NO COP OUT: To mark COP28, United Nations youth adviser and one of WWD’s most influential ESG leaders in 2023, Sophia Kianni, launched her “We Wear Oil” campaign in partnership with Fossil Fuel Fashion.
“One of the biggest problems today is that we consume so much and so fast — and fast fashion is killing our planet. The fast-fashion industry has become part of the fossil fuel industry. We are all literally wearing oil,” she said.
“We can make young people understand that they are part of the solution by giving them the tools they need to understand what difference they specifically can make. Every time we choose to re-wear an outfit, every moment we decide to buy mindfully, we’re casting a vote for the world we want to live in. Choosing quality over quantity, secondhand over new — these aren’t just fashion choices, they’re declarations of our commitment to the planet.”
As leaders at COP28 discuss a fossil fuel phase out, it would affect the fashion industry that is heavily dependent on polyester and other synthetics which are derived from fossil fuels. According to Fibre2Fashion’s data, polyester represented about 58 percent of the global fiber market in 2021.
The campaign sees Kianni drenched in what looks like oil (but was created from a mix of food-grade products and dye) that covers her head and dress, and was launched on social media and in Vogue Arabia. Kianni worked with New York-based agencies Bright Colors, whose clients include Tommy Hilfiger and Gap, on creative direction and and Public Opinion, whose clients include Gucci, Tory Burch and Celine, on the campaign images.
Kianni was named a member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Youth Advisory Council on Nov. 17 and also serves as a Gen Z adviser to Una Terra Venture Capital’s Impact Fund.
TEX FLEX: Alternative leather developer and biomaterial-maker TômTex has raised a $2.25 million seed round, led by Happiness Capital with SOSV, Parley for the Oceans, Earth Venture and MIH Capital.
The company’s patent-pending technology uses 100 percent bio-based inputs including mushrooms, coffee grounds and seafood shell waste to create a non-woven, biodegradable and plastic-free leather alternative.
It’s already a fashion industry fave, and has collaborated with Peter Do, Di Pesta and Maitrepierre at New York and Paris Fashion Weeks.
The new funding will be used to scale the company’s technology to produce textiles for the fashion, footwear and accessories spaces.
Uyen Tran founded the company and serves as chief executive officer. The company closed a pre-seed round of funding totaling $1.7 million, led by SOSV, in April 2022.
LIVING IN A MATERRA WORLD: Spanish fast-fashion retailer Mango is partnering with London- and Ahmedabad, India-based Materra on sourcing sustainable cotton.
Materra designs scalable solutions to grow and source cotton and works directly with farmers in India on sustainable cotton sourcing programs for fashion brands and textile mills, to move the material into the supply chain.
The partnership will last two years and will mark the first time the group uses cotton from regenerative farms, as well as have “complete traceability” of its cotton all the way through the value chain. The first products will be available in a capsule collection expected in the second half of next year.
With the tag line “because farming is fashion,” Materra develops “plug and play” sourcing programs for brands, so international companies do not have to develop a supply chain from scratch, and uses AI-driven tech to collect data.
The company, which says its data comes directly from farms and can be followed from seed to store, will collect soil and crop data via their custom platform called Co:Farm. The platform can monitor soil health and fertility, water use and pesticides, among other farming factors. It supports farmers with climate solutions on one end and uses their material to supply brands on the other.
Materra has a history of working with fast-fashion brands: It raised $4.5 million in seed funding last year led by H&M Group and Danish clothing group Bestseller’s Invest Fwd.
The partnership with Materra will “help us move more quickly to ensure that 100 percent of the fibers we use are sustainable by 2030,” said Mango sustainability and sourcing director Andrés Fernández.
In December 2022, Mango’s new corporate sustainability strategy set out the goal of “prioritizing materials with a lower environmental impact and incorporating circular design criteria, so that by 2030 these will predominate in the design of its products and all its fibers will be of sustainable origin or recycled.”
Elsewhere, Mango has invested in Ziknes, a 3D printing platform that manufactures furniture from recycled materials. The two-year-old start-up aims to use 3D printing to improve efficiency, flexibility and sustainability in production.
Terms of the investment were not disclosed. It is the fifth investment Mango has made through its StartUp Studio accelerator, which is focused on new companies in the sustainability space. Other investments focus on reselling waste textiles and creating avatars for digital identities.
POP THE CHAMPS: Dropping Wednesday, Champion Athleticwear is releasing its first collection with Eco Future Reverse Weave, a new textile made with CiClo technology.
CiClo is an additive that is combined with polyester and nylon at the beginning of the fiber-making process to enable yarns to perform like natural fibers, allowing them to biodegrade more quickly and behave more like wool and cotton to keep microplastics out of the environment.
The collection will feature crewneck sweatshirts and jogging pants. It also features dyes with natural ingredients including pomegranate, annatto fruit and terminalia chebula fruit.
“Through our partnership with CiClo, we aim to be a catalyst for positive change in the fashion industry, driving conscious choices, responsible actions and continuous improvements,” said Champion president of global activewear Vanessa LeFebvre.
LITTLE THINGS MATTER: U.K.-based Matter, the microplastic filtration technology company backed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Ashton Kutcher, has added some key C-suite hires this week.
Martin Allman has joined the company in the role of chief commercial officer, after two years in the green energy sector. He will head up the company’s efforts to scale up its technology and expand into international markets.
Former head of operations at the Dyson Institute, Jess Middlemiss has joined the company as chief technology officer and will help develop its microfiber capturing tech and recycling innovation.
Adam Root, chief executive officer and founder of Matter, said: “Our new hires are about culture as much as they are about technical ability. Our new C-suite team is an integral part of Matter’s evolving story and will support in driving industry transformation.”
The company completed a $10 million round of Series A funding earlier this year backed by the two Hollywood stars. Matter works at the laundry stage to capture, harvest and recycle microplastics, with technology that includes its Gulp washing machine filter.
