Former ASOS CEO says, “I don’t think we should make less, we should make better”

Yesterday marked day two of the responsible trade show Source, where visitors were invited to listen to a series of talks from industry greats including former CEO of ASOS Nick Beighton and fashion activist Caryn Franklin MBE.

Thousands of visitors descended on Olympia London including those from retailers such as Clarks, French Connection, Paul Smith, Reiss, River Island, Sainsbury's, Very Group, Debenhams, Amazon and more.

Suzanne Ellingham, Event Director of Source Fashion, said: "The recurring theme throughout an incredible day of talks is that collaboration, the sharing of best practices, education, and storytelling are key to achieving a better fashion industry.

"There is a need and desire to do much better business and with new legislation and the opportunity to hold open conversations, I feel pretty positive that these changes are more and more likely. "

The keynote conversation of the day was between Nick Beighton and Caryn Franklin MBE. Visitors flocked to hear Beighton answer questions on how to educate shareholders out of profit greed, for example.

Beighton said: "I’m an unashamed capitalist but capitalism creates problems and issues. Conscious capitalism overall gets better results. I reconcile it with creating a purpose for a brand. Purpose should drive profit, not profit driving purpose. We can use capitalism to change the agenda and future-proof business. It can enrich and change the ecosystem."

On the subject of degrowth, Beighton added: "I don’t think we should make less, I think we should make better. Make garments in a transparent way where you know where the materials are grown, you know the conditions of the factory. Imagine the farm and factory had glass walls – if you could see everything going on in there would you still want that garment?

"There is no competitive advantage to abusing the planet. We need to collaborate for better solutions on everything from packaging to plastics."

Jack Stratten from Insider Trends kicked off the morning sessions with a trend presentation. Mike Coates, Assistant Director of Fashion Retail Enforcement at the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) continued the day of insightful chats with a presentation on tackling greenwashing.

The big brand approach convened in the afternoon with a fireside chat with Jo Mourant, Head of Sustainability and Product at Next Retail.

Hayley Shore, Design Director at PepsiCo followed, also highlighting the need for collaboration. She said: "It’s important to ask ‘who’s making it, what’s the footprint, what’s the product lifecycle, is it fit for purpose, why are we making it, and are we giving ourselves enough lead times to create it in a better way. It’s also about educating our partners to invest more in the process of making things better."

Caryn Franklin returned to the stage for a conversation with Tina Wetshi, Creative Director of Colechi. In this session, they discussed how fashion needs to operate within nature, and how we need to re-humanise it.