On 28 August, as part of the official French state visit, KADK welcomed France’s First Lady, Brigitte Macron and HRH Crown Princess Mary. The theme of their visit was sustainability in the fashion industry, a subject about which both visitors to KADK are passionate.
The Rector Lene Dammand Lund and Head of Subject, Mathilde Aggebo gave the President’s wife and HRH the Crown Princess a guided tour of the campus, starting with a look at the Empowerment by Design exhibition, a development project that started in 2008, involving collaboration between the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design and women in Morocco and Tunisia. The project helps local woman to design and professionalise their textile products, illustrating how design can help create social change and independence by helping these local women to create new opportunities and a better financial existence.
Sustainability in the Fashion Industry
They then visited the School of Design’s Textile and Clothing Workshop, where some of the School’s design students were engaged in their work at the sewing machines. Mme Macron and HRH the Crown Princess were given an introduction to the School and the Design programme, and to how KADK’s students incorporate the UN Global Goals into their projects and studies.
Then came an exhibition of some of KADK’s latest graduate fashion projects, which illustrated how design can create solutions for a more sustainable world, while generating revenue and profit. This was a chance for Mme Macron and HRH the Crown Princess to see new sustainable fabrics made of hemp and fashion that innovatively upcycles recycled materials, lending clothes new value and a longer service life.
The visit concluded with a round-table meeting, at which Lene Dammand Lund (Rector), Mads Nørgaard (Designer and CEO), Vigga Svensson (Co-founder - Continued.fashion & Vigga.US), Stina Resting-Jeppesen (a designer from KADK) and Eva Kruse (CEO, Global Fashion Agenda) discussed the possibilities of a more sustainable future for the fashion industry with KADK’s guests.