Activist Liya Kebede on Lemlem, Financing Nonprofits for How To Spend It Magazine

Activist Liya Kebede on Lemlem, Financing Nonprofits for How To Spend It Magazine

AOC has shared numerous articles about top model Liya Kebede and her ethical brand Lemlem, produced in Ethiopia and launched in 2007. Lemlem means “to bloom” and “flourish” in Amharic, writes How To Spend It Magazine’s Alice Cavanagh about her interview with Kebede in Paris.

Looking for fresh insights in Kebede’s How To Spend It interview, we note a discussion about the growing subject of diversity in the fashion industry. Reflecting on the Spring 2020 shows, the most diverse shows ever held in September and October, Estee Lauder’s first black spokesmodel smiles, “Honestly, it is a lot more colourful now.” She continues:

“When I started working, there could only be one black person on every runway. That’s kind of insane. It was accepted; no one even questioned it.” Certainly, I [interviewer Alice Cavanagh} offer, we might have social media to thank for this: fashion no longer exists in a bubble, and brands and people of influence are being held accountable for everything from casting choices to greenwashing.

“I don’t buy the whole ‘You’re bad and I’m good’ thing… sometimes you screw up,” cautions Kebede. “That whole thing scares me a bit, to be honest. It propagates so much hate and intolerance.”

Earth Mother Stella McCartney Covers Vogue US January 2019 Creative Forces Tribute

Since her 1995 Central Saint Martins graduation show, Stella McCartney’s brand has embodied an urgent desire to end animal cruelty in the fashion industry. Fake furs were mainstream when Stella began her fashion climb, but the only glues available were animal-based. “I imagine Vikings sitting around a pot, boiling down the last bones of the elk that they skinned for the fur,” says McCartney. “And I think, Wow—we’re still there.” Of course, we now also know the toll fake fur takes on the environment.

Her coldly-realistic assessment of fashion’s conscience — or lack of it — inspired Stella McCartney to walk her fashion talk with as few comprises as possible. That decision has positioned her at the pinnacle of intelligent design forces sweeping through the fashion industry, before it is too late to save ourselves, our planet and our children’s futures.

Today McCartney uses renewable energy where it’s available for both her stores and offices. Her commitment to cruelty-free fashion and sustainability is fast becoming the industry norm, influencing product development and sourcing decisions at Armani, Chanel, Gucci, Michael Kors, Prada and more on the topic of fur. “I’m hugely relieved,” says McCartney, “but I’m actually astounded that it’s taken so long.”

Stella sold a non-majority stake in her company to LVMH earlier in 2019, a relationship that puts her in a key advisory role to Chairman Bernard Arnault for the entire LVMH stable of luxury brands.

The designer covers the January 2020 issue of Vogue, lensed by Annie Leibovitz. Stella holds her four children (clockwise in cover from top left), Bailey, Miller, Beckett, and Reileyis. The entire family wears Stella McCartney, styled by Tonne Goodman. Hamish Bowles conducts the interview. Read on at Vogue

The Cannabis Industry Is Not as Green as You'd Think | Let's Talk Rat Poison

The Cannabis Industry Is Not as Green as You'd Think | Let's Talk Rat Poison

Even as the legal cannabis industry booms, the black market persists with competitive prices and a lack of red tape on its side. As Jodi Helmer reports for JSTOR Daily, illegal growers set up an estimated 14,000 grow sites on federal and private lands in 2018—and that was just in Humboldt County, California.

Illegal cannabis growing operations pose a huge threat to the ecosystems of public forests, Eric Westervelt reports for NPR. Without any sort of regulations, illegal growers can use banned insecticides and other chemicals to shield their crops from pests. Using these substances excessively can have devastating consequences for nearby wildlife and water supply.

At one illegal growing site in California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest, ecologists and law enforcement agents found evidence of toxicants like Bromethalin, a rat poison, and carbofuran, an insecticide that is banned by the Environmental Protection Agency. Speaking about carbofuran, wildlife ecologist Greta Wengert of the Integral Ecology Research Center (IERC) tells NPR, "It is incredibly toxic. A quarter teaspoon could kill a 600-pound black bear. So obviously just a tiny amount can kill a human. It remains in an ecosystem for a long period of time."

Lucy Hughes' Bioplastic Made From Fish Scales Just Won the James Dyson Award

Most people look at fish guts and think, “eww.”

Lucy Hughes looked at the bloody waste from a fish processing plant and saw opportunity.

Then a student in product design at the University of Sussex, Hughes was interested in making use of things people normally throw away. So she arranged to visit a fish processing plant near her university, on England’s southern coast.

She came away a bit smelly—“I had to wash even my shoes,” she says—but inspired. After tinkering with various fish parts, she developed a plastic-like material made from scales and skin. Not only is it made from waste, it’s also biodegradable.

The material, MarinaTex, won Hughes this year’s James Dyson Award. The £30,000 (nearly $39,000) award is given to a recent design or engineering graduate who develops a product that solves a problem with ingenuity. Hughes, 24, beat out 1,078 entrants from 28 different countries.

Hughes, who grew up in suburban London, has always loved to spend time near the ocean. As a budding product designer—she graduated this summer—she was disturbed by statistics like 40 percent of plastic produced for packaging is only used once, and that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the sea by weight than fish. She wanted to develop something sustainable, and figured the sea itself was a good place to start, given that the University of Sussex is outside the beach town of Brighton.

“There’s value in waste, and we should be looking towards waste products rather than virgin materials if we could,” Hughes says. Read more about Hughes’ project Smithsonian.com.

Hang Tight, America: The Redcoats Are Coming | Shag Haircuts Unite

Hang Tight, America: The Redcoats Are Coming | Shag Haircuts Unite

Rule number one of the little bit of grunge, a little rock, rigorously disheveled shag haircut is that the woman should be seriously rebellious and not faking it when choosing to get shaggy. Shags are not for imposters and poll readers. Rather, the shag haircut is for leaders like 70s’s women Jane Fonda and Debbie Harry, who are activists to the core decades later.

‘Shag’ is a 16th-century word, possibly from an Old English term for “rough, matted hair or wool. Men primarily, but some women also, have adopted their own definition of ‘shag’ and it has a strongly sexual connotation, as in “S(he) is a great shag.” There’s typically a ‘but’ that follows, as in “She’s a great shag but a total airhead.”

Shags are generally considered to be nonconforming, sexy haircuts, willfully embraced by their owners. Besides Fonda and Harry, the shaggy bob is also tagged to Meg Ryan and more recently Taylor Swift and Alexa Chung. Vogue Italia breaks down all the shag haircut details and shares celebs with their shags.

Jane Fonda, Still Flexing Shag Muscle

The return of shags — now a year-old trend in the US — gets new cred with female resistance. We all know that American women Democrats, Independents and increasingly, educated Republican women are exercising serious shag credentials.

Mary McCartney Eyes Sustainable Fashions for Vogue Poland November 2019

Mary McCartney Eyes Sustainable Fashions for Vogue Poland November 2019

Models Ewa Witkowska, Kamila Szczawińska and Maria Zakrzewska cover the November 2019 issue of Vogue Poland. Describing the shoot in the Polish countryside of Warmia and Mazury, Vogue Poland shares details of their real-world trajectories in the modeling world.

Designer Stella McCartney’s sister, English photographer Mary McCartney is behind the lens, photographing all-sustainable fashions in the cover story ‘For Nature’, style by Daniela Agnelli. McCartney is a Global Ambassador for Meat Free Mondays , cofounded by the McCartney family, and Green Monday, embracing a fully-sustainable lifestyle like her sister Stella. / Hair by Michal Bielecki; makeup by Aneta Kostrzewa

Botswana’s Okavango Delta Is Created by a Delicate Balance, but for How Much Longer?

Botswana’s Okavango Delta Is Created by a Delicate Balance, but for How Much Longer?

The Okavango Delta in northern Botswana is a mosaic of water paths, floodplains and arid islands. The delta sits in the Okavango river basin, which spans three African countries: Angola, Namibia and Botswana.

Because it’s an oasis, in a semi-arid area, it hosts a rich array of plants and attracts a huge variety of wildlife.

As a unique ecosystem, in 2014 it was placed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list and it is an iconic tourist destination, which generates 13% of Botswana’s GDP.

But it’s a fragile natural area. It’s controlled by deformations of the Earth’s crust over a long time (thousands to millions of years) and by annual water flows and evaporation. The size of the flooded delta from year to year varies between 3,500km² and 9,000km² because of weather fluctuations which control its water supply.

Any change to the processes that form the delta will have an impact on the wildlife and local economic activities. Its grassy floodplains are food for grazing animals in the dry period. Losses of this habitat will cause declines in wildlife and livestock. It’s therefore imperative to understand what creates and sustains the delta for the future management of the system.

New York City Foie Gras Ban Awaits Mayor's Pen | Alternatives Do Exist

Image Credits: Top Photo by Gary Bendig on Unsplash; Bottom Culinaria.

It appears that New York will ban foie gras but now on a three-year phase-in schedule to help upstate farmers retool, writes Food & Wine. Down about six paragraphs, I note that Councilwoman Carlina Rivera -- the bill's sponsor -- references an alternative way of feeding the geese, which is considered to be acceptable. She said

"I also encourage all foie gras-producing farms, many of which purport to use sustainable practices, to pursue other methods of foie gras production, such as those done by farmers in Spain that employ different methods using highly dense foods.” '

So foie gras doesn't have to be banned as a food, suggests Rivera. It's being banned over a force-feeding process that is generally considered to be disgusting, the most involved one becomes in understanding the story behind the delicacy. Apparently, there’s an alternative feeding process for the geese used in Spain that is much more humane.

Note that restaurants can "give away" the foie gras, based on the new law. But it's interesting to know that there is an alternative, more humane process that could end this entire food fight. I believe this same philosophy of fundamental to the functioning of a democracy, so this article has me reflecting.

Long ago activist ,upstate New York Blue Hill Chef Dan Barber launched the conversation around an ‘ethical’ fois gras alternative and the issue has received considerable attention. Listen to Barber speak to the issue and see related reading links below.

Dan Barber’s Foie Gras TED Talk

Related Here’s an ‘audacious’ science project: foie gras without the controversy Science | Business July 2019

The farmer who makes ‘ethical’ foie gras The Guardian

: This Man Might Be Producing the World’s Only Ethical Foie Gras VICE Jan 2015

Can Dan Barber Produce a Humane Foie Gras? TheKitchn.com Dec. 2011

Nike Signs (No) Arctic Shipping Pledge, Joining H&M Group, Kering, PVH Corp

The truth is that many large corporations have no problem that the Arctic is melting. They want the new shipping route as a terrible example of corporate greed and self-interest. Still, corporate interests are salivating to ship through the Arctic year-round.

It’s very important that NIKE has teamed up with the Ocean Conservancy to launch the Arctic Shipping Corporate Pledge, inviting businesses and industry to join in a commitment against shipping through the Arctic Ocean.

Ships are responsible for more than 18 percent of some air pollutants. It also includes greenhouse gas emissions. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) estimates that carbon dioxide emissions from shipping were equal to 2.2% of the global human-made emissions in 2012 and expects them to rise 50 to 250 percent by 2050 if no action is taken.

The Arctic Shipping Corporate Pledge invites companies to commit to not intentionally send ships through this fragile Arctic ecosystem. Today's signatories include companies Bestseller, Columbia, Gap Inc., H&M Group, Kering, Li & Fung, PVH Corp., and ocean carriers CMA CGM, Evergreen, Hapag-Lloyd and Mediterranean Shipping Company.

"The dangers of trans-Arctic shipping routes outweigh all perceived benefits and we cannot ignore the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from shipping on our ocean," says Janis Searles Jones, CEO of Ocean Conservancy. "Ocean Conservancy applauds Nike for recognizing the real bottom line here is a shared responsibility for the health of the Arctic—and believes the announcement will spur much-needed action to prevent risky Arctic shipping and hopes additional commitments to reduce emissions from global shipping will emerge." 

For Nike to take a lead in advancing and promoting awareness of the Arctic Shipping Corporate Pledge is an excellent victory. With all the moves to track how products are made and transported, we can check a product on our phones and see if it's been transported through the Arctic. If the environment means enough to us -- this is where consumer power comes into action. But it takes business leaders like Nike to talk to other corporate leaders on some of these topics. At least, it's a collaborative effort of business and activism like this one.

Queen Elizabeth II Says "Faux Fur Only Going Forward"

Queen Elizabeth II via W Magazine

Queen Liz is onboard: no more fur. Faux fur only on very cold days. Her Majesty has already had all the mink trim -- and any other animal fur -- removed from her most favorite coats, replaced with faux fur.

Stella McCartney has a marvelous new faux fur that is impossible to distinguish from the original — although the Queen’s longtime personal adviser and official dresser Angela Kelly says that Her Majesty’s preference is to move away from fur entirely.

The Humane Society International formally announced that it's "thrilled" before calling on the British government to make the U.K. the first country in the world to ban the sale of fur. The UK branch of PETA, hardly known for low-volume press messages on the subject of animal rights, tweeted "we're raising a glass of gin and Dubonnet to the Queen’s compassionate decision to go fur-free".

Image via Town and Country

After a quick sip, the organization then suggested that perhaps the Queen’s Guard, known worldwide for their enormous bearskin hats could follow Her Majesty’s lead. PETA has been lobbying for faux fur hats to replace the current ones for almost three years, even sending her prototypes from Only Me in 2017, writes Town and Country.

We all curtsy to a modern woman very concerned about protecting heritage and protocol, while keeping British royalty relevant with evolving values.

H&M Trials Clothing Rentals With Stockholm Store's Conscious Exclusive 2012-2019

H&M is launching a new concept store in Stockholm, a venue dedicated to rentals of sustainable ready-to-wear from Conscious Exclusive collections past and present. Pieces from sustainable Conscious Exclusive collections 2012-2019 will be available to customers who are members of H&M’s customer loyalty program.

Members will be able to book a time at the rental space where a stylist treats them to a personalised experience, helping them select some great pieces they can then rent for a week. Members can rent up to three pieces a time at a cost of around 350 Swedish kronor per piece.

“We love offering our fans something extra and we also want to encourage our customers to look on fashion in a circular way as we aim to lead the change towards a circular fashion industry,” says Pascal Brun, Head of Sustainability at H&M

To further inspire customers to reuse and recycle, the store will also offer repair services with an atelier where customers can get their fashion favourites mended or upgraded. The newly furbished Sergels Torg store, which opens end of November, will offer customers a great shopping destination with a curated assortment, a beauty bar and the café-concept It’s Pleat. 

Extinction Rebellion Releases #WhereIsYourPlan 'One Lifetime' Climate Emergency Film

Marking six months since the UK Parliament declared an Environment and Climate Emergency, Extinction Rebellion – celebrating its first year anniversary – has released a short film calling for everyone to demand their government’s plan to address the crisis … #WhereIsYourPlan

Through voices representing a lifetime, aged 8 to 80, the film demands that leaders around the world act on the climate and ecological emergency, including stopping the destruction of our forests, our oceans and our wildlife, reducing global zero carbon emissions within 10 years [1] and investing in a green economy. 

The concept behind this globally significant film – presenting some of the demands of the climate movement and extinction revolution [2] – was developed by filmmaker Richard Curtis, and refined, shot and produced by RANKIN, an agency headed up by the British photographer and cultural provocateur of its namesake.

Directed by Jordan Rossi of RANKIN, the film shows that despite our race, age or gender, people need to unite against the threat of the global warming crisis. No matter who you are, this is an issue that will affect everyone, and the video reflects our last shot at making a difference.

Related: Extinction Rebellion Takes Aim at Fashion New York Times

H&M Opens Mitte Garten Neighborhood Store for Local Talents in Berlin

H&M’s first hyper-local flagship Mitte Garten opened its doors on October 25th in Berlins creative Mitte district. With it’s approximately 300 square meters, it’s one of H&M's smallest stores offering curated womenswear, selected external brands, vintage pieces and a showroom for customers.

"It’s a test for us as a global retailer to elaborate around how we can be more personal and locally relevant."

                                                                            Anna Bergare Business Developer at the Laboratory H&M Group 

H&M Mitte Garten will regularly offer events such as lectures, fashion talks and yoga for its customers. In the public showroom upcoming trends and looks are presented. Here consumers can try on and lend pieces to make sure that their future purchases are consciously made.

"This is a unique location and it has served as a meeting place for Berliners for over a hundred years, a tradition we want to honour. We aim to offer a neighbourhood store serving as a platform for local and global talents within retail, culture and art."

                                                                                          Thorsten Mindermann country manager H&M Germany

Calvin Klein Jeans Fall 2019 Ad Campaign Promotes Sexy | Saitex Sustainability Update

Calvin Klein Jeans Fall 2019 Ad Campaign Promotes Sexy | Saitex Sustainability Update

Theo Wenner captures Calvin Klein Jeans Fall 2019 campaign, styled by Melanie Ward. Models Abby Champion, Aqua Parios, Ben Allen, Iris Law, Lexi Boling and Selena Forrest front the campaign with creative direction by Cedric Murac./ Hair by Holli Smith

As promised, AOC takes a temperature check on denim production sustainability initiatives at Calvin Klein Jeans, a practice that we’re employing regularly for all the major brands that we feature. Fashionista visited Saitex, an innovative, sustainability-focused factory that produces denim for both Calvin Klein Jeans and Tommy Hilfiger — owned by PVH. We don’t know the percentage of Calvin Klein Jeans produced by Saitex, nor whether the sustainable jeans currently being promoted by Calvin are a significant portion of their total inventory. We do know that PVH takes the topic of sustainability very seriously, having opened a denim sustainability lab. (See article end of this one.)

Located in Vietnam, Saitex is “the denim partner of choice for a host of ethical labels including Everlane, Eileen Fisher and G-Star Raw. Saitex also produces for American Eagle, Gap, J Crew, Madewell, Ralph Lauren, Outerknown and more.

Saitex founder Sanjeev Bahl is actually featured on the Madewell website, as part of their transparency initiative.

Standearth's First Fashion Industry Sustainability Report Card Promises Made v. Promises Kept

Image by Levi’s

Making pledges around sustainability is the easy part for businesses large and small. The question is whether or not brands are delivering on those promises, Vogue Business quotes Standearth as saying that until now, no organization holds the fashion industry accountable on sustainability promises vs deliberables.

The Canadian-American advocacy group released its first fashion industry report card last Thursday, writing that Levis and American Eagle are the only two major players on target with the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit temperature increases to 1.5 degrees, according to Standearth.

The report, titled “Filthy Fashion Climate Scorecard,” ranks the climate commitments of 45 top fashion companies who have joined the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, the UN Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, or the G7 Fashion Pact.

“A handful of companies, including Levi’s, Burberry, the Gap, H&M, and American Eagle are taking meaningful strides to shift their global supply chains off dirty fossil fuels. But many other companies are relying on false solutions to meet their climate commitments – easy measures that look good on paper but fail to tackle carbon pollution in the real world. While the industry’s progress is encouraging, signing onto one of these initiatives doesn’t guarantee that a company will take climate action in line with the scale of emissions reductions needed to keep the world below a dangerous level of warming,” said Liz McDowell, Filthy Fashion Campaign Director at Stand.earth.

The companies ranked in the report are: Adidas, Aldo, American Eagle, Amer Sport brands Arcteryx and Salomon, ASICS, Burberry, Columbia, C&A, Disney, Eileen Fisher, Esprit, Ganni, Gant, Gap, Guess, Hanes, H&M, Inditex (Zara), JCPenny, Kering group (Gucci, Yves St Laurent, Stella McCartney), Land’s End, Levi’s, LL Bean, Lululemon, LVMH (Dior, Fendi), Macy’s, Mammut, Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC), M&S, New Balance, Nike, Nordstrom, Otto, Patagonia, Pentland, Primark, Puma, PVH (Calvin Klein, Hilfiger), Recreational Equipment Inc (REI), SkunkFunk, Target, Under Armour, VF Corp (The North Face, Timberland), and Walmart.

17 companies have made little to no climate commitments — despite signing a sustainability pledge with fanfare — which would put the world on a path to climate catastrophe, with 3 or more degrees of warming, writes .Standearth.

Robyn Lawley Covers Marie Claire Australia Sustainability Issue | Issues Green Challenge

Robyn Lawley Covers Marie Claire Australia Sustainability Issue | Issues Green Challenge

Model Robyn Lawley is styled by Jana Pokorny in sun-drenched images by Simon Upton for Marie Claire Australia’s sustainability issue.

Looking out across the Whitsunday’s iconic turquoise water after a day of shooting on an isolated beach off Hamilton Island, Robyn Lawley is confused. “The ocean is so beautiful and fragile. I don’t understand why everyone’s not fighting for it,” she says, shaking her head. “Our seas produce half of the world’s oxygen, yet we’re dumping a garbage truck of rubbish into [them] every minute.”

Art Partner Contest for Young Creatives + Climate Crisis | Submit by Nov. 8, 2019

Photo by Venus Evans on Unsplash

One of the greatest challenge for young creatives is getting their work scene and reviewed. If climate activism is your passion, Art Partner has created a significant opportunity to put a creative project in front of an all-star panel of sustainability-focused professionals.

Think you’re good? Then seek feedback from Eco-Age Founder Livia Firth, fashion designer Gabriela Hearst, photographer Harley Weir, designer and entrepreneur Francisco Costa,, artist and writer Wilson Oryema, agent Giovanni Testino, Vogue Italia Creative Director Ferdinando Verderi.

#CreateCOP25 is a contest for young creatives and climate activists to submit artistic responses to the environment and climate emergency. The six most impactful works will be publicized during the United Nation’s COP25 climate conference this December in Chile. These will serve as messages from the creative community that the time is now for governments to end their contribution to climate change.

One (1) winner will receive $10,000 and five (5) runner-ups will receive $2,000 each to fund future projects that respond to climate change. The winner will also have the opportunity to collaborate on an editorial project with Art Partner. All six (6) finalists will receive ongoing mentorship and exposure from Art Partner.

Submissions can be any medium including, but not limited to, photography projects, docu-style and experimental film, performance art, spoken word, musical compositions, fashion design, new media and social media projects. We encourage entrants to submit existing work.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Submission Process

All entrants must be between 14 and 30 years old at the time of submission. The contest is open to participants globally.

Please read the contest rules and procedures before filling in the application form.

#CreateCOP25 application pack

Closing date for applications Friday 8 November 2019, 6pm GMT. 

Questions? Please email earthpartner@artpartner.com

Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Honored With Own Typeface Greta Grotesk

As the world goes totally mad, we must turn to the creatives -- that would be me -- to keep us from losing our minds entirely. LOL and crying through my tears.

Greta Thunberg has been honored with a typeface called Greta Grotesk, inspired by and emulating the teenage activist’s handwriting.

Tal Shub, creator of the typeface, is a designer based in New York who co-founded Uno, a company with a mission to eradicate single-use plastic bottles by offering a reusable alternative.

“We’re all very moved by how this girl has inspired so many people to take action,” Tal states. “From the very first moment of seeing her sign, I was really impressed by the bold design and clarity of the message.” As Greta’s letterings clearly struck a chord with many around the world, not just Tal, he was surprised at how little discussion there was around the actual typography. “Here’s this iconic piece of visual communication, yet nobody’s really paying attention to how that design is central to this movement. It’s really the classic typographic discussion – something that’s starring you in the face, but most people don’t pay attention to it,” he adds.

Read more details about Greta Grotesk’s typeface.

TheRealReal x Burberry Relationship Promotes Deeply Personal Mutual Brand Loyalty

Writing for Forbes, Pamela N. Danziger digs beyond the obvious into the details of the newly-announced partnership between Burberry and TheRealReal. Officially the union promotes increasingly critical synergies in corporate responsibility and sustainable living in the fashion industry.

“Leading the way in creating a more circular economy for fashion is a key element of our Responsibility agenda,” Pam Batty, Burberry’s VP of corporate responsibility, said in a statement. “Through this new partnership we hope to not only champion a more circular future but encourage consumers to consider all the options available to them when they are looking to refresh their wardrobes.”

Burberry claims to have been at the “forefront of sustainability in fashion” for more than 15 years, an assertion that assertion may be up for debate among environmentalists. Surely Burberry doesn’t claim to share the Stella McCartney eco-conscious spotlight.

McCartney has been on the RealReal since 2018, experiencing a 65% increase in the number of consignors of her branded merchandise and a total increase of 74% of Stella McCartney items sold on the RealReal after announcing the partnership.

The real importance of the Burberry - RealReal relationship is lifetime customer acquisition, argues Danziger. More customers who experience both brands first at resale, then at full-price in a Burberry store, then returning to the trusted halo of The RealReal to resell and recycle. Sustainable, eco-conscious action is a critical issue, but don’t underestimate the inherent result of sustainable economics that translates into brand loyalty more intimate and personal than any ad campaign.

The RealReal reports demand for Burberry has increased 64% year-over-year, with Millennial and GenZ customer searches rising fastest on its site. In addition, the ThredUp 2019 Resale Report states that Burberry is the luxury brand with the best resale value; Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermès, and Prada are lower on that list.

Related: Caroline Knudssen Fronts Riccardo Tisci’s NET-A-PORTER x Burberry Fall 2019 Collection

Stella McCartney Partners with DuPont + Ecopel on KOBA® Bio-Based Faux Fur

Natalia Vodianova wearing Koba faux fur by Stella McCartney.

Planet Green team leader Stella McCartney is launching KOBA® faux fur, a joint project with the designer, DuPont Biomaterials and global faux fur textile manufacturer Ecopel. The exciting new material, made from Sorona® bio-based fibers “claims both a lower carbon footprint and more luxurious feel than existing faux fur alternatives”, writes Vogue Business.

McCartney unveiled the exciting new faux fur at her spring 2020 ready-to-wear show.

“Polyester isn’t the same quality that we want, and the modacrylic doesn’t give us the sustainability that we want,” says Claire Bergkamp, Stella McCartney’s worldwide director of sustainability and innovation. “This is kind of bridging that gap,” Bergkamp explains in listing the merits of the new faux fur, compared to other market options.

Reflecting a new mood of shared innovation among leading fashion industry brands and manufacturers, Bergkamp hopes that Koba becomes an industry standard adopted by other fashion players. Saying she is keep to advise other labels about the latest developments around Koba, Bergkamp stresses reality. “This has to be a collaborative effort. It is a moment of climate crisis — and it is a genuine crisis. We want to show what’s possible, and show that these sustainable improvements can be beautiful [and] luxurious.”

SustainableBrands.com writes: “The new Koba® Fur-Free Fur by Ecopel is made with recycled polyester and up to 100 percent DuPont™ Sorona® plant-based fibers, creating the first commercially available faux furs using bio-based ingredients Koba — the collection of which ranges from classic mink styles to plush, teddy-style fur — can be recycled at the end of its long life, helping to keep ensure it never ends up as waste and closes the fashion loop; something that McCartney is passionate about, as she pushes toward circularity. It’s 37 percent plant-based Sorona material means that it consumes up to 30 percent less energy and produces up to 63 percent less greenhouse gas than conventional synthetics.

“We’ve been working with Stella McCartney for several years and we have clearly been positively influenced by her values,” Ecopel CEO Christopher Sarfati said in a statement. “Not only are we proud to offer animal-friendly alternatives to fur, but are even more proud to take the road less traveled in designing new ways to create faux fur. From recycled to bio-based, we are supporting a transition toward more sustainable materials.”