Sustainable fashion: Paris Good Fashion launches a coalition between eight global capitals

The Paris Good Fashion, a French non-profit action tank aiming to accelerate the adoption of circular fashion practices, has announced the launch of the Fashion Cities Coalition (FCC) during the second edition of its annual two-day seminar event, Midsummer Camp.

The FCC brings together eight capitals: Paris; Milan; Singapore; Dubai; Copenhagen; New York; London; and Cotonou (Benin). They are united around a common idea: coalition as a new method of international cooperation. Through the speeches of the founding cities' representatives present at the event, FashionUnited revisits the ambitions of this unprecedented coordination.

A women-led group of representatives were on hand at the event to explain the project. They included:

• Ting-Ting Zhang, general director of the Singapore Fashion Council

• Sara Kozłowski, senior vice president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)

• Federica Marchionni, chief executive officer of the Global Fashion Agenda

• Florence Bulté, director of sustainable development at the Chaloub group

• Mina Bishop, senior manager of circular economy at KPMG

• Carole Collet, professor of design for a sustainable future at Central Saint Martins and director of Maison/0 (LVMH – Central Saint Martins)

And Sylvie Ebel, president, and Isabelle Lefort, co-founder and executive director of Paris Good Fashion, who initiated the project.

In her introductory speech at the launch of the FCC, a non-commercial and pre-competitive movement, Lefort explains: “This idea came about ten months ago. Many things are happening in the various fashion ecosystems around the world, but they are not always shared. The objective is to remove the silos between these ecosystems”.

“The United Arab Emirates has committed to Net Zero 2050 and hosted COP28,” notes Bulté. “For us, joining the Fashion Cities Coalition is a natural extension of this national momentum. We have been working with international brands for over 70 years and now wish to extend this partnership approach to the entire ecosystem.”

FCC is not a new charter, but a reproducible working method

“Since 2010, the CFDA has been building its sustainability strategy by opening up access to knowledge, innovation and partnerships. Today, our network includes over 350 designers, 90 percent of whom are SMEs, and our Sustainability Resource Hub offers them over 900 resources,” recalls Kozłowski. “I am convinced that we can accomplish nothing alone. This international cooperation is a fantastic opportunity to accelerate the industry's transition together.”

“Around 80 percent of the world's clothing is made in Asia. It is essential that the voice of Asian manufacturers is fully represented in this global mission,” mentions Zhang. “For the next five to ten years, our three priorities are sustainability, technology and Asian growth. Singapore wants to serve as a bridge between the major fashion capitals and Asia's manufacturing countries.”

Concrete actions: an international library and local workshops

Following a pilot workshop in Paris on June 5, 2026, the first wave of the FCC will run from 2026 to 2028. The two pillars of the project are:

– The creation of an international library of best practices. It will compile pilot projects, studies, feedback and methodologies.

– The organisation of a workshop in each city, bringing together the entire value chain. Each city must identify its main challenge and organise its own workshop approximately every eight weeks, though the format is not yet defined. They will work collectively to produce concrete actions. A final collective presentation is scheduled for Paris in February 2028.

“London has an extraordinary heritage and a formidable capacity for innovation,” says Collet. “With Maison/0, developed with LVMH, we want to go beyond the circular economy to make design a lever for regenerating ecosystems.”

A common methodology to transform best practices into actions

“KPMG will collect all these ideas and create a common methodology and approach. The workshops will be systematically deployed across the different ecosystems so that after one year, we have concrete actions to share,” indicates Bishop. “The idea is to create a ‘snowball’ effect. We are launching a movement, and then another city will arrive with its own project. Together, we will grow in knowledge and motivation.”

“Our mission is to accelerate the transformation of the fashion industry towards a more sustainable model,” adds Marchionni. “To achieve this, we must produce concrete results. I like this pragmatic and scientific approach, because without a scientific basis, we will not be credible.”

The conclusion comes from Sylvie Ebel, president of Paris Good Fashion, who was quoted in the press release: “For years, the major fashion institutions have advanced in parallel, each at its own pace. The Fashion Cities Coalition aligns them around a single, shared and verifiable method. We are not adding yet another commitment; we are building a mechanism that transforms proven practices into action, city by city.”

Beyond the eight founding cities, the FCC is supported by several major players in the fashion ecosystem. These include Chanel; LVMH; Kering; the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM); the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM); Première Vision; Lectra; CIRC; Eyes on Talents; and ANDAM. The cities mentioned are only a first step. Discussions have already begun with Tokyo, Seoul, Mumbai, São Paulo, Dhaka and Berlin.

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