INSIGHTS

Influencer Endorsements are Fashion Brands’ New Sustainability Certification

Key conscious brands and ethical influencers gathered together on the 7th May in Central London, discussing how future influencer collaborations should be done sustainably.

Sustainable fashion has gradually become the mainstream. 61% of European consumers want to know more about fashion companies’ initiatives to diminish their impact on the environment.

75% of the industry’s global fashion companies improved their environmental and social performance over the past year, a move which has affected their businesses in a positive way. 52% of fashion executives agreed that environmental and social targets acted as a guiding principle for close to every strategic decision made, an increase of 18% from 2017.

Many sustainable brands have acquired a range of certificates to claim ethics. The sad fact is that few consumers understand what they mean. While influencer economy has grown rapidly, consumers trust endorsements given by real people more than the badges issued by some well-known organisations.

On 7th May, Influence for Good™, an invite-only ethical influencer community initiated by FavourUp, hosted their inaugural closed-door event, which has brought key conscious fashion brands and influencers together, including major brands like Allbirds and COS.

 

Brooke Roberts-Islam, Director, Brooke Roberts Innovation Agency

Alistair Bradford, Growth Strategy at Allbirds.

Young rental brands like Hirestreet, and KOMODO, which has dedicated to eco-fashion for 30 years. Combined followers for attendees are over 1.85 million.

Isabella West, CEO & Founder at Hirestreet.

Veronica Chang, Founder of FavourUp and Influence for Good™, commented that “While more and more brands are claiming their ethics, influencer endorsements are brands’ new sustainability certificate. They demonstrate how the brand is inclusive of its community to turn their audience more conscious”.

 

The event was aimed to encourage key industry pioneers in ethical fashion to start conversations around how future influencer collaborations should look like and make sure it has the trickle-down effect to the masses. So sustainable fashion can become a norm.

 “We as a society have embraced a throwaway fashion culture - with appalling consequences for the planet and the people behind fashion. Conscious influencers hold the power to radically change this - they are a fundamental part of the solution”, said Tamsin Lejeune, CEO at Common Objective, who was the moderator for the impactful panel and shared insights about the current challenges of sustainable fashion on the evening.

“Whilst it's great that larger companies are attempting to bring out more 'conscious' lines to their brand, that pushes truly ethical brands further and further into the background. We need influencers’ help to shine a light on brands like ours that always have and always will be dedicated to being totally transparent and sustainable to the core”, said Emmie McCourts, Marketing Manager at KOMODO.

 

The highlights for the event

1) an impactful panel discussed why influencers and fashion brands are equally socially responsible for educating their audience what is ethically right when shopping fashion;

2) the panel brought up an interesting point that lack of accessibility at brands’ touchpoint to information about how a brand is making the efforts to make the industry more circular holds back the move. Letting consumers know what and why they are buying demonstrates the brand’s credentials as a sustainable brand. This is what FavourUp can help.

3) a speed dating type of networking facilities on-site collaborations and opened up further ethical influencer collaboration.

More photos for the event are available here.

If you are interested in chatting more about how our Influence for Good™ community can help you along with our technology, please feel free to get in touch at veronica@favourup.com.