Asia Society presents Threads of Sustainability: Fashion, Ethics, Traditions and the Environment, in collaboration with Fempowerment Foundation. Join us for an evening of fashion as food for thought, featuring an insightful panel on sustainability, fashion, and the role of artisans and designers. Foregrounding the local traditions and artisans whose practices are often incorporated into global fashion, the role of slow fashion, organic materials, and the sustainability of traditional artisanal practices will be discussed. The ongoing tension between a fast-moving fashion industry and a slower, more ethical emphasis on the health and the environmental impacts of this sector has become one of today's pressing issues. The panel will be followed by a brief classical Indian dance performance by Jeeno Joseph and a fashion show of intentional Indian fabrics in a contemporary context, including designs from Marchesa, Anna Sui, Krishna Mehta, Gingerblu and Iro Iro among others. 

Speakers include:

• Carmen Artigas, Climate-positive fashion consultant and biocultural researcher
• Sandy Dalal, Creative + Management Consultant, Entrepreneur, Investor and Designer.
• Ajay Shrivastav, Creative Director, Gingerblu; Co-founder, Fempowerment Foundation
• Rachel Cooper, Director, Performing Arts  and Culture as Diplomacy, Asia Society (moderator) 

Fempowerment Foundation, "Empowering Women...one step at a time" is an organization founded by Kiren Srivastav and Ajay Shrivastav. Fempowerment Foundation serves as a microcosmic organization of global priorities focused on outcomes of social impact, sustainability, and environmental conservation, operationalized by the empowerment of socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. Based in India, they teach marketable life-skills to women from weaker economic strata to achieve self-sufficiency.