Annette Lind | No Arbitrary Fashion

Interview

Annette Lind

Sustainable Fashion Activist

Co-founder SOOT STHLM & LEGnology

"tomorrow is now"

Annette is of the the founders of two sustainable fashion stories. SOOT STHLM, a slow fashion concept and Legnology, a label for sustainably produced tights. Their passion for sustainability in fashion got them into initiating the Tomorrow Is Now marketplace.

Tomorrow Is Now is a shopping experience in collaboration with the lobby located in the most vibrant area in Stockholm. It's a concept where brands, activists and influencers, second hand initiatives, start ups and the consumers engage in sustainable fashion and consumption. This collaboration creates awareness of the importance of circular fashion and positive attitude towards transitioning to it. It inspires and motivates the consumers to explore the alternatives to buying new products.

Below you'll read more about the concept of Tomorrow Is Now and how they started infusing sustainability into fashion.

Q: How you started working with sustainable fashion?

A: During twenty ﬁve years I was working for one of the world greatest fashion

companies. Traveling professionally I was meeting many people from every part of the globe. While working as global quality coordinator, I was in contact with people who the same job as me, unfortunately, not with equal possibilities. It’s so unfair. They deserve to be proud of what they earn and the work they do. The big fast fashion companies pay the minimum wage in their countries of production. Non of them sets a trend to increase the wages and to serve as an example for everyone to follow. You have to inspire people and show them what they can do.

"We have one planet we share,

and we should all have the equal

opportunity to enjoy our life on it"

As a consumer, I started taking in consideration who made my clothes, and if those who made them have access to clean water, proper food, and if they can afford medicines and etc... Some people work seven days a week and they can’t even live on their salary. That’s not fashion we want to wear or create. The natural resources of the countries of production are exploited, polluted, and the health and well being of the people and other species is put at risk. On the other half of the world, consumers live in protected of the cruel reality of those who made their clothes. We have one planet we share, and we should all have the equal opportunity to enjoy our life on it.

Q: How did the collaboration with the lobby begin?

A: We were one of the ﬁrst brands that rented some space when the lobby opened. After a while, many brands join the market place, but they were not focused on sustainability, and were more or less fast fashion brands. We started wondering what is the meaning behind this place. Is it just another luxury shopping destination in an area with few shopping mall, countless stores and the city’s oldest department store just across the road.

We felt that our slow fashion brands didn’t belong in an environment with this context. So we decided to share our thoughts and questions with the ones responsible for this
place. We sent an email to the sustainability responsible, and the business developer and in few days, we got feedback that they are on the same page with us, and we were invited for a meeting. That’s how our journey begin.

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Q: How did you designed the concept for the marketplace?

A: After our meetings I went to California to visit Anna (Annette's business partner), and the place where we source the second hand and vintage pieces for our brand SOOT STHLM.
The area is called the People’s market, and it’s basically open space where people and brands explore the philosophy of
sustainable fashion and the future of shopping. Afterwards, together with Anna we traveled to Japan, to visit the 100% sustainable shopping mall. It's built just outside Tokyo. In the meantime we were doing research on future fashion and retail trends. The trips and the places we visited inspired us and soon we collected enough material to design a concept.

Q: Did you experience any challenges?

A: We were challenged to convince the board of the real estate agency that runs the lobby. They also run many shopping malls all around the country. At first, when they heard the idea of second hand and flea market, they were not really into it. However, after few meetings and long deliberation, we got the green light to start the project and test the idea. Our idea wouldn't have been possible without their open-minded head of business development team.

"Our aim was to create a pleasant

environment where people can rediscover the values of preowned items, and let go of the misconception that exist about second hand stores."

Q: What's the concept of Tomorrow Is Now?

We come up with an idea of a sustainability oriented marketplace. We imagined collecting all the humanitarian aid organisations and their second hand initiatives under one roof. And renting out market space to brands that take responsibility for their production and have the “soft values” in their strategy.

The concept is very simple. We collect second hand pieces and curate them. We handpick what we think will be valuable for the customer we had in mind, and what we would like to have in our own wardrobes and homes. We mix the preowned with new sustainably produced products and arrange inspirational meetings, workshops and lectures on remake, redesign and sustainable consumption.

In the market place of the lobby, the ground concept of visual story telling for the brands was already there. We just used the
tools that existed to communicate the messages we wanted to share about the products displayed and amazing work of the organisations and the brands. Our aim was to create a pleasant and inviting environment where people can rediscover the values of preowned items, and let go of all the misconception that exist about second hand stores.

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Q: How did you get the second hand shops and brands to participate?

A: We went to all the humanitarian aid organisations, second hand shops and few sustainably oriented brand to propose them a collaboration. All of them instantly joined the venture. Some were familiar with the idea, because we have discussed it already before. Actually, it was two years ago, when together with a group of few like minded people, amongst who, was one of the writers of the book Slow Fashion - your guide to smart and sustainable fashion, Johanna Adler, we talked about organising a sustainable fair. At that time, we got to a point where we talked about where this event could take place.

Anyhow, things got in the way and eventually we ended up renting space for our brands in the lobby. The idea about a place where people interested in sustainable fashion and lifestyle meet still stayed on our minds. Eventually, when we found ourselves surrounded with brands that don’t value sustainability, immediately we imagined the lobby as a space for brands that share the vision of the future of fashion.