Blue Jeans Make the Leap to Green at Kingpins Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM — Blue was the overriding hue at Kingpins Amsterdam denim trade show, spotted on sticks of cotton candy and customized matcha lattes, in addition to jeans. But that didn’t stop the fair from getting greener. Following the organizers’ announcement in February, the Amsterdam edition of Kingpins, which ran April 10 to 11 at the Westergasfabriek exhibition center, was the first to require exhibitors to meet a list of mandatory standards across categories such as corporate social responsibility, chemical usage and environmental policies. “These aren’t simple guidelines, they are criteria,” said show founder Andrew Olah. “I would consider them as the boundaries of a football field: The game is inside those boundaries.” This edition focused on getting mills and companies informed about the different certifications available to businesses. On the second day of the fair, Olah hosted a seminar titled, “Does Your Denim Mill Have Any Social Standards?” It dealt with how denim mills can meet standards by 2020 and how the changes will impact brands and retailers, presented by representatives from CSR-certification entities Social Accountability International and Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production. “We want the industry to start behaving properly,” said Olah. “We don’t care what CSR standard a company chooses: they just have

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