Moate Community School’s Junk Kouture World winner   #Tag Me  was invited to participate in The International Women’s Forum celebrating 50 years of women changing the world at the 2024 World Leadership Conference and Gala, May 15-17, 2024 in New York, NY.

The Women’s Forum was born in New York City in 1974 as a network for women leaders at the top of their game to support and inspire each other — that turned out to be an idea powerful enough to travel the world.

For five decades its members have been at the forefront of change — it’s only fitting that its 50th Anniversary address major forces of global change and how women at the top are making change a force for good.

The conference featured women leading the way in technology, healthcare and media as well as exploring our impact on society: how more women at the top change the world of work for those who follow and where the “women’s movement” is today. The forum  ended on self-expression — how we reveal our values and selves through fashion and how we tell the stories of our lives.

WOMEN CHANGING THE WORLD OF FASHION

For centuries fashion has played a powerful role in society – from expressing identity, to defining class, to being a force for social change. In the last decades, the industry has evolved from male designers telling women what to wear to women taking the helm of established designer brands and changing what we wear, how we buy and where this multibillion-dollar industry is heading. In 2020, Maria Chiuris’ cotton statement tee for Dior proclaimed “we should all be feminists” and retailed for a mere $900. But change in the fashion industry is much more than statements, as this panel demonstrates.

And  #TAG ME strutted their stuff at the event in front of 1200 business female leaders with Stephanie Phair OBE group president chair of NGG, Farfetch and Martha Wikstrom founder of Atelier Fund as speakers.

The students Meabh O Shea, Evie Nugent, Eva Donlon and their teacher Pamela Keogh also got to do some sightseeing on their trip, visiting FIT school of Art and Design at the University of New York, Central Park, Ground Zero Memorial, Brooklyn Bridge, One World Observatory, SoHo, Times Square and Saks of Fifth Avenue. Experience these iconic places was truly a fantastic experience for our students and we thank Junk Kouture for the opportunity to do so.