Event overview
This is not another academic and industry gathering celebrating heritage and craftsmanship; it is an interrogation.
IPOL 2026 Conference - Time to Change is a collaboration between Ravensbourne University London and Goldsmiths, University of London, and will be hosted across both institutions. Day One (10 Sept.) will take place at Ravensbourne, and Day Two (11 Sept.) will be held at Goldsmiths.
Time to Change confronts luxury at a moment of reckoning. This is not another academic and industry gathering celebrating heritage and craftsmanship; it is an interrogation. Building on IPOL 2025’s Honest Luxury, which exposed the exploitation, extraction, and ethical compromises behind luxury branded objects and services, 2026 asks what comes next.
Can luxury transform, or is it structurally incapable of meaningful change? We convene scholars, makers, critics, activists, and industry specialists to challenge Eurocentric paradigms, dismantle inherited hierarchies, and question whether luxury deserves a future at all. This is a space for uncomfortable truths, radical alternatives, and genuine debate. If luxury will not change now, in the face of climate crisis and extreme inequality, then when and if not through this generation of thinkers and makers, then who?
Luxury is at a crossroads. Geopolitical shifts, environmental urgencies, and evolving cultural values are dismantling old certainties. Heritage, exclusivity, and European dominance once unquestioned pillars of luxury are now sites of critical scrutiny. What was once aspirational is increasingly seen as morally fraught.
At IPOL 2025, Honest Luxury laid bare contradictions at the heart of the industry: exploitation masked by elegance, greenwashing cloaked in brand narratives, and colonial residues woven into the fabric of legacy brands. But exposure is not enough. Time to Change moves from critique to confrontation and asks how luxury must be reimagined, or abandoned if it is to have any ethical legitimacy in the future.
This year, we ask:
Should luxury change?
Can it change?
And, more urgently does it even want to?
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 11 Sep 2026 |
9:30am - 5:00pm The conference spans two days across two London institutions, with Day One (10 Sept.) hosted by Ravensbourne University London and Day Two (11 Sept.) by Goldsmiths, University of London. |
Accessibility
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