Brussels puts on European fashion summit

By

Florent Gilles

Published
May 21, 2014

Sixty or so European fashion insiders and entrepreneurs have been invited to share their experiences from June 4 - 6 during Madifesto, the first “European fashion summit".

The summit will include three days of panel discussions in English, aimed at creating cohesion, exchange and synergy across European fashion industry borders. Participants include Jean Francois Aguinaga, head of the European Commission’s creative industries unit, Jean-Pierre Blanc, director of the Hyères festival, Raissa Verhaeghe, consultant and former CEO of Raf Simons, and the Frenchwoman Muriel Piaser, a fashion brand development consultant.

"We have been asked for a longtime why Brussels is any different from Antwerp in terms of fashion," recalls Elke Timmerman, fashion coordinator at MAD Brussels, the organization that promotes Brussels fashion and that is behind the Madifesto project. "And one of the first responses that comes to mind is that Brussels is the European economic capital." Representatives of institutions from all over Europe have been invited to this fist edition, but future editions are planned to be even bigger and better

Timmerman’s reflection was the starting point for the Madifesto project, which began last year with fashion shows open to the public. The general public will be invited in principle to the next editions of the event, which MAD Brussels hopes to make annual.