Fair Luxury: The UK’s first ever responsible jewellery conference
April 2016. The world has bid a sudden farewell to Prince, Barack Obama is just months away from handing his presidency over to Donald Trump, and Britain is on the precipice of voting to leave the European Union. Meanwhile, the founding members of FLUX (our previous handle) are busy in the final stages of organising a groundbreaking responsible jewellery conference.
To learn more about our legacy - from this seminal event to today, check out the long-read blog post.
Tuesday 19th April 2016
The seminal event, named Fair Luxury, was a day-long convention hosted by The Goldsmiths’ Centre. The first of its kind, it captured the attention of jewellery industry professionals at a moment when the Kimberley Process was being abandoned by a number of key NGOs, yet 36% of millennials were already reporting that responsible diamond sourcing was no longer an area for compromise when purchasing their engagement rings and wedding bands. We needed to talk about the jewellery industry, and our inaugural event sold all of its tickets within two weeks.
A congregation of pioneers
Fair Luxury brought together figures from both the jewellery and fashion worlds, inviting industry leaders to question the ways we approached provenance and sustainability.
A packed day of diverse speakers began with Lina Villa of Colombia’s Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM), behind the Fairmined initiative. Lina shared her experiences of implementing change through increased mining safety standards and the positive effect such essential work had already on the lives of millions of artisanal miners across South America.
Jack Cunningham, Group Sustainability Manager at Gemfields – a world-leading responsible miner and marketer of coloured gemstones - spoke frankly of the challenges faced in gemstone mining and marketing, when acting as the model for ethical policy within an industry that has an inherently chequered history of environmental practice.
A pivotal moment
We were also joined by Orsolo de Castro – co-founder of the global phenomenon that is Fashion Revolution, conceived in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster in which 1,130 Bangladeshi garment factory workers lost their lives. Orsola shared her inspirational journey of just what is involved in flying the flag for sustainability amidst todays seemingly insatiable desire for fast fashion.
Woven between these insightful talks were interactive workshop sessions held by such industry specialists as Greg Valerio MBE, responsible sourcing specialist Estelle Levin-Nally and The Company of Master Jewellers’ Chief Executive Willie Hamilton.
“The UK really is leading the way in ethical practise within our industry. It is inspiring to come here and see the enthusiasm you have to make real change.”
“The enthusiasm and sense of optimism at the event was palpable. The hard work and ambitions of the FLUX team saw their idea become a reality. I hope this will be just the start of our conversation.”