The Conscious Festival is finally here. This weekend, Green Is The New Black will be taking over the one and only sustainable fashion hub LA CASERNE. Have you gotten tickets yet? Read on to find out all the highlights and five things you absolutely shouldn’t miss, if you’re joining us in the city of love…
1. Expand your consciousness and grow your knowledge with the TALKS at The Conscious Festival.
Long-time fans of ours will know that the TALKS are our mainstay. Featuring changemakers, experts, influencers and business leaders? There’s something for everyone. Whether you’re new to the sustainability space, or already within the industry, you’ll find at least a few that pique your interest. Oh, and for our fashion business community, The Conscious Leader Fashion Bootcamp is a must-go. For everyone else, here’s what we’re going to cover. Collective Intelligence, Wellness & Spirituality, Sustainability & Regeneration, Planet & Biodiversity, and Fashion & Beauty.
We have to share our newly-confirmed panels that you might have missed: a keynote about our oceans, featuring an overview about the situation, hopes and concrete actions we can take, from Rosalie Mann from No More Plastic and French freediver Julie Gautier, and a panel about sustainable jewellery and watchmaking with representatives from JEM Paris, Ethiwork, COURBET, and ID Genève. This and much more await. Curious?
The full Paris programme is here. And don’t forget, there are talks in both French and English!
2. Join us in movement and wellness, deep dives with industry experts, and DIY WORKSHOPS at The Conscious Festival!
Interested in getting your move on and reconnecting with your body? Peruse our offerings of yoga, pilates, breathwork, dance and more. Looking for a feast for your mind and motivation instead? Connect with our experts who will be on the ground sharing their wealth of knowledge and sustainable practices with us. Or perhaps you want something more hands on? We have the perfect workshops for you.
Back Market, on a mission to restore trust and desire for refurbished devices, will be teaching you the much-needed skills of basic e-repair. Come with one of your old, unused smartphones (iPhone 8,10, 10S, SE) or laptops (MacBook or MacBook Air up to 2015). The Back Market team will work their magic, and teach you how not to waste your electronics! And along with that, Made in Sunday will also be teaching you some skills. Running a series of DIY workshops and sewing classes, Made in Sunday will help you learn anything. From basic repair to jeans repair, to even advanced sewing patterns! In collaboration with Rubi Pigeon, specially invited by Melissa Shoes, they will also be conducting a DIY upcycling workshop on Sunday. Don’t forget to bring your own shirt—the bigger the better! Made in Sunday will provide everything else.
Oh, and to top that all off? If you fancy a sustainable manicure… Manicurist, a clean and green beauty brand, will be showing off how they can offer colours and care products while being sustainable. Get a manicure done on the spot!
3. Learn and shop sustainably at our VILLAGE: The Conscious Festival’s marketplace.
From fashion to beauty, to lifestyle and inspiration, there will be stands of all kinds at the VILLAGE. Featuring over 30 conscious brands and retailers, you’ll be spoilt for choice.
Aigle, a footwear brand that designs sustainably, will be at the VILLAGE showcasing the making of one of their boots, made in France. You can also ask them about their secondhand platform Second Souffle. (We heard you can recycle clothes and boots for vouchers in exchange! And, they’ll actually be cleaned, restored, and resold.) The Good Goods, the leading media platform for responsible fashion, will also be at the VILLAGE. Learn about anything and everything sustainable fashion—bring questions! Ask them about their interactive map and free e-book La Bible du Vintage, the keys you need to unlock a world of secondhand and sustainable fashion in France.
Speaking of books, Slow We Are, a shopping guide to the best eco-responsible fashion, will also have a stand at the VILLAGE. Look out for them to get your copy of their latest book, The Dark Side of Labels, by Thomas Ebélé, signed. The book covers lots you should know about sustainable fashion. From lifecycle assessments, to ethical issues, and even to advice to professionals in the space!
And if you get hungry while walking around the stands? Pick up some plant-based grub from any of our plant-based eateries. The word on the street is that there’s a new 100% vegetarian restaurant opening up at LA CASERNE this weekend. You might be their first customers…
4. Curious about sustainable materials in fashion? There’s an exhibition just for you.
The Sustainable Angle, a Swiss non-profit organisation and the founders of the #FutureFabricsExpo in the UK, are constantly initiating and supporting projects with a focus on sustainability in fashion and textiles. They’ve put together a material innovation showroom, an exhibition, at The Conscious Festival this weekend. If you’ve ever been curious about the innovative material solutions that have emerged within the sustainable fashion sapce? This is your chance to see, touch, and learn. The materials will all come with educational background information too!
The exhibition would be a great accompaniment to our Friday programme: The Conscious Leader Fashion Bootcamp. Limited spots are available, so sign up when you can!
5. You won’t want to miss these live experiences…
Something we haven’t talked about just yet is the multiple screenings that will be at The Conscious Festival. Fashionscapes: A circular economy will be screening on Friday at 1.15pm and 3.30pm, Saturday at 11.30am, 1pm and 5.15pm, and Sunday at 12.30pm, 2.15pm and 5.45pm. This new film comes from acclaimed director Andrew Morgan (behind The True Cost), and is presented by Eco-Age’s Livia Firth. It challenges the fashion industry to address real circularity, and tackles head-on the destructive, take-make-waste model currently dominating the fashion industry. Or, if you’re looking for something a little more lighthearted, check out Vanlife, screening on Sunday at 11am. From Norway to Australia, this film showcases a dozen vanlifers who are living on the road. Perhaps it’ll be the sign you need to ditch it all and live out of a van!
Screenings not your thing? Check out the various art, music and performances we have all day long, and into the night. We’ve curated daytime experiences ranging from art installations to music jams, and nighttime festivities featuring DJ sets and dance classes too. Thanks to WHo CAREs!? Chronicles and Global Fashion Exchange, we have a ballet performance from soloist Gabe Stone Shayer on Saturday afternoon… we can bet you’ve never seen live ballet at a festival before! And this isn’t all: from voguing classes to neo-soul music performances, you’ll want to catch the full programme here.