Fashion for Good, a global initiative trying to make fashion more sustainable, is expanding to South Asia with the launch of a dedicated regional innovation programme.
Launched in March 2017 by C&A Foundation, the corporate foundation affiliated with global retailer C&A, Fashion for Good is an industry-wide platform to help brands, retailers and manufacturers find more innovative and sustainable ways of producing fashion.
Go deeper with GlobalData
“South Asia is a global leader in manufacturing and one of the largest consumer markets for fashion. The rapidly growing region presents significant opportunities to create value and impact both socially and environmentally from a transition towards a circular economy,” Fashion for Good says.
With a rich heritage in textile manufacturing and production, the initiative is seeking to scale promising innovations from the region that have the potential to disrupt the current fashion supply chain worldwide. Of particular interest will be the unique perspective of home-grown innovators focusing in key areas including raw materials, dyeing and finishing, manufacturing, retail, end-of-use and transparency and traceability.
Selected innovators will have the opportunity to showcase their solutions as part of Fashion for Good’s Innovation Day to be held at the Mercedes Benz Sri Lanka Fashion Week (MBFW) on 24 November.
They will also gain priority access to the Fashion for Good programme which enables access to a network of global partners such as founding partner C&A Foundation, and corporate partners C&A, adidas, Kering and PVH Corp, as well as to funding, mentoring and bespoke coaching, providing innovators with the tools needed to grow.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataFashion for Good is already active in Asia, having partnered with Hong Kong-based tech incubator The Mills Fabrica and is continuously expanding its activities with local manufacturers such as the recently announced affiliate innovation partner, Indian based textile manufacturer Arvind.
Fashion for Good has also this week established a partnership with the Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF), an initiative of the innovation platform Intellecap.
“Working closely with these local partners enables us to promote the transition of the fashion industry toward more sustainable, circular practices as well as the betterment of social and environmental issues,” said Katrin Ley, managing director of Fashion for Good.
The initiative is also actively working on scaling innovations in the region, by catalysing collaborative pilots, which address areas such as making organic cotton traceable and solutions for the treatment of wastewater from the apparel manufacturing process.
“A physical and local presence facilitates a deeper focus on innovators and allows for swifter implementation of pilot programmes with partner brands and manufacturers, including targeted connections to our corporate partner and investor ecosystem,” it says.
Leading up to the programme launch Fashion for Good will host an Innovation Day in conjunction with MBFW, selecting ten of the top innovators to showcase their solutions in a series of pitches, concluding with an engaging discussion with industry leaders. The Innovation Day brings together key stakeholders from the region, features discussion forums with panel participants from the regional investor, brand and manufacturer network.
“We are pleased to see Fashion for Good expanding to Asia, together we will continue to work on promoting and growing the sustainable technologies originating from the Fashion for Good Innovation Platform. We are looking forward to working with these technologies to fuel the next set of growth in manufacturing for us with the aim of growing with drastically less environmental impact,” said Abhishek Bandal, head of sustainability at Arvind Limited.
