Next Gen Assembly

Next Gen Assembly

GFA Academy’s Next Gen Assembly convenes talented students and young professionals in an impactful advocacy programme, enabling the next generation to gain access to the industry, have their voices heard and ideas nurtured.

The 2025 Next Gen Assembly is led by Global Fashion Agenda and the Centre for Sustainable Fashion’s Fashion Values programme.

About Next Gen Assembly
Partners
Meet our 2025 Ambassador
Activities

Next Gen Assembly 2025

The selected members of the Next Gen Assembly will be supported in developing advocacy and communication skills to foster their development as sustainability changemakers. This will be achieved through a year-long collaborative programme with a series of online workshops, courses, and by playing an integral role at the Global Fashion Summit: Copenhagen Edition 2025.

Nature is the life force that provides us with the air, water, soil and all other life forms that, together, make up the elements in the garments we’re all clothed in. The relationship between fashion and nature is dependent on how these elements are valued in emotional, cultural, political, social and economic, as well as aesthetic and technical, ways. This year’s Assembly will advocate for the ways that fashion can be transformed to protect, restore and regenerate natural life on our planet under this year’s focus:
How Can Fashion Value The Rights of Nature?

 

Learn More About the Theme

In Partnership With

Meet our 2025 Ambassador

Aditi Mayer is an interdisciplinary thought leader working at the nexus of social and environmental justice. As a journalist, photographer, and public speaker, her work examines inequities within global supply chains—particularly in the fashion industry—while amplifying narratives of resilience, heritage, and cultural preservation. She is the founder of The Artisan Archive, a storytelling and social impact agency weaving narratives of craft, climate, and culture.
Mayer’s advocacy began in 2014 while organizing within Los Angeles’ garment industry, inspired to mobilize for labor justice following the 2013 Rana Plaza Factory Collapse in Bangladesh. In 2020, she was awarded the National Geographic Fulbright Digital Storytelling Fellowship, during which she researched India’s farming and artisan textile industries, investigating their socio-economic and environmental dimensions. She has collaborated with institutions such as the United Nations, Fashion Revolution, and various academic and cultural organizations to advance critical conversations on equitable sustainability.
In addition to her professional endeavors, Mayer serves on the boards of the Garment Worker Center and Governance for Tomorrow, further cementing her commitment to systemic change. From features in Vogue to National Geographic, Aditi is known for marrying the worlds of art, industry, and education— all with a socially conscious slant.
Aditi Mayer ● Climate Activist and Storyteller
"I'm honored to join as the Ambassador for the Next Gen Assembly once more, helping mentor the next generation of thought leaders, visionaries, and changemakers at the intersection of fashion and climate. More than ever, we need to reconnect with ways of making that revive fashion's intimate connection to nature- from how we grow raw materials, to how products can return back to Earth. To center nature in fashion is to understand the circularity in its trust, most authentic form."

Programme Activities

Next Gen Assembly will complete the Fashion Values: Nature course, participate in a series of online workshops, deliver a Masterclass event, and play an integral role at the Global Fashion Summit. The chosen candidates can expect to interact with content from industry leaders, policymakers, changemakers and thinkers.

  • In the weeks preceding the Summit, the Next Gen Assembly will focus on community building and sharing aspirations, to co-create goals and methodologies for achieving change. This will lead to an exploration of how to be successful advocates for the fashion community and thoroughly prepare them for their roles at Global Fashion Summit 2025 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • At the Summit, each individual will be assigned an on-site industry buddy and be meaningfully involved in activities and networking opportunities throughout the event.
  • Following the Summit, the Next Gen Assembly will continue to work together, advocating for a prosperous fashion system, responding to opportunities to amplify Next Gen voices and contributing to changemaking activities.
Learn More About The Global Fashion Summit

Testimonials from Previous Members

Learn More About the Next Gen Assembly Programme

  • “When you give us the opportunity not just to be observers but to participate actively in the conversations and create something, you are pushing us to develop and evolve as storytellers, creators or speakers, and that is essential.”  Next Gen Assembly Member 2023

  • “Next Gen Assembly was absolutely a life changing event. The entire experience helped in re-shaping my perspective on the fashion industry.”  Next Gen Assembly Member 2023

  • “My biggest highlight of the Next Gen Assembly was the industry roundtable. Before, I couldn’t imagine a place where you had some of the biggest names in the industry sit next to you and think of you as not just someone who’s really young, just starting out, but as someone who’s an equal voice, and who has something to say.”  Next Gen Assembly Member 2024

  • “What I’ve learned through Next Gen Assembly in terms of community has changed my perspective. I want to go back and do that same community for people back home. When we have a space to fully share our ideas and experiences, we have the feeling that we’re not alone on this journey.” Next Gen Assembly Member 2024

Hear From The Next Gen Assembly

Terms & Conditions

Upon successful submission of your application, you acknowledge and accept the requirements associated with participation in the programme. Before applying, please thoroughly review the terms, as they delineate crucial dates that require mandatory attendance and furnish pertinent information regarding your involvement in the programme.

  1. It is required that the Applicant can travel to Copenhagen to take part in Next Gen Assembly related activities during Global Fashion Summit in June 2025. The Applicant commits to be available on all days of 3-6 June 2025. The organisers recommend the participant arrive the day before or at the latest on the morning of 3 June. The organisers recommend the participant leave no earlier than 6 June. GFA’s travel partner will help coordinate the flights. Related mandatory activities include, but are not limited to:
    • Attending Summit briefing and debriefing on 3 and 6 June
    • Attending Global Fashion Summit on 4-5 June

 

  1. GFA commits to provide the Applicant with funding to cover travel and accommodation during the stay of 2-6 June
  2. The agreement does not cover the following expenses, to be covered by the Applicant separately: 1) Food and drink during the stay, 2) transportation to and from the airport and the different venues, and 3) potential visa costs related to travelling to Denmark.
  3. Lunch will be served during Global Fashion Summit on 4-5 June
  4. Applicants must complete the mandatory work prior to the Global Fashion Summit event, such as attending online workshops, reading items on the recommended reading lists, completing the Fashion Values: Nature curriculum, participating in an online masterclass event, and any other assignments given by the organising team.