The new topic for this season is about scale. What’s it all about exactly?

That’s right. Each edition of our Sustainable Innovations Forum draws attention to innovations that are inspiring and shaping the industry. For the past decade, the focus has been on how designers and smaller brands could enter ‘the bigger system’ and connect with the rest of the industry. Now the focus has shifted and we are entering a new phase –the topic on everyone’s lips this year is what we can call: “Suscalability”. We already have a feeling of how the market can grow, but the questions we’re asking now are: What is the best way to grow? What does growing mean in the content of the future? How can we scale up in a responsible way? Suscalability is made up of sustainability and scalability. Ultimately, it is a balance between conscious consuming and how companies will grow their strategies in a sustainable and challenging way.

So, it’s just about growth?

Among other things, It’s more about the questions: What am I doing for whom? All brands and projects are asking themselves this question in their own context. They want to measure their own craftsmanship and skills. Suscalability is about the value of awareness, about mindful growth. There are three types of growth: horizontal, vertical and multidimensional. Vertical growth is about the product itself. Horizontal growth is about the company’s right to be part of the market. And then there is the multidimensional level, which is about the growth of the value itself and how to integrate that value into the whole production process. Suscalability is a three dimensional concept that includes all three forms. Producers need to make decisions to help them reach this point of growth – that’s the challenge.

Why do we need a different approach to growth?

In the past, most companies only chose between horizontal or vertical growth. After years of growth, the question now is: how big can a brand get while remaining flexible? The scale of a company becomes either a problem or a challenge. Big companies are struggling with how to get smaller again. In my opinion, that is the reason why so many brands are launching sub-brands and collaborations at the moment. This is the only way for bigger companies to descale and deliver again. Being big is the problem – the big brands can no longer create real value from this large scale and therefore cannot break out of this vicious circle.

What do you want to achieve with your selection of brands at Munich Fabric Start’s Sustainable Innovations Forum?

Once again we aimed to capture and feel the heartbeat of the market and the work of the designers. Every project is unique and tells its own story within the larger context about the possibilities of sustainable textiles and approaches. From recycled fabrics to fashion made of dog hair to platforms for recycling and upcycling: the brands are demonstrating exactly what I was just talking about –. how to create value from a textile, how to achieve slow and mindful growth with a sustainable idea and how to earn your place in the fashion industry. But most importantly: How to reconnect the user with the resource in order to restore value. The focus on suscalability aims to encourage Sustainable Innovations visitors to interact, immerse themselves and be inspired. We want to motivate people to get involved and start thinking about new approaches.

What do the showcased projects have in common?

There are two aspects which unite the Sustainable Innovations: poetry and purpose – and we most definitely need both! We need people who respond with poetry to inspire and open up new ideas and we need the hardcore problem solvers. With this edition we show several projects that provide concrete examples of what the successful interplay between poetry and problem solving can look like. Be it in 3D printing solutions or in human capital or in terms of circular solutions. Sustainable Innovations showcases great examples of what re-thinking and re-acting can lead to.

With regards to the exhibits, do you see any major trends?

I see the need for and can almost hear a desperate cry for contact. People want to develop a deeper relationship with each other but also with products and materials. The overload of information and the limitless possibilities to connect brings us to the essence of connection: purpose. The designers question their activities, relationships, products, services and business models in order to establish connections that make sense. Connections which will enable and explore new ideas, materials and directions. The power to create a new kind of connection is the next innovation: meaningful people, purposeful like poetry.