World Fashion Convention was held in Brazil from October 17 to 18. The concept and the theme of the convention was: Compliance and Technology – Key Drivers for Industry and Retail, were very much in line with International Apparel Federation’s mission to unite the industry to help improve it.

Among those attending were the chief purchasing officers of major apparel brands and retailers. In addition to excellent speakers, delegates were treated to a great display of Brazilian hospitality and zest for life. Brazil is a people oriented country. Speakers from Brazil and from abroad made clear that the solutions to the many challenges in the fashion industry hinge around the ability and the willingness of people to embrace far reaching changes.

One presentation set the stage highlighting the amount of investments the industry still has to make to actually digitise the supply chain by stating that 64 per cent of the firms questioned spend less than one per cent of their sourcing value on digitisation.

On compliance, both C&A and PVH stressed the importance of changes in buying behavior permeating throughout the organization so that the strategy set out by the corporate social responsibility and sustainability officers really affects the entire operation and that suppliers receive the same message from all buyers’ representatives.