A new international alliance has emerged from the collaboration among the world’s leading fashion cities to promote a more sustainable transition in the fashion industry. The initiative comes at a crucial time for the sector, which is called upon to address the challenges of the ecological transition and to meet increasingly stringent demands for transparency, traceability, and environmental responsibility.
Unveiled Thursday by Paris Good Fashion, the new Fashion Cities Coalition brings together—in addition to Paris—Copenhagen, Cotonou (Benin), Dubai, London, Milan, New York, and Singapore, with the goal of sharing research, defining common priorities, and accelerating the industry’s transition through collaboration grounded in scientific data and best practices.
These eight cities constitute the first phase of the project, which, as reported by WWD, will feature a series of traveling meetings through February 2028. Subsequently, the coalition will be open to new cities joining. The Fashion Cities Coalition was unveiled during the second edition of Paris Good Fashion’s Midsummer Camp, a two-day event that brought together researchers, companies, institutions, and designers. The first day was dedicated to scientific research, with over 70 scholars presenting work on new materials, circularity, and product durability, while the second day featured workshops with the participation of organizations such as LVMH, Comité Colbert, ANDAM, and EY.
More than just a memorandum of understanding, the Fashion Cities Coalition was created as an operational platform where fashion capitals can test solutions, share knowledge, and develop concrete strategies to tackle the challenges of sustainability together. “This is an important milestone,” said Isabelle Lefort, co-founder and director of Paris Good Fashion, noting that the project was developed over the course of nearly a year. According to Federica Marchionni, CEO of Global Fashion Agenda—the organization that promotes the Global Fashion Summit, one of the leading international events dedicated to sustainability in fashion—the coalition represents an opportunity to bring together institutions, companies, and cities around shared goals. “We need concrete results,” she said. “The transformation of the fashion industry must accelerate, but it can only be credible if supported by a solid scientific foundation.”
The same concept was also reiterated by Pascal Morand, executive president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, who emphasized that scientific research and practical application must go hand in hand.
The coalition is founded on the belief that cities are where creativity, education, innovation, retail, manufacturing expertise, and cultural influence converge. For this reason, they can become the driving force behind systemic change, connecting historic fashion capitals with emerging economies and major manufacturing hubs around the world. According to Ting Ting Tong, CEO of the Singapore Fashion Council, Singapore’s role is precisely to serve as a bridge between international markets, innovation, and the Asian manufacturing ecosystem. “We are no longer a manufacturing country, but we are at the center of the world’s major manufacturing hubs,” she noted, pointing out that about 80% of the world’s apparel is made in Asia. This presents an opportunity to foster closer dialogue between the major fashion capitals and industry players in Southeast Asia. Sarah Kozlowski, senior vice president of program strategies at the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), also emphasized that no single market can tackle the transition to sustainability on its own.
Milan is also among the key players in the initiative, confirming the central role that the Italian fashion industry continues to play in the international debate on sustainability. Carlo Capasa, whose appointment as president of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion was recently renewed for a new term, described the coalition as “the natural evolution” of the international cooperation already underway among organizations in the sector. Capasa also announced that Milan will host the Fashion Cities Coalition’s next workshop by the end of the year, bringing together brands, tech companies, universities, and representatives from the creative sector with the goal of developing concrete solutions for the industry. “This coalition is not simply a forum for discussion, but a commitment to turning dialogue into action, ideas into measurable results, and shared ambitions into a lasting impact,” he stated. Among the coalition’s first joint projects is the expansion of the international consultation promoted by Paris Good Fashion on the topic of sustainable fashion.
The initiative will now enter a new phase of behavioral research, with the goal of understanding why consumers’ intentions often do not translate into truly sustainable purchases. In collaboration with behavioral science experts, specific “nudges”—that is, tools and incentives capable of steering purchasing decisions toward more responsible behaviors—will be identified, tested, and validated. The results will be published in scientific journals and incorporated into practical tools for brands, retailers, and digital platforms.
Following its official launch, the coalition now aims to move quickly from the discussion phase to the implementation phase. The workshop to be held in Milan will serve as one of the initiative’s first test cases and will provide an opportunity to turn the commitments announced in Paris into concrete projects for the future of fashion.
[📷 dolcegabbana.com]
