Mindful Fashion AGM 2023
The Mindful Fashion team along with our community of members, partners and supporters from across the fashion and textiles industry In New Zealand gathered together for our AGM on the 16th of April 2023, hosted by Mindful Fashion member Wall Fabrics in its Morningside HQ.
You can watch the full AGM recording here.
More than 50 stakeholders of the local industry attended the Auckland in-person event including current members, interested business owners, partners and industry supporters keen to find out more about us. Alongside this, many of our members and industry stakeholders from around New Zealand attended via Zoom. Attendees included industry and fashion educational institute representatives from AUT, Massey University, PwC Legal, Ministry for the Environment, Upparel and Koha to name a few.
Together we celebrated our successes over the last year, launched our new revised strategy, and welcomed our new Board Members. Read more on our new Board members and strategy below.
Highlights
Our outgoing Chair James Walker gave his final presidential address, reflecting on his time as Chair since MFNZ began in 2019. He talked about the importance of the work we are doing in the climate action space, and shared highlights of what we have achieved over the last 12 months as we work to create an innovative, full-circle and thriving future for the industry in NZ.
Jacinta FitzGerald, Chief Executive of Mindful Fashion shared insights and learnings from key projects over last year - getting Machinist skills on Hanga Aro Rau priority list for 2023, the Mindful Fashion Climate Action programme and the Rethinking Textile Waste seminar resulting in real impact reduction by reducing waste to landfill and catalysing partnerships.
Jacinta also talked about our plans for 2023 including a full programme of educational seminars, toolkits and programmes to inspire, educate and catalyse change towards our vision of a thriving industry for people, nature and business.
Welcome to our new Chair and Board Members
We are delighted to announce our new Chair, Juliette Hogan. Juliette is the founder and owner of New Zealand clothing label Juliette Hogan.
We are also delighted to welcome new board members, Emma Wallace from Kowtow Clothing and Mat Junge from Albion Clothing and Cactus Outdoor.
Board Election results
Juliette Hogan - MFNZ Chair, Founder and Owner, Juliette Hogan.
Emma Wallace - Managing Director Kowtow.
Matt Junge - General Manager Albion Clothing & Cactus Outdoor.
Trevor Hookway - Director Hawes & Freer, confirmed for the second term.
One of the highlights of the evening was the announcement of the Mindful Fashion new Chair Juliette Hogan. Juliette thanked members and spoke of her passion for the industry and her desire to give back, to convey why she wanted to take on the role of chair.
The night concluded with closing remarks from Mindful Fashion co-founders Kate Sylvester and Emily Miller-Sharma who welcomed the new Board members and thanked James for his contribution as the inaugural Chair of the organisation.
Read about our new Strategy below.
2023-25 Strategy
At the end of 2022 we reviewed our strategy, updating our vision and pillars to reflect our ambitions for the industry. We reflected on what's worked, what hasn't, what we are trying to achieve and how we fund our work. We also scanned the global and local landscapes for context, risks and opportunities.
Our new strategy is an evolution, continuing our focus on working with our members to accelerate critical sustainability work, and catalysing action through impact programmes that influence wider industry change.
At Mindful Fashion our mission continues to be to unite the industry to create an innovative, full-circle and thriving future.
We envision a clothing and textiles ecosystem in Aotearoa NZ where business, people and nature all thrive.
Our strategy has three pillars:
- Voice - be the voice for a sustainable and thriving fashion and textiles industry through strategic advocacy and communications.
- Drive positive change, by inspiring, educating and catalysing action to address impacts.
- Shape - work with industry to shape the future by facilitating industry innovation and collaborative impact.
Our role is to support the industry on its future proofing mission, so that our businesses and our people can thrive in a way the planet can support.
For this to happen we need to change the way our clothes are designed, produced, used and valued. Through new business models, growing local skills, innovations, and partnerships.
This is at the very heart of why we exist as an organisation, bringing Aotearoa NZ’s fashion and textiles industry together to shape a better future.
Read the full MFNZ 2023-25 strategy here.
