Ganesh Subramanian
Stylumia, Founder & CEO
Orsola de Castro
Fashion Revolution, Founder and Creative Director
Pascal Brun
H&M Brand, Head of Sustainability
Sunil Sethi
Fashion Design Council of India, President
Here’s the roundup of the speakers extraordinaire who will be a part of the October round of PearlxIFFTI2021.
Stylumia, Founder & CEO
Fashion Revolution, Founder and Creative Director
H&M Brand, Head of Sustainability
Fashion Design Council of India, President
Fashion Revolution, Founder and Creative Director
Orsola de Castro (born in Rome in 1966) is a pioneer and an internationally recognized opinion leader in sustainable fashion.
The daughter of a Venetian artist, she took part in her first group exhibitions of etchings and drawings in Rome and Venice aged 15. In 1986-87, she had 5 solo shows in Italy sponsored by Letraset Italia, using their famous Pantone felt-tips and presenting her illustrations and reclaimed vintage hats.
In 1997 she started From Somewhere, a revolutionary label that was the first to address the issue of pre-consumer waste and reproducibility in recycling for the fashion industry. From Somewhere collaborations include upcycled collections for Jigsaw, Robe Di Kappa, Tesco and Speedo.
In September 2006 Orsola co founded Estethica, the sustainable fashion area at London Fashion Week.
In March 2010 Orsola designed the Oscar Dress for Livia Firth, wife of best actor nominee Colin.
From Somewhere collaborates with Speedo since 2010, upcycling obsolete swimwear and fabrics for the From Somewhere with Speedo collection, including the 2012 Unity dress designed to celebrate the 2012 Olympic spirit.
In 2011, Orsola together with partner Filippo Ricci founds Reclaim To Wear, an organization that brings designers, producers and distributors to create upcycled capsule collections. Reclaim To Wear collaborations include Central Saint Martins;HKDI; as well as Reclaim To Wear by Topshop, a bestselling capsule collection which launched in June 2012 and is still ongoing.
Orsola is a Practitioner in Residence at MA fashion and Visiting Fellow at Central Saint Martin’s and a regular lecturer for many universities including the Chelsea College of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent and Falmouth University as well as guest speaker at Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins. Orsola is also a key note speaker at various sustainable fashion events and summits in the UK and internationally, including IHT Luxury Summit in London in 2010.
Stylumia, Founder & CEO
Ganesh Subramanian is the Founder and CEO of Stylumia. His focus is solving consumer facing challenges across the fashion chain at the intersection of technology and domain expertise. In addition to successfully helping startups, Subramanian’s experience includes brand building, supply chain, operations in leading brand and retail organisations.
He specialises in innovation, leadership, creation, brand development, merchandising, supply chain and process excellence.
He has also worked with Myntra.com as Head – New Initiatives and was responsible for creating learning opportunities by giving guest lectures foccused on Indian youth in leading institutes of the country (IIT’s, IIM’s and others) and Indian and International Internet, retail, e-tail and investment forums.
Prior to Myntra, he was associated with Walmart as Vice President and General Merchandising Manager and led the fashion, footwear, baby needs (solutions), jewellery and accessories (Softlines) business in India across all retail formats.
Reliance Retail, Tommy Hilfiger, Arvind Brands, Indus League Clothing Ltd, Morarjee Textiles Ltd and Coats Viyella India are the few other companies he has worked for.
H&M Brand, Head of Sustainability
Pascal Brun brings 14 years of extensive environmental and social sustainability experience to his current position as Head of Sustainability for H&M brand. Within this role Pascal takes responsibility for driving and executing H&M brands sustainability strategy across 70+ global retail markets. Pascal began this position in 2019 following 4 years as Head of Sustainability for H&M Groups Production Team based in Hong Kong and 10 years working across various H&M Group production markets including Bangladesh and China.
Fashion Design Council of India, President
Mr. Sethi, connoisseur of Fashion, Luxury & Lifestyle products (Made in India), set up Alliance Merchandising Company, a sourcing and buying agency in 1988. Over the years he has represented elite designers and world’s reputed & well known stores including Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel, Armani Casa for their product development and buying out of India.Since 2002, he has taken more than 25 Indian Fashion Designers to the International platform, selling their products under their own brands to notable store like Selfridges, Golf & Co, Tsum, The Conran Shop, Habitat, Coin and other through his own company. He is also associated with many Indian Fashion & Design Colleges as Jury, speaker and Adjunct Professor.
To honour his contribution in the field of exports, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts which was presented by the Union Textiles Minister of India. Later, in 2006, the Carpet Export Promotion Council accoladed Sunil with yet another Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the exports sector. Sunil Sethi Design Alliance has made significant contribution by taking Brand India and Indian Designers to the International markets in the field of Fashion, Textiles and Handicrafts.
Sunil Seth has been a part of the Li & Fung Group as Sr. V.P, heading divisions LIA, B and C in India. Li & Fung is a multinational company with extensive global presence and operating a sourcing network with 70 offices across 40 countries.