International Children’s Rights Day turns 30 this year and in preparation for the upcoming occasion, the Principality is selling badges at all local schools with proceeds to benefit charity.
The badges, which say “I take part in the Day of the Rights of the Child”, are now available at private and state schools and will benefit the humanitarian associations sponsored by the Department of National Education, Youth and Sports.
The United Nations program, whose goal is to “promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide and improving children’s welfare”, is celebrated every year on 20th November.
In addition to the badges, the Principality will be sponsoring events leading up to the day. The first is an information and awareness campaign in conjunction with various Monegasque humanitarian organisations from 1st to 8th November.
This will be followed up on the actual day when a programme of fun and festivities is planned at the Grimaldi Forum. Activities dedicated to children, primarily between the ages of three and 13, will be offered and include educational booths, awareness workshops and games.
That evening, a special performance will be given by French actor, singer, comedian and master imitator Mickaël Gregorio at the Grimaldi Forum’s Salle des Princes at 7:30pm.
The sustainable fashion movement is gaining momentum as a growing number of socially responsible consumers begin to reject the highly polluting practices of fast fashion and look for alternatives.
While big brands slowly adapt to the market demands of tomorrow, small sustainable fashion producers are springing up across the globe. Uniting them under one digital platform is Kool and Konscious. Co-founders Boryana Uzunova and Eva Vucheva spoke to Monaco Life about how their company is disrupting the fashion world and making sustainable fashion a viable reality.
Monaco Life: Why did you decide to create Kool and Konscious?
Boryana Uzunova: Fashion is the second biggest polluter on the planet and, even to this day, this fact is not well known. It also uses an incredible amount of water, and one of the biggest reasons for that is mass production. So, we thought: “What if we could find a way to produce fashion – not on a mass scale, but on demand – and customise the clothing so you would have something made just for you?” Then, we would be able to cut some of the mass production and save resources. Think about it like this: just one t-shirt takes 2,700 litres of water to produce. This is enough drinking water for one person for 2.5 years. So, by cutting the mass production we can actually achieve significant environmental change.
We developed the technology and are now creating the market. Eva and I started to build a market place where we gathered cool and sustainable brands from across the world who really have sustainability at heart. These are companies that directly employ people – they don’t work with factories in China, Bangladesh or Pakistan; they use only natural textiles with no pesticides and they don’t use tonnes of water. We have signed 200 brands to our marketplace, whose clothes are available to buy on our website. The vision going forward is to really become the first major on-demand marketplace so that brands can not only produce as sustainably and ethically as possible, but also produce on demand. Right now we are in phase one where we are just running the marketplace, and as we gain on scale, traction and credibility – which is crucial for us to be successful – then we will enter phase two.
So, this is more than just a shopping website?
A very important part of what we are doing is called the eco-system, which is the backend of the marketplace. We gather the value chain players – from textile production, to dying, to sewing, all the way to the afterlife (once we throw it away what do we do with it?) – and we act as an aggregator for our brands and we give them scale. This way they can get better access to prices for sustainable fabrics and dyes; we try to optimise and bring scale to sustainable fashion and hopefully (positively) disrupt the fashion industry.
Most of the sustainable brands are small operations so they also need someone like us to elevate them and offer the opportunities that we provide on a large scale. We are a 360 degree platform and provide access to producers of textiles, carbon neutral shipping, sustainable packaging etc, so it empowers the brands to move in that sustainable direction.
How do you plan on competing with the fast fashion industry?
I think it has to be a hybrid of making prices affordable and being realistic about what people must be paid for making a t-shirt, for example. The hardest job for us is changing the consumer mindset and the perception around fashion, of the need to have a different outfit every day. Fashion can still be about expressing yourself, it just doesn’t have to be on that scale.
Eva Vucheva: I think why sustainable brands are so expensive compared to others is the scale; it is as simple as market and supply. So, with our eco-system we are providing a scale in the supply area, where we aggregate orders so, for example, you can get 50% less on the fabric, which you can then you can pass onto the customer.
It is also about encouraging customers to think about where their garment comes from. I think the market is very quickly moving in that direction as the younger generation are already well aware of how significant sustainability is. But there are big brands that say they are producing sustainably, without providing any proof of that. So there is a lot of scepticism in the market. What we want to do is be the common denominator so people know that we only source brands that we are certain are producing in the right way. We give a scale from one to 10 in terms of how sustainable a brand is. Because at the moment there is not a 100% sustainable brand, it is just impossible with the current supply chain.
How do big brands fit into this idea?
Eva: As much as we want to ban fast fashion, the truth is that without them making an effort to change their practices, the switch won’t happen fast enough. The industry as a whole needs to change and all the single players need to come together and change together. H&M is one of the major brands that have had some great initiatives, and we are looking at ways to collaborate with them. The fact is consumer’s habits don’t change easily; it is a process.
What do you hope to get out of the Vroom Summit?
Boryana: 2.5 million euros (laughing). Monaco is definitely a place that is lucky to be unaffected by global changes. You don’t see the immense impact of polluted waters here or textiles piling up as high as Everest. But Monaco is very conscious about keeping this idealistic environment.
As flawless as we are technologically, we need the capital for marketing and scaling up in order for us to make an impact and ensure the future of generations to come. There is also an opportunity to make a lot of money while doing good.
Eva: Monaco is full of fashion-conscious people, and they do pay attention to where their clothes come from. They want to feel like they are contributing to the future of the planet.
Boryana: We are working with this one designer who is half Indian and half Kenyan. For her latest collection she is working with families in Kenya and they are hand-spinning the cotton, bleaching it under the sun instead of using chemicals, block printing every single piece so they are unique. Then, when people wear her clothes, they can tell a story of how it is handmade in Africa. It is a great feeling to be part of the movement and once you buy sustainable and ethical, and you know the story, that is the moment that you convert.
Top photo: Co-founders Boryana Uzunova and Eva Vucheva with CBDO Ana Kremenlieva
Increasing hopes of a mini trade-deal between the US and China and receding fears around a no-deal Brexit have helped calm markets lately, but it is to be seen whether they fed into October’s macro data.
The eurozone and US publish October’s purchasing managers’ index next week, with hope in both geographies for signs that the decline in manufacturing will stabilise on easing geopolitical risks. Services activity, which was partially affected by manufacturing weakness last month, should also rebound modestly and remain in expansionary territory in both regions.
Overall, the outlook for business activity should remain benign in the fourth quarter and we wouldn’t ring the recession bell unless there was a dramatic fall in the PMIs. Improved sentiment should spill over to households. The final University of Michigan Sentiment for October is likely to confirm a trend upward from September, despite slowing payroll growth and the latest round of tariffs on consumer goods.
In the eurozone, the focus will be on monetary policy as the European Central Bank (ECB) meets on 24 October, the first monetary policy meeting for the new ECB president, Christine Lagarde. The tone is likely to stay dovish although further easing should be off the table for now. The latest Bloomberg survey points to the ECB maintaining its deposit rate at -0.50%, after it was cut from -0.40% in September.
Following the central bank’s decision to reintroduce quantitative easing in November, rate cuts seem less likely without a significant worsening in the bloc’s macroeconomic backdrop (which we don’t see materialising for now) and more clarity on Brexit. Indeed, uncertainty over the UK’s departure from the European Union remains one of the main catalysts of market sentiment in the bloc. Until a definitive resolution is in place, eurozone consumer confidence, due out next week, is likely to worsen.
For more information contact Barclays Private Bank in Monaco by clicking here or on +377 93 15 35 35
Golfer Nicolas Colsaerts victorious at French Open
Monaco-based Belgian golf pro Nicolas Colsaerts beat Denmark’s Joachim Hansen in a nail-biter, securing him his first European Tour Title in seven years.
Golf rarely sees such exciting finishes, but last Sunday at the French Open, it came down to the wire between three worthy players. Colsaerts went into Sunday with a three-stroke lead, but due to some early errors was overtaken on the back nine by Hansen and South African George Coetzee.
36-year-old Colsaerts regained his poise and nailed it on the final three holes, giving him a fourth round finish of 72, which is one-over-par, and the big win with a 12-under-par for the tournament.
Colsaerts was part of the winning 2012 European Ryder Cup team, dubbed “Miracle in Medinah” and widely regarded as one of greatest sporting comebacks of all time when the Europeans knocked an American 10-6 lead over, giving them the victory. Since them the Belgian has slipped to 424th, but this win pulls him up in the standings securing his tour card for the next two years.
“I’ve been coming here for I don’t know how many years. It’s been a long road,” he told Sport 24. “So many people have supported me over the years. That’s why I get so emotional. I went through ups and downs for so many years now.
This was Colsaerts third European triumph and his first since the Volvo World Match Play Championships in 2012.
Monaco has won a dramatic victory over Rennes at home, pulling them out of the relegation zone, avoiding an unsatisfactory tie and keeping hope alive.
The Red and Whites started second to the bottom of the Ligue 1 standings on Sunday, but an early goal in the third minute by Wissam Ben Yedder perked things up and set the stage for what turned out to be an exciting match.
Rennes followed up less than 10 minutes later with a goal by Faitout Maouassa evening the score. After a rollercoaster of a first half, which saw a thwarted goal due to an offside call on M’Baye Niang just before the break, Rennes came back strong and
Adrien Hunou gave them their second goal minutes into the second half.
Things weren’t looking great for Monaco at this point, until Leicester City loan Islam Slimani levelled the score with a spectacular goal in the 56th minute.
The game went into extra time and at three minutes in, Ben Yedder secured the win scoring the final goal of the game.
The win puts Monaco in 14th position and two points clear of the bottom three.
PHOTO: Slimani and Ben Yedder, asmonaco.com
Electric rally cars set to race around the Riviera
The technical and innovative power of electric cars will be on show during this year’s E-Rally Monte Carlo, which kicks off on Wednesday.
For the fourth year running, the organising committee of the Automobile Club of Monaco is putting on a rally like none other. Restricted to cars that are 100% electric or 100% hydrogen-powered, E-Rally Monte Carlo is an authentic regularity road race that puts these vehicles to the test in a tough environment.
The aim is to promote new automobile technologies designed to limit all kinds of pollution, including fine particles and CO2. They also encourage drivers to adopt an eco-responsible driving style.
Five stages are planned ahead of the finish line in Monaco, with an average speed imposed on competitors. The event begins on Wednesday morning at 7.30am with the usual technical checks, before the big departure scheduled for 2pm, finishing in Valence at 6.30pm.
The second stage will take place on Thursday 24th in Ardèche, starting from Valence, with a leg between Gilhoc-sur-Ormèze and Saint-Barthélémy-Grozon – on some very narrow roads – then Saint-Martial and Burzet, and a third part between Antraigues-sur-Volane and Vals-les-Bains, before returning to Valence in the late afternoon. On Friday 25th, teams head towards the Hautes-Alpes with a stage between Oze and Lardier-et-Valença, then the formidable Digne-les-Bains / Chaudon-Norante and the famous Castellane-Chateauvieux, with cars due to arrive in the Principality from 8pm. On Saturday 26th, they’ll depart from Monaco for a series between Toudon and La Penne, before driving between Conségudes and Bouyon. Finally, the last stage takes place at night, with different events between Sospel and La Bollène-Vésubie, and Lantosque and Lucéram, with an arrival in the Principality at 1.30am Sunday 27th.
Charging stations will be provided along the route by Eborn and EVBox, a historic partner of the E-Rally Monte Carlo.
The cars entered in the rally are new generation vehicles, representing over 10 car manufacturers, all leaders in the market.
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