ispo
Sport has continually influenced fashion over the past years, and fashion inspired by sports with its emotions has become part of our everyday life. ispovision is the first trade show for sports-inspired fashion. The Neue Messe München GmbH has created a business and communication platform designed in line with the times for the Sportstyle segment and its suppliers with it, which links the strengths and advantages of a conventional trade fair with the emotions of a lifestyle event. The focal point of fashion at ispovision is on the transfer of inspiration from sport into fashion.
www.ispovision.com

Otto
Founded in 1949, the Otto Group is now a worldwide-operating trade and services group with about 53,000 employees. The Group has 123 companies of primary significance and operates in 19 countries in Europe, North America and Asia. It is organised into four business segments:
Multichannel Retail, Financial Services, Services and Wholesale. Otto Group revenue in the fiscal year 2006/07 (to 28 February 2007) was 15,251 million euros. Today, Otto is the largest mail order group in the world. The Otto Group is the world’s number two in B2C online trade, second only to Amazon. Over-the-counter retail trade constitutes the third pillar of the successful multichannel distribution concept at Otto. The Otto Group is convinced that the only companies soundly positioned to face the future are those which are financially successful and at the same time adopt policies and act in a manner consistent with their social responsibilities. Thus, environmental and social policy are today an integral part of company strategy. The company sat itself the objective of
implementing ecological and social standards among the suppliers of imported goods, without building barriers to trade.
www.ottogroup.com

Falke
The Falke Group is an internationally active fashion and lifestyle company with main office in Schmallenberg, Sauerland. The family-owned company was founded in 1895 and is managed by the 4th generation today. The Falke Group was very successful as a market leader in its 111th year and recorded sales increases of +12.8 million euros compared to the previous year to a present 186.3 million. Contrary to many Germany textile and clothing companies, the Falke Group relies on a high share of domestic production.
The brand Falke and its products are an integral part of the fashion market. Falke stands for modern clothing accessories, which provide a feeling of life that does justice to a very personal culture and the demands of people. Fashionable clothing made of high-quality materials, produced with handicraft perfection, which is distinguished by its high degree of innovation and its functional aspects. Falke realized at a very early stage that the reconciliation between function and fashion in clothing will be one of the core developments in the upcoming years. The philosophy is: Falke wants to create intelligent products that support people's movements and needs and trigger a positive bodily sensation at the same time.
www.falke.com

Schumacher
The label: heartbeat, international, feminine and daring. When women discovered their femininity behind business suits at the end of the 80s, Dorothee Schumacher bet consciously on femininity with her first collection. This was a feminine revolution, which is the basis for the fashion label
recognized worldwide today. Attitude to life: A strong, clever and charming woman, who goes her own way. Her luxury is her independence, and her freedom in style is unlimited. She loves fashion. High-class and individualism are her statements on life, and the whole world is her stage. Dorothee Schumacher – Heart of the Company: She already had the chance to look behind the scenes of exclusive fashion labels as a teenager. Fascinated by the big Italian fashion shows, she
knew at a very early age that she would go to Italy to study textiles after her training in retail sales at the top luxury department store in Germany "Heinemann“, Königsallee, Düsseldorf. After she returned to Germany, she continued her studies to become a purchaser at the company P&C.
Shortly thereafter, she entered the sales department at the French label François + Marithé Girbaud. A mosaic was formed from her previous career experiences, which serves as the basis for her own, completely new fashion concept: a shirt, which is different from the others: smart, feminine and
powerful. This is a counter-strategy to women in business suites, who try to look more like men instead of using their feminine charm. She was able to take advantage of her great sense of fashion and her sensitiveness for customers to create her first designs.
www.schumacher.to

AGD – Alliance of German Designers
The Alliance of German Designers (AGD) has been a professional association of freelance designers for 32 years. The Alliance provides its members with the advantages of an entrepreneur association combined with the protection of a pay-negotiation association and works to support economic issues of freelance designers. The AGD is open to designers of all specialist fields. It is by far the largest designer association in Germany with approx. 3,000 members and one of the biggest in Europe.
One concern of the AGD is advising and promoting young designers. Consequently, we are very happy that the association has renewed collaboration with the German Fashion Industry Foundation on the occasion of ispo winter 2008.
www.agd.de

Dr. Hauschka Kosmetik
Dr. Hauschka Kosmetik developed from the knowledge about drug production of the company Wala Heilmittel GmbH in 1967. Valuable active ingredients from nature and selected medicinal plants are the basis for their especially nourishing properties. By treating the skin as a comprehensive organ and stimulating its own activity, Dr. Hauschka Kosmetik helps the skin to regenerate itself. All Dr. Hauschka Kosmetik products have the BDIH seal "verified natural
cosmetics".
As in the cosmetics industry, a sustainable concept of products is gaining in significance in the fashion industry, which reflects the values and identity of a company. Fast-paced changes and the chase to follow trends are being replaced by quality and trust in products. These are focal points, which distinguish Dr. Hauschka Kosmetik. Against this background, Dr. Hauschka Kosmetik supports targeted promotion of talented young people in the fashion industry by the German Fashion Industry Foundation.
www.wala.de

Swiss Textiles
Involved in many issues, innovative and creative – the Swiss Textiles Association promotes young people. The next generation of talented designers help as ambassadors to make the public aware of the innovative force, creativity and tradition of Swiss fabric quality. As a main measure, Swiss Textiles has been presenting the largest international prize for fashion design, the Swiss Textiles Award, since 2000. The Textiles Association supports the project of the German Fashion Industry Foundation 2008 "Attitude" with fabric vouchers, which can be used to acquire Swiss fabrics. The association is convinced that it is making a valuable contribution to young people with this involvement and helping to make them aware of the European and especially the Swiss textile and
clothing industry.
As representatives of the Swiss textile and clothing industry, approximately 200 companies from the areas of threads/yarn, fabrics, embroidery, processing, underwear/lingerie and clothing as well as carpet manufacturers and trading companies for textiles are members of Swiss Textiles. The association is involved in numerous areas to preserve and promote the interests of its members in Switzerland and other countries.
www.swisstextiles.ch

Additional information, interview requests and pictures are available at:
Joachim Schirrmacher
Project Manager/Chairman of the Advisory Board
Stiftung der Deutschen Bekleidungsindustrie/German Apparel Industry Foundation
T +49 40 25 31 88 60
schirrmacher@sdbi.de

Susanne Fischer
Marketing & Communications
ispo Group
T +49 89 494 20 870
fischer@ispo.com