasing their work in global billboard and digital campaigns. With women receiving only 25 percent * [Global Media Monitoring Project 2020 – 2021 Final Report] of news features globally, the Conscious Fashion Campaign aims to increase the visibility of fashion-focused women social entrepreneurs to scale their impact in support of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle Network is a recent initiative; tell us more about this.
I truly believe that as an industry once bound by competition, the fashion sector today understands the power of partnerships to drive transformative action towards a responsible future. The Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle Network is an online platform for industry stakeholders, NGOs, and Governments to showcase actions, report progress, and share solutions accelerating the sector’s contribution to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. The collaborative community aims to inspire innovative ideas, connect industry leaders, and enable new partnerships to enact sustainable change.
The network is managed by the Division for Sustainable Development Goals – UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the UN Office for Partnerships, and the Fashion Impact Fund. Registered commitments are published publicly and form the basis of periodic evaluation of how the fashion and lifestyle sectors are driving change and implementation of the SDGs in the Decade of Action. The Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle Network welcomes all areas of the industry to register their initiatives and as a managing partner, the Fashion Impact Fund will run some programming specifically for women social entrepreneur’s members.
You have been doing so much incredible work driving forward these initiatives and working with the UN Office for Partnerships to accomplish the SDGs. How are you continuing to incorporate the SDG’s in your work across all programs and initiatives?
Given its global reach, the fashion sector is uniquely positioned to collaborate and engage on the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular on confronting the climate crisis, achieving gender equality throughout the value chain, and ensuring a resilient post-pandemic recovery.
The core mission of the Fashion Impact Fund is to support women social entrepreneurs who are advocating for a new paradigm in the sector – one that leads towards an inclusive, equitable, and resilient world; this naturally aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals agenda.
The Conscious Fashion Campaign will be launching in global markets ensuring to amplify the visibility of women shaping the new era of fashion. Not only does our work seek to educate and advocate about the Sustainable Development Goals, we aim to support and highlight those that are advancing the Sustainable Development Goals in the sector.
The Advisory Committee includes:
Shawnte Brown, Stylist and Founder, Shop OTNT
Sheena Butler-Young, Correspondent, The Business of Fashion
Tricia Carey, Director of Global Business Development, Lenzing
Marsha Cooke, Senior Vice President Global News and Special Projects, VICE NEWS
Laura Sophie Cox, Celebrity and Editorial, Fashion Stylist
Dominic-Madori Davis, Reporter, Entrepreneurs Business Insider
Isabella Fish, News Editor, Drapers
Sophia Kianni, Founder & Youth Advisor Climate Cardinals, UN Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change
Sara Kozlowski, Vice President, Education and Sustainability Initiatives, CFDA
Sara Maino, Head of Vogue Talents, Conde Nast
Tracey Meyers, Market Editor, Strategic Content Development, WWD; Strategic Content Editor, Fairchild Media Group, WWD / Penske Media Corp
Thania Peck, Founder / Sustainability Advisor, Catcher in the Style
Lyn Slater, Content Creator, Accidental Icon
Bandana Tewari, Fashion Journalist and Sustainability Activist
Bunny Yan, Fashion Edutainer, Left Side of Fashion
The Conscious Fashion Campaign is accepting applications now through October 20th at https://www.consciousfashioncampaign.com/newyork
