By Ray Rogers
There’s nothing chic about these stats: With 92 million tons of textile waste generated annually—and some 85% of all textiles ending up in dumps each year—there’s a global fashion crisis on our hands. Fashion Forward Week, a new progressive take on New York Fashion Week, founded by industry veteran Jordana Guimaraes and her partner Christopher Hunt, aims to help address this plight, by highlighting sustainable designers through the lens of unique storytelling.
“We believe the fashion industry has an opportunity to create a more inclusive and sustainable future, and this week was just the beginning of that conversation,” said co-founders Christopher Hunt and Jordana Guimaraes (who previously cofounded fashinnovation.nyc).
The inaugural event, timed to coincide with the traditional NYFW, brought together tech innovators and progressive fashion brands for a day of presentations and talks. AllSaints founder Stuart Trevor gave a “behind the scenes” photoshoot presentation to showcase the new collection of his namesake sustainable brand, which offers limited edition runs of designer streetwear garments created from dead stock clothing and fabric.
Also eschewing a traditional runway presentation, Doobie Duke Sims, founder of the Brooklyn-based Snow Milk, which uses upcycled thrifted clothing and hand-printed designs, employed dancers from the Martha Graham Dance Company to showcase his streetwear.
The event also had a strong focus on tech and the ways it can be used for good in the fashion world. An innovation floor highlighted brands such as Certilogo powered by eBay, which connects consumers directly to their clothing items, and Upcyclers, a company dedicated to making upcycling a mainstream practice.
The day-long Fashion Forward Week activation will be followed up in February 2026 with an expanded five days of programming, with each day dedicated to a different content. The goal? Establishing a truly global platform for change.