Fashion Industry Panels

Organised by students from the MSc International Fashion Marketing and MSc International Fashion Marketing with Extended Professional Pratice courses at Coventry University London 

The conference includes two special fashion industry focused panels featuring guest professionals drawn from the international fashion industry.

The panels are organised and curated by upcoming fashion industry professionals from the MSc International Fashion Marketing and MSc International Fashion Marketing with Extended Professional Practice courses at Coventry University London.

Fashion Industry Panel 1

Thursday 22nd July 2021 - 13.00-14.15 (UK Time)

Backstage with Luxury's Take on Sustainability


Panel Guests:

Pratik Kela, MSc Sustainability & Consultancy, University of Leeds, Owner of Charitable Organization, Nature Lovers and Epic India.

Lewis Waite, Harrods Personal Shopper with over 8 years of experience.

Mahila Lisa, Human Rights Lawyer at Shahid Rahman Solicitors, Sustainable Fashion Advocate and Owner of The Square Bars

Konstantinos Kafritsas, Senior Stylist Advisor at Burberry with over 2 years of experience.


Being environmentally friendly and conscious in fashion are consumers priority nowadays, especially between Gen Z and Millennial consumers as they are considered as "The Sustainability Generation (Petro, 2021)". This is seen through their purchasing behaviour as they prefer to "buy sustainably or from a sustainable brand" putting forward the care for the earth and its inhabitants to help labourers and supply chains be more ethical towards its starting to end process. According to a study conducted by McKinsey (2020), it is found that there is "A long way to go for the industry to meet the demand towards being more sustainable", hence, methods to solve excessive inventory and having transparent supply chain is needed.


The journey between luxury fashion and sustainability had been slow, however, changes in consumer behaviour have led to brands strengthening their sustainability aspects through its ethical sourcing, labour rights, and supply chain transparency. As luxury brands are enhancing awareness there are still questions raised as to whether sustainability is the long-term vision of luxury fashion. This panel will consider how can luxury fashion and sustainability build a long-lasting relationship? Can sustainability be the 'value' of every luxury brand? What further awareness and action is needed within the luxury fashion industry?

Organisers: Ariba Bashir, Sawani Kulkarni, Quoc Viet Ngo, Nur Qamarina Binti Mohd Faizil, and Han Wang.

Panel Guests


Pratik Kela is a Sustainability Consultant, who recently graduated from Leeds university, Msc Sustainability and Consultancy. He is currently working with a company in India which gives sustainable solutions from business models to packaging solutions. He is also a part of Nature Lovers organisation based in Pune, India. They are a Youth-led Environment Awareness & Community Service Club who work with students and communities in achieving sustainability. He is also a part of Epic Foundation India, an organisation working for encouraging and empowering persons with disabilities / differently abled persons. Pratik is passionate about sustainability and believes it is every persons' responsibility to be aware and change behaviour patterns that are more in tune with Nature.

Mahila Anjum Lisa is currently working as a Human Rights Lawyer in UK. She has been advocating on for sustainable fashion and labour rights since the Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013 in Bangladesh. She grew up seeing garment factory unrest in Bangladesh and workers always protesting for better working conditions and wages. She wants to stop people from normalizing the exploitation of workers for our material needs to produce fashion at cheaper prices and simultaneously polluting the environment in the process. Mahila believes that it is important for consumers to ask the brands two questions: What are our clothes made with? Who made our clothes?

Lewis Waite With over 8 years of experience in luxury retail, Lewis Waite is currently a Personal Shopper in Harrods. This has given him a fantastic opportunity to build up a reputable worldwide client base as well as being exposed to a multitude of global prestige brands to work with and sell from, allowing him to constantly meet all of his client's needs. He strives towards creating a tailored shopping experience with all his clients and actively builds new relationships as well as developing current ones with both clients and brands. He is proactive in driving trade and consistently improving the client's experience which he is passionate about creating a seamless shopping journey.

Konstantinos Kafritsas As a graduate of History of Art, Konstantinos Kafritsas (Kay) finds inspiration from every colour and every shape, trying to create conceptual outfits that are intriguing and thought-provoking. He has been working for Burberry as a Senior Style Advisor for two years. Being part of the house of Burberry really gives the opportunity to be creative and sustainable at the same time. Sustainability for Burberry is a crucial part of the business, that's why as a luxury brand, Burberry are aiming to be environmentally positive by 2040. From the Gabardine fabric to eco-nylon, Burberry tries to push itself into using pioneering and alternative sources for the fashion industry.

Fashion Industry Panel 2

Friday 23rd July 2021 - 13.00-14.15 (UK Time)

Sharing The Vision: The Evolution and Future of Influencers

Panel Guests: 

Sarah Morton PR 20 year career working both agency and in-house with brands, most recently judging the Fashion Communications Portfolio Award at GFW.

Alyssa Johann, Influencer Malaysia has over 6.8k followers and is a social media strategist and content creator

Hara Kaimakami Brand Greece, fashion designer and illustrator launched her own brand of locally produced accessories in April 2021


This fashion industry focused panel discussion considers the changing role of the fashion influencer during the upcoming conference Re-Imagining Global Fashion Business: New Models, Values, and Ideas. The panellists will include three international influencers and one UK PR. Influencers joining the panel are from Malaysia. It is well established that influencers are an integral part of brands marketing strategies, will this continue to be true? How will the role of the influencer evolve? The discussion will explore fashion influencer status, how engagement has changed during the pandemic, authenticity issues and innovations.

Organisers: Elena Gyftopoulou, Brooke Ramsey, Dhwani Vimal Dalal, Ruocao Wang, and Leslie Whittaker.

Panel Guests

Sarah Morton is a Fashion & Lifestyle PR and Brand Consultant. My career spans over 20 years of agency and in-house experience working across global fashion, contemporary, premium high street, celebrity designers, emerging talent and luxury lifestyle brands. I have been responsible for the creation, development and implementation of campaigns, projects, events and runway shows in London and Internationally for Calvin Klein, Bally, Etro, GILES, Erdem, Lara Bohinc, Margaret Howell, Sienna and Savannah Miller's label, Twenty8Twelve, Uniqlo, Selfridges, Harrods, Liberty and the YOOX Group. In 2019 and 2020, I was invited by Graduate Fashion Week to sit on the judging panel and shortlist the Fashion Communications Portfolio award.

Alyssa Johann is Social Media Strategist and Content Creator based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Enjoys creating content about style, beauty, F&B, lifestyle, and wellness. Launching on Instagram in 2015, Alyssa started working with brands through internships while completing her BA and subsequently her MSc in Strategic Marketing. Today including international brands such as Sephora and Aesop she specialises in independent local brands

Hara Kaimakami  is a Greek fashion designer and illustrator; she has studied fashion design in London, and she has passion with fashion and styling. She launched her brand name in April of 2021, and it contains handmade bags, hats, accessories with a boho aesthetic. All her products are designed and manufactured in Greece and all the names of her products are inspired from Greek mythology. As well, all of her orders are made via Instagram because she hasn't a website yet, but she will create very soon. She updates content of new designs, bestsellers and she has started to collaborate with many Greek influencers to increase brand awareness and sales.

Re-Imagining Global Fashion Business: New Models, Values and Ideas
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