Keynote & Paneltalk: Fashion for Democracy – Design for Better Lives

Keynote & Panel Discussion with Hessen Design and the Beneficial Design Institute

Who decides what fashion is? Who produces it? Whose voice is heard? The Beneficial Design Institute presents key findings from the Coloured White Paper Fashion For Democracy.

During the panel discussion, stakeholders from the worlds of fashion, design, academia, NGOs, and civil society will discuss more democratic, sustainable and participatory approaches to fashion.

Partner: Kunstgewerbeverein Frankfurt.

The event is taking place as part of World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026 and is aimed at fashion enthusiasts, industry professionals, students, lecturers and members of civil society with an interest in the subject.

You are warmly invited to Frankfurt. Please feel free to share the event on your networks.

Project Lead & Panel Moderator: Christine Fehrenbach (Hessen Design e.V. and Fehrenbach. Holistic Sustain)

Keynote Speaker & Moderator: Prof Friederike von Wedel Parlow (Beneficial Design Institute)

17:00 – Welcome address by Carolina Romahn, CEO of WDC 2026 and Annette Lang, Kunstgewerbeverein Frankfurt

Panel guests:

• Kseniya Dockhorn (mixNmatch)
• Claudia Frick (Stitch by Stitch)
• Rouven Kneipp (Vidar Sports)
• Jennifer Najarian (Fashion Revolution Frankfurt)
• Jonathan Radetz (Studio Jonathan Radetz)
• Thimo Schwenzfeier (Fashion expert)
• Leonid Sladkevich (leonid matthias)

Fashion is an everyday cultural practice and, at the same time, part of a global system characterised by complex supply chains, high resource consumption and unequal power relations. Fashion For Democracy – Design for Better Lives therefore asks: How can fashion be made more democratic, sustainable and participatory? Who decides on fashion, who produces it – and whose voice is heard in the process?