Danish fashion company Bestseller has announced a new collaboration facilitated by its Fashion FWD Lab, with Swedish innovator Renewcell, which is pioneering a sustainable and circular recycling method. Three Bestseller brands - Vero Moda, Object and Selected, are some of the first fashion brands to produce garments at market scale from Renewcell’s Circulose recycled material.

“Circularity is on everybody’s lips as a means of improving fashion’s footprint,” Bestseller said in a statement today. “Especially at events like next week’s Copenhagen Fashion Summit. Renewcell, which was founded by scientists, has found a way to close the fashion loop by transforming textile waste into Circulose, which is solely made from discarded textiles that have been turned into new high-quality fibres, yarns and fabrics.”

The announcement from Renewcell and Bestseller comes at a time where Renewcell has found a solution to produce Circulose garments at scale, generating a sustainable fashion breakthrough. For Bestseller, the partnership is of uttermost value, the company says.

“This is innovation at market scale. It’s an extremely important milestone for Bestseller and our Fashion FWD Lab that we now have a sustainable recycling method to produce commercial fashionable garments for our stores. Even more incredible, Circulose is a low-impact circular material of an excellent quality and it supports our sustainability strategy Fashion FWD 100 percent,” says Camilla Skjønning Jørgensen, Sustainable Materials and Innovation Manager in Bestseller.

Clothing recycling that  really works

Renewcell’s Circular Business Manager Jenny Fredricsdotter agrees that this is an important collaboration as it demonstrates the commercial capability of Circulose and that recycling textiles finally works. “We rely on global brands like Bestseller to help us close the loop on fashion globally by spreading awareness to their customers and using their influence to shift the supply chain to circularity,” says Jenny.

“At Renewcell, we want to change the whole fashion industry. An ambitious and complex mission but necessary as the environmental impact from fashion is only growing. Bestseller has realised this and is now incorporating that insight into their fundamental values. They are taking action with their Fashion FWD strategy with aggressive goals and responsible actions. We are proud to contribute to Bestseller’s ambitious work to become a more sustainable brand,” she adds.

Exclusive collections for Spring 2021

Recently, Bestseller launched its new innovation lab ‘Fashion FWD Lab’, which focuses on new low-impact circular materials and production technologies, as well as circular business models. As Bestseller’s experimental sustainability hub, Fashion FWD Lab acts, most of all, as a catalyst for collaborations consisting of pilot projects, workshops, case studies and more to accelerate sustainable change, the company says.

For the collaboration with Renewcell, Bestseller brands Vero Moda, Object and Selected have been onboard early in the process to explore and test the capabilities of Circulose, and they have all approved the fabric’s quality.

“These materials are in exceptionally high demand, which is why we’re very pleased that we were able to secure fibres from the second batch of Circulose ever produced. And due to the high support and professional effort from our brands included in this process, we have been able to reach an end- product of excellent quality,” Camilla says.

The Circulose fibres have been spun into yarns and the fabric has just been finished, ready for production, Bestseller adds. An exclusive and limited edition of styles will be available in handpicked stores worldwide in Spring 2021.

Made from worn-out clothes

Circulose is made from discarded textiles (like production waste and garments that are worn out – preferably cotton as it contains a lot of cellulose). Using a breakthrough process powered by 100% renewable energy, Renewcell transforms old clothes into the pristine natural Circulose material that needs no cotton fields, no oil and no trees, Bestseller says.

The clothes are shredded, de-buttoned, de-zipped, de-coloured and turned into a slurry. Contaminants like plastic polyester are taken out. What remains is cellulose, the biodegradable organic polymer that cotton, trees and all green plants on earth are made out of. Finally, the slurry is dried to produce sheets of pure Circulose, which is packaged into bales, shipped to be made back into natural textile fibres, and brands can design new garments in a closed-loop using Circulose fibres.

“Thousands of tons of biodegradable Circulose pulp can be produced per year. It’s a drop in the ocean – the textile industry produces millions of tons of dissolving pulp every year – but it’s a drop that sends ripples that can change the fashion industry,” concludes Bestseller.

Watch the Circulose video...

Circulose from Jesper Lindborg on Vimeo.

www.bestseller.com

https://circulo.se/