With Global Fashion Agenda’s annual summit kicking off once again in Copenhagen, new international alliances are being announced.
The two-day Global Fashion Summit takes place Tuesday and Wednesday in the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen, Denmark and is themed “Alliances for a New Era” for 2022. The “alliances” are said to exemplify pre-competitive innovation and policy moves.
Danish label Ganni, for one, teamed with Bolt Threads for its first products made from Mylo, a certified bio-based, mycelium-powered leather alternative that is grown and harvested in under two weeks. Ganni’s launch includes a limited-edition range of wallets and one-of-a-kind saddle bags made with Mylo. All of the styles will sport a black exterior with a cheeky mushroom-inspired Ganni print lining in green and black. The wallets retail for $245 exclusively at the Ganni flagship in Copenhagen where customers can sign up for the chance to win one of the Mylo saddle bags.
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Ganni’s founder Nicolaj Reffstrup — who spoke on a traceability panel alongside brands like Mulberry and Fashion Revolution at GFS — detailed the company’s drastic aims to phase out virgin leather by 2023, substituting “transformative” materials like Mylo in the interim. “It’s our job to create responsible solutions that aren’t just at par with traditional product offerings but exceed them,” Reffstrup said.
“Typically, new material adoption can take 40-plus years, but this move demonstrates that a future without ubiquitous leather is possible on a much shorter timeline,” Dan Widmaier, chief executive officer and founder of Bolt Threads, said in a press statement. “I hope others in the fashion industry take notice and recognize that now is the time to walk away from outdated materials.”
Earlier this year, Lululemon and Stella McCartney launched products made with Mylo.
In another stride coinciding with GFS, fast-fashion player Shein announced a formal partnership, as part of a broader $50 million investment fund with The Or Foundation, one of few nonprofits in the reuse space dedicated to advancing equity in the fashion industry.
The project is the first stab at exemplifying accountability for the fast-fashion brand under its new Extended Producer Responsibility fund. Lifted straight from the fashion policy playbook, EPR laws outline policies requiring producers — textile manufacturers, for example — to finance and manage their post-consumer textiles so that waste is no longer an afterthought.
The Or Foundation maintains close ties with entrepreneurs in secondhand markets in Ghana, including the bustling Kantamanto Market, and will utilize $5 million annually for three years from Shein’s EPR Fund. Funding will expand Or’s Mabilgu (or sisterhood) Apprenticeship Program, incubate local textile waste solutions, pilot fiber-to-fiber initiatives with Ghanaian textile manufacturers and set the blueprint for a community-based vision at Kantamanto. The Or Foundation will also redistribute a portion of the initial grant to allied organizations in Ghana, working alongside Shein to identify additional grant recipients in other countries.
Through The Or Foundation’s research and advocacy aims, Liz Ricketts, cofounder and executive director of The Or Foundation, has presented the business case for upcycling. According to The Or Foundation, roughly 11 million fashion items, including clothing, footwear and accessories are processed in a given six-day workweek at Kantamanto. Every 10 weeks, Kantamanto upcycles, resells and re-commodifies 65 million items, which is what ThredUp has redistributed to date since 2009.
“We have been calling on brands to pay the bill that is due to the communities who have been managing their waste, and this is a significant step toward accountability,” said Ricketts. “What we see as truly revolutionary is Shein’s acknowledgement that their clothing may be ending up here in Kantamanto, a simple fact that no other major fashion brand has been willing to state as yet.”
Speaking at a Sourcing Journal event last week, Adam Whinston, global head of ESG at Shein, touted customer data noting 16 percent of Shein customers engage in peer-to-peer resale with Shein products.
“Addressing secondhand waste is an important part of the fashion ecosystem that is often overlooked,” Whinston said in a statement. “We have an opportunity to make change in this space and we look forward to working with The Or Foundation on this first-of-its-kind effort.”