Switzerland undoubtedly tops Europe in terms of balancing economic development and environmental protection. Even in fashion, sustainability is the first thing that comes to Swiss minds rather than trends. The idea of “sustainable fashion” has impacted researchers, manufacturers, designers, and consumers, changing the industrial landscape bit by bit.

The La Mode en Vert exhibition, supported by Pro Helvetia Shanghai, Swiss Arts Council, will be unveiled in the Ulio Space of the Shanghai Fashion Week from October 8th to 12th, 2021. It intends to boost communication between Chinese and Swiss fashion industries and explore the issue of “fashion circulation”.

Ms. Mimi Yan, a Chinese curator, was invited to curate the two-chapter exhibition that will mark the Swiss fashion industry’s debut in China with the advise from Swiss fashion expert Ms. Lilla Wicki. The main display zone features FREITAG and 5 other signature brands – YVY, Rafael Kouto, Forbidden Denimeries, Palmagente and NINA YUUN – which will make their debuts in China at this exhibition. It is expected their presence will propel more exchanges on sustainable fashion between China and Switzerland.

The other chapter offers a panoramic view of Switzerland’s latest efforts and accomplishments in sustainable fashion development via photos and texts from the four perspectives of researchers, manufacturers, designers, and consumers:

For researchers, the exhibition presents Haelixa’s digital traceability program and the Silk Memory program of the Lucerne University. The former is able to trace fashion raw material from farm to retail, and drives industrial transformation towards a transparent worldwide supply chain of consumer goods. The latter, an online museum, allows the public to gain knowledge of the rise and fall of the Swiss silk industry and its heritage, and advocates more sustainable ways of thinking by reflecting marvelous textile works in the past.

As for manufacturers, the exhibition features Swiss Flax and QWSTION. The former, a 2021 Green Business Award of Switzerland nominee, has tried to cut down carbon emissions by making the logistics chain shorter through bringing manufacturing of textile raw materials back to Switzerland. The latter develops Bananatex®, the world’s first durable, waterproof fabric made purely from Banana trees. This outer material has a wide range of application scenarios in apparel and inner decoration.

For designers, the exhibition presents an array of designer brands like After Work Studio, Jacqueline Loekito and four sustainable trends: Upcycling solution, Re-born craft, sustainable leather, and Seasonless & gender-neutral design. In this way, it shows that young Swiss designers are beginning to see sustainability as more important, and environmental conservation, earth, life and labor as their missions.

For consumers, the exhibition presents topics of concern to the Swiss community and consumers in the field of fashion circulation, such as sustainable logistic services for online shopping, reuse of old clothing, and support for local manufacturers, which are all practices in sustainable consumption worthy of further study.