The True Cost - In collaboration with Focus Filmtheater & Fibershed

In collaboration with State of Fashion and Stichting Fibershed Nederland, Focus Filmtheater is showing the film The True Cost combined with a panel discussion about (among others) how producing clothing closer to home can reduce the mind-blowing amount of environmental damage caused by the fashion industry.
The still very actual film The True Cost tells a story about clothing. About the garments that we wear, about the people that make those garments and the impact the fashion industry has on our planet. The price of clothing has been declining for decades, while the costs for the environment and our society have been rising relentlessly. The True Cost is a revolutionary documentary that uncovers the stories that aren’t being told and asks us to think about who is actually paying the price for our clothes.

Panel discussion

The problems that have risen in the contemporary supply-chain are for a lot of the stakeholders (makers, brands & consumers) almost entirely invisible. Films like The True Cost aim to highlight these very issues. Feeling powerless when it comes to the massive social and environmental problems created by our clothing isn’t an unfamiliar feeling for anyone. Despite this very few people really think about who and what made their clothing, and where it was produced.
What role can producing closer to home play in a renewed respect for the people and the materials that are essential for the very clothes on our backs? What does decentralising the current textile and fashion system mean for the labourers in current, centralised production environments? A panel of supply chain innovators seeks to answer these urgent matters.

Stijntje Jaspers – Creative Circular Changemaker, Co-founder Fibershed Nederland
After over 25 years of experience in leading creative positions in the internationally-operating Dutch fashion-retail branche, Stijntje Jaspers is going all in on regenerative textiles and apparel. She combines conceptual thinking, commercial insights and people-centric leadership skills to expand the Fibershed community. Jaspers is a big supporter of interdisciplinary collaboration and a big believer that those collaborations are absolutely necessary in times of change and innovation.

Niccy Kol –Brand- & Impact Catalyst, nudging regenerative economy & system change within the fashion industry
An innovative and highly motivated fashion professional with over 30 years of experience in the global textile- and fashion industry, ranging from buying to design, brand development to circular business development, culminating in a position as Brand- & Impact Catalyst for Raddis®Cotton. Raddis® is a regenerative, holistic produce- & viber-ecosystem based in South-India, which aims to support and improve the quality of life of vulnerable, female, tribal farmers while simultaneously regenerating the local ecosystem. https://www.raddiscotton.com/

Xander Slager – Co-Founder New Optimist
Entrepreneur, builder, catalysator and start-up leader Xander Slager loves creating businesses from the ground up. After 18 years of working out of Asia, Xander moved to Europe in 2018. It is now his first priority to use his entrepreneurial skills and experience to create and nourish sustainable, social initiatives in the fashion industry.

Reina Ovinge -  founder and owner of The Knitwit Stable

Moderator > Martine Nieuwenhuis – Good Brand Guru
Good Brand Guru functions as a thinktank for sustainable fashion; connecting changemakers that are accelerating the transition of the (fashion) industry to one that acts socially, circularly and regeneratively. www.goodbrand.guru