The CTF Award Jury for 2024 consists of key-industry experts and stakeholders, who will help determine the recipient of the CTF Award.

The members of the jury cover areas of expertise within the textile, fashion, and creative industries.

Wilson Oryema FRSA is an Artist and Writer, as well as Co-Founder of the Surface Tension platform and Research Director at Austron Research. He has spent many years exploring the effects of human consumption on human behaviour and the environment, across several industries through a variety of mediums.

Caterina Tonda is the Ready to Wear Sustainable Development Manager of the Kering Material Innovation Lab, which supports the integration and implementation of sustainable and innovative solutions into the collections and supply chains of Kering’s Houses.

After graduating from the Polimoda Fashion School of Florence, this Italian designer spent a decade pursuing a career in product and fabric development for Ermanno Scervino and Burberry. During this time, she focused on sustainable textile sourcing and development as well as embracing regenerative and circular materials re-imagined as innovative.

Pavel Dler is a marketeer and social media expert, and is the founder and CEO of Culted, one of the fastest growing Gen Z media companies within the Fashion and Popular Culture sectors. Having only started in 2019, Culted has amassed an audience of over 1.5million Gen Zs from across the world who tune in to engage with informative yet entertaining content covering the topics of fashion, music, arts, culture and news – primarily delivered through short form video content, helping achieve a reach of up to 100million.

Culted’s fast growth and success on TikTok has led to the inception of Culted’s creative agency. The agency arm helps industry brands, primarily within the $2.5 trillion global fashion and luxury industries, such as Prada, Bottega Veneta, Nike and Diesel, to reach young audiences both through Culted’s own channels and white label services. Pavel has directed projects which have helped brands like Prada gain more than 600,000 new followers.

Not only has Pavel cultivated a business where Gen Z creatives produce and publish content for other Gen Z creatives – he has also been early to harness the power of the generation to create impactful strategies for brands to advertise and build loyal audiences like Culted itself.

Rising creative force, Iretidayo ‘Ireti’ Zaccheaus, is the founder of STREET SOUK, The largest Streetwear community and convention in Africa. Ireti holds an MSc in Marketing Strategy and Innovation from CASS Business School, London and a BSc in International Business Finance and Economics from the University of Manchester.

Ireti’s deep immersion in pop culture spans from sports to music, but her passion remains streetwear and its unique culture in Nigeria and around the world. Ireti is also a creative and cultural consultant, she has worked on numerous projects for brands such as Homecoming, Native, Nike, Fear of God, Apple and artists such as Davido, Tiwa Savage , Odumodu Blvck and much more. Her deepest strengths lie in community building and connecting cultures globally. In 2023 , She embarked on a tour with Street Souk , taking numerous African streetwear brands across 7 cities London, Los Angeles , Dubai , Abuja, Lagos, Abuja , Accra and Capetown.

Ireti’s interests culminated in the launch of Street Souk in 2018 when she noticed the growing streetwear scene and the lack of avenues to nurture, grow and access these brands. The 24 year old entrepreneur is pioneering a movement and bridging the gap between the African and Global streetwear community.

Curiosity and passion are the two most distinguishing traits of Andrea Rosso’s personality. Born and raised in Bassano del Grappa, Andrea relishes living in his hometown where he can be close to his friends and family, and the lifelong creature comforts that fuel his creativity. Music, graphic art and flea markets are all important pursuits that help him steer his passion to exciting new heights. Andrea is a descendant of Diesel, so it comes as no surprise that he was instinctively drawn to the fashion business. In preparation, he studied pattern cutting in Padua, Italy, but it was while studying English in California that he discovered a love for nonconformist skills such as graphics, art and a passion for all things vintage. From there, he went on to New York to study Textile Development and Marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and ultimately, to begin conceiving his role inside the family business.

Andrea is the Creative Director of Diesel Living collection; Initially launched in 2008 as an assortment of home textiles, the Diesel Living collection extends the brand’s lifestyle and attitude to a now vast world of design, adopting important long-term partnerships with leading players in the interior design field: Moroso for furniture, Lodes for lighting, Scavolini for kitchen and bathroom, Iris Ceramica for ceramic tiles and Berti for wooden flooring, Seletti for home accessories and Mirabello Carrara for home linens. He coordinates the creative design team in the development of new products, guiding the image with the aim to build a truly complete lifestyle brand.

In 2014 Andrea launched his own fashion project collecting all his passions: MYAR, a collection of used military originals that Andrea procured personally in vintage markets and visited old depots hunting for functional details and fabrics and accessories no longer in production. After being sartorially refashioned, each garment acquires a contemporary fit and brings the history of the past into the present, looking into a future use.

2020 marks a new beginning for Diesel and Andrea, taking on new roles in the form of Diesel Sustainability Ambassador. In January 2020, Diesel launched the brands ‘For Responsible Living’ strategy, a commitment to taking actions for the benefit of current and future generations.

With Andrea’s passion and enthusiasm for a more sustainable future leading the way, the launch of ‘For Responsible Living’ signified the beginning of a meaningful journey for Diesel. Building upon its philosophy and positive disruptive outlook, Diesel formally committed to implementing a responsible business strategy that is respectful of people and the planet.

REGISTER - CTF 24

Challenge the Fabric 2024 will take place on May 14 – 15, in Milan

Cancellation/no show policy
If you have registered for the Symposium on May 15th but are no longer able to attend, we kindly ask you to notify us no later than 14 days prior to the event. Please notify us via email at ctf@ekmangroup.com

Sign up for newsletter



By submitting your email, you accept our privacy policy. Click here to read our privacy policy.

AGENDA - CTF 2023

Tuesday 9th May

18:00 - 20:00

Welcome Mingle

Wednesday 10th May

09:00

Registration

09:30

Introduction and welcome

09:45

The opportunity of Green Textiles

Keynote speaker

Jonatan Janmark | Partner, McKinsey & Co

10:05

Sustainable Forestry

Keynote speaker

Valerie Langer | Fibre Solutions Strategist, Canopy

10:20

Forest to fabrics; the importance of sustainable forest practices

This panel discusses the importance of sustainable forest management. Topics
that will be discussed are centered around how sustainable forestry
management is defined, how farmers work with their forests to ensure and
protect the biodiversity, regeneration capacity and reforestation. The panel will
also discuss what sustainable forest management mean for different regions of
the world as well as how it influences sourcing strategies and the demands on
raw material suppliers.

Keynote speaker

Diana Tuomasjukka | Head of the Bioeconomy Programme, European Forest Institute

10:35

Break

11:05

Moderator

Oliver Lansdell | Director, Pulp and Paper, Hawkins Wright

Panel

Johannes Bogren | Vice President, Södra Cell Bioproducts

Anna Palmberg | Material & Innovation Developer, IKEA of Sweden

Surya Valluri | Chief Sustainability Officer, Birla Cellulose

Sofia Jorge I Board Member, Sustainability, Risk, Communication, People & Talent, Altri SGPS

11:50

Legislation, Policy, and Traceability

Over the last few years, we have seen an increase in legislation related to sustainability in textiles. For example, the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles will require the use of more sustainable and recycled materials as well as identification through the Digital Project Passport (DPP). Organizations such as the Textile Exchange are supporting the industry by developing standards to classify preferred materials. Also new startups are focusing on helping brands achieve visibility on their supply chains. How can fashion brands and suppliers alike navigate this new landscape? What role can stakeholders like innovators, NGO’s and industry organizations play? What is required to educate and disseminate knowledge on legislation, policy, and traceability? This panel will explore these important topics.

Moderator

Christine Goulay | Founder, Sustainabelle

12:05 – Panel

Amit Gautam | CEO & Co-founder, Textile Genesis

Sara Mariani | Chief Sustainability Officer, OTB

Claudia De Witte | Sustainability Leader, Textiles, Eastman

12:45

Lunch

14:15

Committing to the future of Next Generation Solutions

This panel discusses the collective commitment at COP27 by brands such as Kering, H&M, Inditex to purchase over half a million tonnes of fibres stemming from Next Generation Solutions. The panel will address what this commitment means for the innovators in terms of the need for scaling, investments and partnerships and the potential challenges of reaching the scale needed.

Keynote speaker

Dolly Vellanki | Innovation Associate, Fashion for Good

Moderator

Brooke Roberts-Islam | Founder, Techstyler; Senior Contributor, Forbes.

14:30 – Panel

Jenny Fredricsdotter | Circular Business Manager, Re:newcell

Erik Karlsson | VC/Impact Investor, H&M CO: Lab

Julia Viner | Investment Associate, Fashion, Closed Loop Partners

Peter Majeranowski | CEO & Co-Founder, Circ

15:15

Break

15:45

Shaping the path forward

This panel will focus on how we can shape the path towards fashion’s sustainable future and highlight the possibilities within the MMCF field. It will discuss the importance of cross industry collaborations and how we can create long lasting change by engaging different stake holders from different industries. What can we learn from the development of other fibre categories or other industries? What will be critical to continue to grow in an innovative and sustainable way?

Keynote speaker

Andrea Rosso | Sustainability Ambassador, Diesel

Moderator

Bella Webb | Sustainability Editor, Vogue Business

16:00 – Panel

Amanda Parkes | Chief Innovation Officer, Pangaia

Dr. Shahriare Mahmood | Chief Sustainability Officer, Spinnova

Christina Iskov | Head of Innovation & Academy, Global Fashion Agenda

Malva Carlsson

16:40

Conclusion | Nina Elmersson – VP Innovare, Ekman

16:45

Cocktail