The Largest Virtual Discussion on Sustainable Fashion Hosted by North Africans Successfully Held in March - 2022 North Africa Sustainable Fashion Webinar

PRESS RELEASE - INTERNATIONAL
2022/04/06

The 2022 North Africa Sustainable Fashion Webinar (#2022NorthAfricaSFW) took place on the 19th and 20th of March with discussions led by 36 international speakers and local experts from Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, and Tunisia. As the first English-speaking webinar from North Africa dedicated to Sustainable Fashion, the two-day online event provided vital industry knowledge, insights into local experiences, and vast networking opportunities for the new generation of professionals, designers, and advocates.

The webinar, a global recognition platform for North Africa’s efforts in developing sustainability in the fashion industry, was organised by the Oriental Hybrid, the first Social Media Marketing & E-PR agency combining Chinese and Arabic speaking native specialists with cross-market experiences. The event was in collaboration with Morocco Fashion Future, a platform that aims to evolve the Moroccan fashion scene into a transparent and cooperative network, alongside Fashion Revolution Egypt and Fashion Revolution Sudan, which are part of the global Fashion Revolution movement that calls for a fashion industry valuing people and planet over profit. 

It is commonly exhibited that the majority of global sustainable fashion events are hosted by western experts, with the focus solely being on the Global North. However, #2022NorthAfricaSFW highlights that the future of fashion is in the Middle East and North Africa, as sustainability is deep-rooted within the regional culture, which appreciates and values artisanship, heritage, and community. The highly professional line-up of speakers from Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, and Tunisia include Kenza Oulghada, Artisan Leader of Anou, which is the only Moroccan artisan owned and managed fairtrade platform; Yara Yassin, Co-founder of Up-Fuse, the first lifestyle label with over 260 thousand plastics upcycled into unique streetwear and fashion items in Egypt; Sara Ali, Culture and Communication Advisor, a Sudanese-British luxury business consultant with 27 years of experience in African and Arabian markets; Mayssa Mrabet, Chief Incubation Office of Afkar Incubator, the largest incubator in Tunisia supporting creative entrepreneurs.

Award-winning advocates Rania Rafie, Hadeel Osman, and Reiting Lee joined hands in organising this year’s edition of the webinar, which gathered more than 80 participants from Canada, Germany, UK, USA, Taiwan (Republic of China), Mainland China, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Belgium, Latvia, and Columbia. The individual talks and themed panels covered a range of essential topics, including artisanship, production, business, e-commerce, incubation, circularity, diversity, CSR, and community. The panels were moderated by exceptional international experts, such as Prof. Kate Fletcher, Professor at the Centre of Sustainable Fashion and one of the most cited scholars in fashion and sustainability with nine published books available in seven languages; Max Gilgenmann, Founder of studio MM04 and the co-creator of the Fashionsustain Conferences, the Neonyt Trade Show Hub, and 202030 - The Berlin Fashion Summit; as well as Hadeer Elhadary, a multi-awarded Egyptian Independent Journalist who writes stories with a focus on sustainability and climate change risks.

The webinar organisers collaborated with a conscious selection of Asian and North African key opinion leaders on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook for raising awareness about the webinar and the concept of sustainable fashion in North Africa, which is often underresearched due to cultural and language barriers. Bassant Maximus and Noran Elbannan, the Egyptian TikTok influencers specialised in transforming thrifted fashion pieces, took the lead in joining the webinar for taking content inspiration. Eman Existing, an Egyptian Instagram influencer who values that the webinar was held in English for global recognition, said: “Because I worked inside and around some of these themes [issues of sustainability with fast fashion] in real life, I know how hard it is to dig for resources for these topics in our region, because very few researches have been done in these topics, especially in sustainable fashion. Such topics won’t get enough highlight if it’s only attended by its own people.”

Alongside the influencers, #2022NorthAfricaSFW organisers collaborated with Sustainable Fashion Alliance MENA and Slow Fashion Movement ARB, as community partners to bring together like-minded individuals and those with growing interest to join the discussions and panel talks and learn valuable lessons. Sponsored by the blockchain technology-empowered company Garment Chain - The Ayadee Foundation, the webinar held a Giveaway where university students and fresh graduates of environmental engineering and fashion design majors from Egypt and Morocco signed up as student ambassadors for the opportunity to interact with the global sustainability community.

This year’s webinar is the “Ramadan Fundraising Edition,” thus guaranteeing that 50% of the proceeds of ticket sales will be donated during Ramadan 2022 to selected artisan and environmental related NGOs, namely the Egyptian Clothing Bank in Egypt and Anou in Morocco, to support the continuous development of circular and fairtrade practices in the region. Commenting on their participation in the webinar for the second year in a row, the CEO of Egyptian Clothing Bank, Manal Saleh, stated: “We are happy to be part of the 2022 North Africa Sustainable Fashion Webinar for so many reasons, be it building the concept of slow fashion or identifying the new fashion statements of the region. I believe the future of the fashion industry and how humans relate to their clothes lie in the hands of initiatives and entities like these.” Hamza Cherif D’Ouezzan, Managing Director of Anou, expressed additionally: “The webinar has given a platform and a voice to Anou artisans in a space where artisans, despite being essential, are often overlooked. And went further to support artisan-owned businesses with funds that have a direct impact on ensuring the sustainability of their craft. It has become increasingly clear that there is no future without sustainability when it comes to the craft space in Morocco as the number of artisans is declining yearly despite record market growth.”

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About Event Organizer and Partners

‘the Oriental Hybrid’ is the first Social Media Marketing & E-PR agency combining native specialists with cross-market experiences in both the Chinese and Arabic-speaking professional environments. Aiming to enhance CSR for businesses by dedicating up to 20% of the profits from each project to support living and education in the most needed regions.

‘Morocco Fashion Future’ is a Collaborative Platform built in February 2018 by a group of fashion professionals and enthusiasts living and traveling in Morocco that are determined to bring a change to the Moroccan fashion scene - a transparent and cooperative international fashion network with sustainability and humanity development in mind.

‘Fashion Revolution Egypt’ and ‘Fashion Revolution Sudan’ are part of the global Fashion Revolution movement, which is a movement calling for a transparent fashion industry that values people and planet over profit.

More Information
Event Page: https://www.theorientalhybrid.com/2022NorthAfricaSFW
Instagram / Facebook / LinkedIn: @theorientalhybrid

Press Contact
Reiting Lee  theorientalhybrid@gmail.com  +886 972596713 (WhatsApp)