A Look at Skazi -- Coterie Trade Show by Anthony Nota

        Coterie, the comprehensive marketplace for the global fashion industry, represents a plethora of fashion brands throughout the world. While attending the event at the Jacob Javits Center on September 17th, the main goal of the visit was to uncover which brands placed an emphasis on sustainability during their production process. Skazi, the brand I was assigned to research, is a Brazilian clothing brand in which collections are designed with a modern-urban woman in mind. However, Coterie was not limited to just trendy Brazilian clothing. The trade show truly displays such a variety of brands from US based, to international brands, vintage brands, contemporary brands, cheap brands, and expensive brands. You name it and you can find it at Coterie. It was fascinating to see such a wide variety of offerings under one (giant) roof. I place an emphasis on the size of the roof because the venue is enormous and perfect for an event at that capacity. Each of the three floors consists of small booths lined up in a grid-like manor. (Similar to New York City blocks). It was a great experience to weave in-and-out of each row analyzing what each brand had to offer to the buyers that attended. It was also interested to examine how the buyers and wholesale teams interacted with each other during the buying process.

        More specifically, as I approached the Skazi booth, I was not initially greeted. Unlike some other big brands that attended the show, there was no one else looking at the merchandise, and the two representatives of the brand were quietly sitting on their phones. It was not until I began feeling the garments and expressed some genuine interest in the product that one of the brand reps decided to greet me. The collection they were showing was clearly Brazilian inspired and trend driven. The pieces that lined the rack consisted of a lot of dresses, garments with light flowing fabrics, and light airy colors. White, gold, navy, and greens seemed to be the biggest trend across the board. The woman at the booth turned out to be extremely nice, and knowledgeable about the brand. I explained that I was a student at LIM College, and my main purpose for attending Coterie was to engage with Skazi and explore the sustainability within the brand. As soon as I mentioned the topic of sustainability the conversation really gained some substance. I could tell she was interested in the topic as she went on to educate me about the factories the company uses in Brazil are completely powered by renewable energy sources. The factories are powered by solar energy and machinery that captures rain water which is then turned into energy. It was very interesting to hear this in regards to how a company operates sustainably. Most of the time the consumer thinks about a brand using recycled materials, or simply not burning $30 million worth of pristine product as being sustainable. (Yes, that is referring to you Burberry). Since a majority of consumers take the light switch we flip on every day for granted, it was humbling to hear that Skazi took it’s sustainable efforts so seriously that they have completely green energy factories. It just goes to show that each and every fashion company has the ability to put these green factories into place, but many still choose to not do so. Using renewable energy sources drastically reduces air pollution in the atmosphere. Utilizing renewable energy methods is one of the most effective tools we have in the fight against climate change. Will having all green factories solve every problem within the terribly polluting fashion industry? No — but it will have an impact on a piece of the puzzle and can be the start of a movement towards completely redesigning the fashion cycle to a more sustainable process.