Bestseller and Kering each contributed four garment styles, totalling around 23,000 product units, which were catalogued and tracked on the TextileGenesis platform. 

The garments were made with varying compositions; from 100% sustainable viscose, produced by Lenzing, ENKA and Tangshan Sanyou, to blends with other fibres. They were traced through 25 suppliers from Austria, Germany, Italy, Turkey, India, Bangladesh and China.

Katrin Ley, managing director at Fashion for Good, said: “Fashion for Good initiates projects such as the Viscose Traceability Pilot to share knowledge and learnings attained in critical challenge areas with the entire industry. Specifically, we want to inspire all players, innovators, suppliers and brands, to work towards and implement changes with the potential to shift the needle.”

The TextileGenesis platform uses Fibercoins as their blockchain-based digital tokens, which provide a “digital twin” for sustainable fibres. Once a fibre is produced, every kilogram of that fibre is represented in the platform by one Fibercoin. Supply chain players can transfer these digital coins in parallel to the production of textile products as they move through the supply chain.

Christian Tubito, head of materials innovation at Kering, said the project is among options the group is looking at to support the goal of 100% traceability for key materials by 2025.

He added: “Innovation is crucial to reach our sustainability targets. Part of the work we’re doing at our Materials Innovation Lab since 2013 is to identify materials that can lower our impact on people and the planet while continuing offering our luxury houses fabrics and textiles that meet the highest standards of quality for their collections.”

Bestseller has agreed to an upscaled second pilot where it will double the number of supply chain partners – including spinners, weavers and manufacturers – and trace one million styles.

Camilla Skjønning Jørgensen, sustainable materials an innovation manager at Bestseller, said: “Starting out with viscose, we are now looking into organic cotton as well as the compatibility with Bestseller’s existing digital systems.”

The TextileGenesis platform and solution will be scaled with Fashion for Good partners beyond viscose to include other sustainable fibres such as organic cotton and recycled polyester. Six other fibre players will independently be engaged in pilots for sustainable viscose, recycled polyester and organic cotton.

Photo by Steven Kamenar on Unsplash