Global Sourcing

Seminars

Fashion Commentator and Journalist

Join us for an in-depth seminar tailored for fashion industry professionals and designers seeking to strengthen their business foundations and drive long-term success. This comprehensive session explores the four essential pillars of modern fashion entrepreneurship: sourcing, selling, sustainability, and scaling. We’ll unpack sustainable practices that are both environmentally responsible and commercially viable, and guide participants on how to scale operations, expand into new markets, and build brand equity. Key Takeaways:

• Smart sourcing strategies for quality and sustainability
• Sales approaches for digital, wholesale, and direct-to-consumer models
• Building a brand with ethical and environmental impact
• Scaling through systems, partnerships, and market expansion
• Real-world case studies and practical frameworks

This is a must-attend for fashion designers, startups, and retailers ready to evolve with purpose and profitability.

Jude Kingston, Founder/Director, Mind your Fashion

Digitising materials is emerging as one of the most powerful enablers of the circular textile economy. This session explores how material digital twins, shared data standards and end-to-end value-chain visibility can shift the industry from fragmented sustainability claims to reliable, machine-readable material intelligence.

We’ll unpack how structured digital material data is already transforming sourcing and circularity—enabling faster verification, smarter buying decisions, improved surplus reuse, and new commercial pathways for circular materials at scale. With a focus on practical, real-world applications, this session highlights the systems, tools and collaborations that are reshaping how materials are tracked, validated and reused across global supply chains.

You’ll leave with a clear understanding of how digitalisation can accelerate your organisation’s progress toward traceability and circularity—while unlocking efficiencies and value along the way.

Courtney Holm, Founder, Circular Sourcing

Join the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) of Bangladesh for an in?depth presentation on the country’s Ready-Made Garments (RMG) industry—one of the world’s most trusted and rapidly advancing apparel manufacturing hubs. Delivered by the EPB Head of Delegation and accompanying commercial representatives, this session will showcase Bangladesh’s competitive advantages in ethical production, green factory leadership, workforce expertise, and diversified product innovation. The discussion will also outline emerging opportunities for Australian brands, retailers, and investors to engage with Bangladesh’s evolving RMG landscape, fostering stronger bilateral trade ties and mutually beneficial growth.

On behalf of Bangladesh, and a keynote presenter from Australian Trade and Investment Commission (AUSTRADE)

Carla Zampatti is one of Australia’s most enduring fashion houses, known for its distinctive tailoring, sophisticated silhouettes and decades-long connection with Australian women business leaders, politicians, and media figures. Founded in 1965 by Italian-born designer Carla Zampatti, the brand has grown into an influential force in Australian fashion and a benchmark for quality and modern elegance.

Today, chief executive officer Alexander Schuman is guiding the company into its next chapter. In this session, he will explore the brand’s evolution over six decades, the foundations of its remarkable longevity, and the strategic decisions shaping its future. Schuman will discuss the opportunities and challenges of second-generation leadership, the company’s commitment to Australian manufacturing, and its ongoing focus on sustainability and ethical business practices. He will also share insights into maintaining brand relevance in a global, rapidly changing fashion landscape.

Alex Schuman, CEO, Carla Zampatti Fashion

Australia once had a thriving textile, clothing and footwear manufacturing sector, but following the removal of tariffs and quotas from the 1980s, production moved offshore — with an estimated 97 per cent now manufactured overseas. Recent global supply chain disruptions, however, have sparked renewed momentum for rebuilding local capability.

This session explores the growing movement to preserve Australia’s remaining heritage manufacturers and re-establish sovereign manufacturing, alongside insights from the Australian Fashion Council’s National Manufacturing Strategy, which outlines a pathway to revitalise and future?proof the local TCF sector.

Join Adelaide?based entrepreneurs Melanie and Dean Flintoft, who in 2024 rescued the 74?year?old knitting mill Silver Fleece from liquidation. A historic Australian knitwear manufacturer, Silver Fleece continues to produce premium fabrics and apparel in South Australia, including for national sporting teams and schools, while also launching a contemporary onshore fashion brand, Crestwell Australia.

They are joined by Samantha Van Zyl, CEO of LoomTex, a Geelong?based woven textile mill and dye house established in 1920. Rebranded following its acquisition in 2023, LoomTex is another surviving Australian manufacturer supplying local and international clients, with fabrics featured in landmark projects including the Sydney Opera House.

Together, the panellists will share practical insights into revitalising heritage manufacturing businesses, the realities of producing onshore, and the opportunities shaping the future of Australian?made textiles.

Melanie Flintoft, Co?Owner & Creative Director, Silver Fleece and Co?Founder & Creative Director, Crestwell Australia; Dean Flintoft, Managing Director & Co?Owner, Silver Fleece and Co?Founder, Crestwell Australia; and Samantha Van Zyl, CEO, LoomTex

What if clothing didn’t just avoid harming the planet — but actively healed it? After years of research through our Regenerate program, Kowtow has developed a world-first innovation: garments made from organic cotton that can be transformed into biochar, returning to the soil to restore carbon, improve biodiversity, and regenerate ecosystems.

In this session, we’ll take you behind the scenes of this breakthrough — from seed, to garment, to soil. You’ll learn how circular design, responsible farming, and science-driven innovation can work together to create fashion that enriches the earth rather than depleting it.

Join us to explore what truly regenerative fashion looks like, how biochar is reshaping circularity, and why the future of apparel lies in designing products that give back more than they take. Walk away understanding the science behind regenerative fashion.

Tessa Bradley, Head of Product and Sustainability Kowtow Clothing

Most business owners are either drowning in tasks they should never be doing or spending a fortune on local staff that bleeds their margins. This presentation shows a smarter path: combining remote teams with cutting-edge AI to build a lean, leveraged business that grows without the owner being the bottleneck.

Taylor isn’t presenting theory, she’s actively building systems, practical, no-fluff, and built for business owners who are ready to stop doing everything themselves.

Taylor Victoria, CEO & Founder, Level Up Outsourcing

Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how founders approach production and sourcing, offering powerful ways to save time, reduce complexity, and make faster, more informed decisions. This session explores how AI can be used as a practical support tool across supplier research, material selection, production planning, and risk management—freeing founders to focus on strategy, creativity, and growth. Using real-world creative industry examples, the session demonstrates how AI can streamline workflows, improve visibility across supply chains, and support smarter sourcing decisions without replacing human judgement or craftsmanship.

Natasa Pitra-Grbic, Creative Director, PITRA

Clothing does more than cover us. It affects how comfortable we feel, how independently we can function, and whether we can participate fully in our lives. Yet some of the factors that determine wearability aren’t always visible in the design process.

This session explores what makes clothing genuinely inclusive, including factors that often go unnoticed but dramatically affect wearability: Sensory experience: How fabrics, seams, tags, textures and visual elements can either support comfort or create genuine distress and overwhelm. Physical demands of dressing: The real impact of fastenings, reach requirements, grip strength, fatigue and limited mobility on whether someone can dress themselves safely and independently.

Functional realities: How clothing performs during everyday activities like sitting for extended periods, using mobility aids, managing pressure areas, or maintaining dignity whilst moving.

Design details that matter: The small, intentional choices that dramatically improve comfort, safety and ease of use across a wide range of bodies and abilities.

Drawing on clinical expertise and lived experience, this session brings together consumers, designers and sourcing professionals to examine apparel from a practical perspective. You’ll gain concrete insight into what bodies and brains actually need from clothing, and discover how thoughtful, inclusive design choices can make everyday comfort, confidence and participation genuinely achievable.

Stephanie Ford, Occupational Therapist, Action Forward

Global snow sports are exploding. China’s snow tourism market is on track to hit 1.5 trillion yuan by 2030, Japan’s ski fields are drawing record international crowds, and Australia is joining the action with Western Sydney’s $700?million Winter Sports World opening in 2028. Worldwide, more than 150 indoor snow centres are already operating across 35+ countries, with rapid expansion in China, Europe and the Middle East.

This surge is fuelling massive demand for high-performance winter apparel—on and off the mountain. With the snow wear market forecast to more than double to US$54.2 billion within seven years, brands blending technical innovation with lifestyle appeal are leading the charge.

To unpack this fast-moving opportunity, the panel brings together two standout Australian founders: Luke Mitchell, co-founder of Yuki Threads, known for fusing mountain functionality with streetwear culture; and Anthony Symonds, co-founder of LÉ BENT, the performance brand born from a single hero product—a Merino bamboo ski sock engineered in the heart of Val d’Isère.

Together, they’ll explore where the winter sports market is heading, what consumers want now, and how Australian brands can carve out global relevance in the hottest cold weather category.

Luke Mitchell, Co-founder and owner Yuki Threads, and Anthony Symonds, Co-founder, LÉ BENT