SHOWCASING THE WORLD’S FINEST PROPERTIES AND THE STORIES BEHIND THEM
Burberry was an early luxury mover in investigating the use of new materials partly composed of marine waste. (Andersphoto/Shutterstock)
Fashion has always been about what’s new, what’s now, what’s next. But what about where and how clothes are made? And what happens to garments when we purge them from our wardrobes? These are the questions giving designers and retailers pause to reconsider exactly what’s behind the label.
There’s only one thing in life, and that’s the continual renewal of inspiration. Wise words from one of the 20th cenury’s most influential arbiters of style, Diana Vreeland (1903-1989). A woman for whom the term doyenne wasn’t invented but should have been. Her bons mots as a columnist at Harper’s Bazaar and later as editor-in-chief at Vogue were prescient. Because fashion as we know it is at a critical moment. The continual renewal of inspiration requires continual innovation.
Diana Vreeland on style: “You gotta have style. It helps you get down the stairs. It helps you get up in the morning. It’s a way of life. Without it, you’re nobody. I’m not talking about lots of clothes.” Words to hang onto in age where mindful consumption encourages buying less but better. (Alamy)
Increasing awareness of the fashion industry’s environmental impacts – alongside the values-driven spending habits of younger and more ethically aware consumers – means brands and manufacturers are pulling up their socks and responding. And that means thinking beyond the inevitable comings and goings of silhouettes, waistlines, hemlines, shoulder pads (back and broader than ever!) and heel heights (fingers crossed the pandemic finally killed off the stiletto).
Without compromising on style, many of the big designer brands are evolving their practices, leading the luxury fashion sector into a more responsible operating space. Gucci’s 10-year “Culture of Purpose” sustainability strategy, launched in 2015, harnessed the brand’s horse-bit to everything from supporting craftsmanship traditions to maintaining 100% renewable energy and 100% traceability of raw materials.
Gucci’s 10-year sustainability strategy takes a long-term, multi-pronged approach. Energy efficiency, traceable sourcing and social impacts are some of the invisible initiatives underpinning the global luxury brand’s adoption of more sustainable operations. (Vincent Nguyen/Shutterstock)
Others, like Stella McCartney, have positioned their brands as advocates of ethical, sustainable practices from the start. And more and more designer brands are offering aftercare in the form of maintenance and repairs that prolong the life of investment products. Like an appointment for your Birkin or Kelly bag at the Hermès Spa instead of joining the waiting list for a new one. Buy once, buy well, look after it.
And then there are the fashion disruptors who are entering the retail runway as startups precisely because of fashion’s problematic environmental report card. They see an opportunity to contribute positively – and profitably – and influence the wider industry and the way consumers think about what they wear, how it was made and what happens to a garment after they fall out of love with it.
Two stylish startups spoke with Storied to give us their take on fashion’s next lives.
There's only one thing in life, and that's the continual renewal of inspiration. – Diana Vreeland
It’s not every day a (whisper it) mid-priced brand makes it into one of the world’s most famous luxury department stores. But when Rothy’s, the San Francisco-born shoe and bag maker opened its first UK pop-up shop in Liberty in 2024, the initiative signalled something bigger than global expansion.
Launched in 2016, Rothy’s entered the world of fashion accessories with an innovative washable flat shoe knitted from fibers that previously enjoyed a life as ocean waste or plastic bottles. “The motivation wasn’t to chase a market trend,” Rothy’s president, Dayna Quanbeck, told Storied. “It was to build a better way from the ground up. Our founders saw the environmental toll of traditional fashion and believed there was a better approach – one that combined thoughtful design with responsible manufacturing.”
It’s the kind of ethos increasingly favored by retailers like Liberty, where the Rothy’s pop-up is now a permanent concession selling the brand’s shoes, bags and accessories. Stocking responsible brands helps retailers to deliver on corporate social responsibility policy. But crucially it also helps to draw in new and younger affluent customers who prefer to buy brands whose ethics chime with their own. Which isn’t to say that Rothy’s wasn’t aware of what Quanbeck says was a clear market opportunity “rooted in a deeper vision for impact – turning waste into a resource.”
“I’m seeing newer brands bring fresh thinking and urgency to the space, but doing good doesn’t have to be your origin story to be your future,” says Rothy’s president Dayna Quanbeck. “Whether sustainability is built in from the beginning or woven in over time, what matters most is intention, transparency and the willingness to evolve.” (Rothy’s)
Transforming the discarded into something beautiful and useful isn’t a new concept. But thinking about waste as a luxury item certainly is. Burberry was among the early global movers in the circular fashion space, testing the waters so to speak with a 2019 capsule collection of coats made from ECONYL, the trade name for a nylon yarn made from a combination of marine waste (aka old fishing nets) and textile scraps from its factories. Which looks a lot better than it sounds.
This ‘invisibility’ of materials, processes and policy is part of what makes garments and accessories labeled as ‘sustainable’ attractive. The look, the feel, the fit, the performance, the longevity of fashion items are still primary motivating factors for purchase, even for the most right-on, ethical shoppers. Smart brands design and manufacture accordingly.
In the context of evolving consumer expectations, Quanbeck notes that “the desire for products that look good, feel good and are obviously well-made remains.” What’s changed, she says, is that shoppers, especially younger ones, are looking well beyond the label. “They want to know how things are made, who’s making them and what kind of impact their choices have. That shift is showing up across generations, but younger customers are really pushing the conversation forward… That gives us both an opportunity and a responsibility to lead with purpose.”
“We’re not asking people to buy more, we’re inviting them to buy smarter,” says Rothy’s president Dayna Quanbeck. “Thoughtfully made products that look great, feel great, last longer and happen to be made better for the planet as well. If we can shift habits even slightly at scale, the impact adds up fast.” (Rothy’s)
“The Italians have it absolutely sewn up,” says Deborah Bee, without a trace of irony. The entrepreneur, author and former creative marketing director at prestige department stores Harvey Nichols and Harrods, is talking about recycling cashmere in Prato, the city just north of Florence renowned as a center for textiles. “They’ve been doing it as a largely manual and mechanical process for hundreds of years – it’s like a little cooperative community. One family does the washing, another does the brushing… they each have their own jobs and they all get on very well. Trouble is, it’s an expensive way of doing it.”
As expensive – after the old pullovers, cardigans, scarves, hats and gloves are processed and re-spun – as buying new cashmere as a source material. But new cashmere is not the point of Bee’s sustainable fashion startup, Bee & Sons. “I want to compete with polyester,” she states.
Deborah Bee, founder of Bee & Sons, is on a mission to shift perceptions about the value of buying, wearing and repurposing recycled materials, one sweater at a time. (Bee & Sons)
Bee has a healthy existential anxiety about the harmful effects the fashion industry has on the environment, reeling off worrying statistics about the amount of clothing that goes to landfill. And she really has a bone to pick with polyester, despite its obvious appeal to many mass manufacturers. “It’s cheap to produce, takes dyes easily, doesn’t need ironing and has a stable price unaffected by climate,” she explains. But it’s so cheap that it encourages overproduction – and therefore more landfill waste. “If you buried yourself dead in the garden with a cardigan, and that cardigan is made from synthetic fibers, it’s still going to be there in 200 years, leeching micro-plastics into the soil.”
As a startup, this crusade against polyester and micro-plastics gave Bee & Sons a clear sustainability position from day one. They saw a market that could begin to address a problem – the 92 million tonnes of textile waste that go to landfill every year. They focused on one luxury material – cashmere – and on proving that it was possible to make a high-quality sweater from high-quality recycled yarn. And to then explain to potential customers why the end garment costs as much as it does. So she took a film crew to Prato to document the process.
Observing cashmere recycling first-hand solidified Bee’s commitment to not only continue using recycled yarns but also to become a truly circular fashion brand. In practice, that means inviting customers to send garments back when they’ve finished with them. “Every product is designed to be disassembled and spun into new yarn again,” she says.
In the spirit of Mrs Vreeland’s continual renewal of inspiration, that means another layer of warm, fuzzy feelings for wearers of the cozy cashmere. That’s a trend we can all get behind.
Since launching in 2021 with a capsule collection, Bee & Sons now offer more than 30 knitwear products made from 100% natural yarns. Including the Joey oversized unisex cardigan, modeled on the right by one of the Bee Sons. (Bee & Sons)
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