During the past decades, the fashion industry has radically changed its business model to maximise profits while disregarding the human and environmental costs. Fashion has become one of the most polluting industries in the world, and while large companies are slowly making attempts to reduce their impact, the industry is in need for a model that will sustain the current clothes’ demand while preserving our planet.
Trace Collective is a new fashion brand that leverages fashion as a tool for environmental regeneration, creating clothes solely with fabrics made from fibres that have a positive environmental impact (hemp and linen), while using blockchain to provide radical transparency of the supply chain to their customers. While the past years have witnessed a steady growth of sustainable fashion brands and positive industry initiatives, this is the first time that a label has made such a firm commitment to environmental regeneration and transparency. Trace Collective’s fabrics use 90-97% less water than standard industry fabrics, and produce up to 50% less greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, they increase soil fertility and agro-biodiversity making them healing crops for the environment. By choosing to store their data on blockchain, the innovative start-up gives its customers full transparency on product origin, environmental impacts and even production costs. But most importantly for the customer, the clothes feature unique designs and prioritise everyday comfort.
Aroa Alvarez, co-founder of Trace Collective, says
“Trace Collective was born to provide a solution to the current social and environmental challenges of the fashion industry. Each of our pieces embodies our commitment to our values, showing that beautiful design can be responsibly undertaken. The design aspect is fundamental to us: we partner with leading designers for each of our collections, leaving behind the stigma that sustainable fashion is boring. Our customers no longer have to choose between values and style, we merge both into unique collections that speak to today’s society, and build our brand through dialogue and feedback from our community. Returns to us are not only financial profits, but positive social and environmental impacts, and neither stands alone as valid without the other two”.
Consumer insights point to clear market changes. In its 2019 State of Fashion report, McKinsey cites as 3 key major consumer shifts “getting woke”, “end of ownership” and “radical transparency”. Consumers are starting to care, asking questions and demanding flexible models that allow them to change their wardrobes often. Trace Collective brings a wholistic solution that responds to markets. Trace Collective aims to raise £20,000 over the next month in order to enter full production of their first collection. They launched 48 hours ago and have so far raised 50% of their goal and been selected by Kickstarter as a favorite project on the platform. This week the team has also showcased their products at the Web Summit in Lisbon, the world’s largest technology conference.
To join Trace Collective in their mission to reshape the fashion industry, back their crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter before December 5th.
Visit the Crowdfunding Page
