NEONYT x VEPSI: Fair Fashion Week Berlin
From the 16th-17th of January I was invited by VEPSI on a press trip to NEONYT in Berlin toghether with a few other sustainable blogger girls. VEPSI, the agency that invited me on this special trip, was founded by the lovely two girls Leslie and Eileen. It's an agency that provides a marketplace for sustainably minded influencers and brands. At VEPSI they believe that ethical ambassadors have the power to make an impact and spread the sustainable message by harnessing the power of social media. This is also why they partnered with NEONYT.
NEONYT is a word composition derived form Greek and Skandinavian meaning as much as "the renewed new" (source). NEONYT parallely takes place to the regular fashion week and provides a platform for fashion, sustainability and innovation. In that realm many Fair Fashion brands took the chance and showcased their newest collections to the public. As you may know I started my journey toward Fair Fashion not too long ago: In fact it hasn't been longer than a year before I took the step to radically change my buying behaviour. Personally, I attended NEONYT for the first time so this was a new experience for me. I previously didn't know what to expect but I had a feeling that it would all be very exciting and I was super thrilled to go. Hereby, I would love to tell you more about my time in Berlin.
The journey and the meet-and-greet
On Monday morning I left at a decent time to catch my train to Berlin. The train ride with Deutsche Bahn was very comfortable and convient. Taking the train more often for travelling is an easy and eco-conscious alternative to flying and as we are in Europe we have the advantage that everything is very close and within reach. Then, nine hour train ride later (which literally only felt like two hours) I set foot on this inspiring and vibrant city again-Berlin. Eileen from VEPSI as well as the other bloggers already awaited me. There was a warm welcome and I instantly felt comfortable in the group. Eileen led us to our lovely accomodation where Leslie, the other co-founder of VEPSI, was waiting already. We got to enjoy some warm and filling Indian food and were greeted with lots of goodies from awesome sustainable brands. We chitchatted a bit and got to know each other before we all fell exhausted into our warm beds.
Bloggers: Holly from Leotie Lovely, Francesca from Ethical Unicorn, Céline from Iznowgood, Chloé from The Green Monki, Gabrielle Koster from sunshineonmymind and Noa from Stylewithasmile.
NEONYT x VEPSI: Day 1
The next day we got picked up and brought to the cozy vegan breakfast place Geh Veg (which is a name game which means "go away" but at the same time refers to "go vegan"). We got served some lovely sweet and savory vegan breakfast dishes. Then, filled with food and anticipation we finally took off for the first day at NEONYT. NEONYT took place at the Kraftwerk located in the centre of Berlin. Until 1964 it used to be a heat and powerplant in charge of providing the households of Berlin Mitte with heat. After that it remained unused before it got rediscovered and rebuilt to host one of Berlin's famous Techno Clubs, Tresor, as well as offering a populuar exhibition and event space.
Once we arrived at the Kraftwerk we were welcomed with a little tour of some selected fair fashion brands. The Fair Fashion market is still small, yet I got to discover some brands I haven’t heard of before. Nat-2 for example is a sustainable brand that specializes in creating footwear made from used coffeground, glass, milk or mushroom. I’m always amazed to see how businesses take sustainability as an opportunity for innovation and creativity.
Further, there we got to meet Tear O. Joy a Swedish brand that makes bags from a leather alternative made from paper. As mentioned in my previous blog article about vegan leather alternatives the paper material is washable and quite robust.
Another brand that we got introduced to was Artelusa, a vegan Portuguese based label that has its focus on cork and sports articles ranging from umbrellas to bags in their collection, all made from cork.
Then there was Buki Akomolafe. Buki Akomolafe is a Berlin brand that is inspired by African culture and thus boasts with a broad color palette and traditional prints. Yet, the designs are contemporary and made from high-quality eco-materials made for the modern woman. As a fun extra: Some of their designs are reversible and can be worn inside out as well!
One of my favorite brands on the tour was Aatise-the great thing about them is that they exclusively produce on demand-so once an order is placed they have to create the piece first. As you may know, in the fashion industry there is a great surplus of clothes that cannot be sold. That creates a huge amount of unneccesary waste-Aatise has found a successful solution to prevent this from happening. They offer women's as well as men's clothing and I'm particularly in love with their floral dresses which are perfect for warmer days!
Further we got to meet Organic Socks of Sweden: The brand specializes in socks that are made from non-toxic organically grown cotton. The socks are available in different bright colors and funny prints, are fair-frade and the production pays respect to the enviornment.
After the tour we got some time to ourselves before our first scheduled talk in the evening. We grabbed a quick lunch and entered the Prepeek area of NEONYT. Prepeek is an area where some brands exhibited their newest collections. Bloggers like us were allowed to try them on and capture the outfits with the help of a photographer.
Pants: Lana Organic
Shoes: Hessnatur
Then in the late afternoon we held our first talk which was about sustainable influencer marketing. We discussed questions like how the collaboration conditions of ethical influencers differ from that of a traditional influencer. Another topic that was discussed was how ethical influencers deal with the fact that sometimes it might seem conflicting to promote ethical consumption as it is still a form of consumption nevertheless. I felt very greatful to discuss with the other blogger ladies these things and share some insights into the ethical blogger world. Likely, I'm going to do a seperate blogpost about the insights that were gained during that talk.
After our talk we watched the screening of the Berlin Fashion Show before heading off to grab dinner at Attila Hildmanns Vegan Fast Food place. Filled with delicous vegan burgers and a day full of new impressions and experiences, we fell into our beds to recharge our batteries for the next day.
NEONYT x VEPSI: Day 2
The next day we enjoyed our breakfast once again at Geh Veg. A great vegan start to the day. After having breakfast Gabrielle Koster and me headed off to the Detox Denim Pop up event from Armed Angels. I was lucky to be invited by Sweet Communications, a PR agency based in Munich. After checking out the new denim collections and having a drink, we headed back to the Kraftwerk getting prepared to hold our second talk. But before that we had some more time to talk to some brands and explore the fair. Also, the Vepsi team asked us to do a short interview with them which was a rather new experience to me. I'm not very used that amount of attention so for me it was something new standing in the spotlight.
Then it was time for our second and last talk. That time, we were joined by Kerry Banningan which is the founder of the conciousfashioncampaign as well as the producer of the UN media zone. The concious fashion campaign is supported by the United Nations and its aim is "to harness the power of retailers, media and celebrities to embrace impact driven fashion brands to create positive change and drive conscious consumerism" (Source).
The talk we held centered around the SDG's, the Sustainable Development Goals, and which role ethical influencers play in promoting them. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the SDGs: The SDGs are 17 goals that were created by the United Nations to assure a sustainable development on the political, economical and social level. If you want to know more about them click here.
After our final talk we had one last surprise waiting for us: VEPSI organized a vegan food tour for us with Dov, a funny Australian guy who showed us all the hotspots of Berlin's vegan food culture. We got to try Vegan Ketwurst, an eastern Berlin speciality comparable with a hotdog, paid the best hummus place in town a visit and discovered many other places (which I'm not going to tell you, so have a look yourself and book a tour with them!). After this delicious food experience we were propped with food and called it a day.
NEONYT x VEPSI: Day 3
I'm always amazed by how fast time flies. The days at NEONYT were intense but such a great experience and I was sad that it had already come to an end. As a final highlight we payed Lulu Goldsmeden, one of the top eco-hotel chains, a visit and had a farewell brunch. Leslie and Eileen gave us once again some goodies and goodbye gifts to take home as a memory (they're too kind). All the girls I met felt already had a place in my heart and felt like family already. I loved the experience VEPSI organized for us and hope that we could inspire some people at our talks to also take the path towards a more sustainble lifestyle. For me it was a fulfilling experience showing me that there is change going on and people increasingly gain awareness about sustainability matters. It is not always easy being a so-called influencer and many days it feels somehow hopeless trying to achieve any sort of impact. But this experience, once again showed me that all the hard work I invest is not for nothing-people are listening and willing to change. It reinforced me and I'm happy to continue sharing my journey here.
"Let's change fashion toghether"- Neonyt.
Thanks for reading
xx
Nina