The legendary fashion platform Gwand has turned its attention to a current topic in the fashion world, sustainability, with the Gwand Sustainable Festival. A report from our booth at the Lucerne lake promenade.

“Gwand,” a Swiss-German word for dress, is an institution in Switzerland that was considered the presentation platform for young and creative Swiss fashion for a long time. Over the years, it has become a little quieter around it. However, this year, the team around founder Suzanne Vock has awakened Gwand from its slumber again and launched Gwand Sustainable Festival under the open sky. For this purpose, Gwand invited various labels that deal with sustainable fashion, lifestyle, and circular economy to participate.

So also Le Picot moved into a small gingerbread house on the beautiful Lucerne promenade. As a label mainly present online, this was an excellent opportunity to get in touch with customers and listen to their reactions to our engagement and clothes. We were pleased about the great interest in our label. The Flon T-shirt with its unique climate properties and the Heritage Collection, our specials attracted particular attention. But also our socks, especially the Marzili Socks and the Carouge Sweater, were admired again and again and ended up in the shopping bags of enthusiastic new fans of Le Picot.

Fascinating also the multitude of exhibitors who were on site. We were mainly able to exchange many ideas with our booth neighbors who are heavily involved in the circular economy: Vyn is the first self-repairable leather shoe with spare parts, for example. ID Genève aims to be the most ecological watch with the first case cast from 100% watch industry waste, a watch strap made from grape seed residue, and compostable mushroom packaging. Our neighbor Parris Parris, very different but just as much a part of the circular economy, sold exclusive second-hand clothing. Many of these pieces were once needed for fashion shoots and were thus put to meaningful reuse.

The festival also included panel discussions on sustainable fashion, circular economy and social entrepreneurship, and impact investing.

The weather was kind to the Gwand Sustainable Festival, and we were able to spend three beautiful days in Lucerne. Besides the many customer reactions, we took home another learning: Respect for people who have to stand for hours in retail stores, restaurants, or museums: After three days, we almost couldn’t stand anymore…