Sustainable fashion festival in Kobe turns textile waste into local value

OPA Co., Ltd., in collaboration with BIOTECHWORKS-H2, will hold the RE:♺ KOBE CITY FES from 20th September to 5th October. The event, supported by Kobe City, aims to promote a regional circulation of clothing by creating opportunities for citizens and students to engage with sustainable fashion through a series of interactive programmes across the city.

The festival is part of the EKOBE Project, an initiative by BIOTECHWORKS-H2 selected as a model demonstration project by Japan’s Ministry of the Environment. The project brings together the local community, students and businesses to achieve zero incineration of resources like clothing through reuse, recycling and hydrogenation. OPA, a retail property management company, formed a partnership with BIOTECHWORKS-H2 in September last year to address the issue of textile waste in the fashion industry.

A central feature of the festival is a clothing collection campaign held at commercial centres including Sannomiya OPA, MINT Kobe and Kobe International House SOL. Collection boxes, designed by Kobe-native university student Yuri Shinsei, will use local Kobe dialect to encourage participation. Donors will choose between two bins labelled “Ee yan” (That’s good) and “Sha-nai” (It can’t be helped) to sort their garments in an engaging way.

On 27th and 28th September, the Sannomiya Centre Gai will host an “Upcycle Show & Circulation Market.” In partnership with the SANNOMIYA COLLECTION fashion event, the show will feature designs from upcycling brand DOKKA vivid on the runway. Concurrently, students from Kobe will run a “Clothing Circulation Market,” which includes a clothing swap where participants can take home used items for free, alongside remake workshops.

The initiative will also have a presence at MASHUP FESTIVAL kobe, a large music festival in the Kobe Bay Area, on 4th and 5th October. OPA aims to balance the reduction of fashion waste with the creation of an environment where fashion can be enjoyed positively, and intends to continue working with customers and partners to create an exciting future where fashion is accessible.