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Each of the six winning businesses, which all provide circular fashion solutions, will receive mentoring from industry leaders and a £15,000 grant to accelerate their growth. An overall winner, which has not yet been announced, will receive an additional £10,000 grant, according to a press release by eBay UK.
The BFC and eBay UK have announced the six winners of the first Circular Fashion Innovator’s Fund, which is aimed at helping grow small businesses providing more sustainable fashion solutions. The winners are By Rotation, Circular Textiles Foundation, The Seam, Sages, Pip and Henry, and Circular Inc Ltd and will be rewarded £100,000 in grants.
By Rotation is the world’s first social network for fashion lovers to rent and lend quality items to each other. It already has over 500,000 downloads in the UK and is soon to expand to the US.
Circular Textiles Foundation, a non-profit body, links business with clothing design, takeback, and recycling technologies using QR technology and certification systems. This includes a credible circularity mark for retailers, recognising clothing designed to be recycled into fibre.
The Seam is an on-demand tailoring service that makes clothing alterations and repairs accessible through tech. It has already completed 10,000 repairs and provides white-labelled care and repair platforms to fashion retailers, enabling brands to encourage tailoring over returns and extend the life of what they produce.
Sages is an innovator of natural dyes made from food waste, providing a commercial alternative to harmful synthetic dyes. Sages focuses on circularity at all stages of the dye process with the aim to create a fully sustainable end-to-end product.
Pip and Henry is a designer of unique sustainable shoes for kids, made with innovative recycled, biomaterials. It also provides recycling solutions and eco-educational content and stories for kids.
Circular Inc Ltd is a business that provides circular design and sustainable manufacturing to accompany radio frequency identification (RFID)-assisted commercial repair and upcycling of clothing.
Pip and Henry have built a shoe that grows with a growing child’s foot and can be cleanly disassembled into component parts for recycling. Sages has developed natural dyes from food waste, helping reduce the reliance on synthetic dyes—which are responsible for 80 per cent of the emissions caused by the fashion industry. Circular Textiles Foundation created a certified QR code system that allows consumers to interact with a garment and brand, and play a part in its circular journey.
“We are honoured to be recognised by eBay and the British Fashion Council as champions of circular fashion. Investing in circular practices is absolutely crucial for the transition we need to make and there is no time to lose. We all have our part to play in creating a positive future for the industry and this is an important step towards our shared goal of a circular economy for fashion,” said Tim Cross, founder of the Circular Textiles Foundation.
As part of the winner selection process, the BFC leverages its industry expertise and access to fashion innovation businesses to assess and give feedback on circular solutions, added the release.
“We are delighted to work with eBay to drive transformative, positive change by supporting entrepreneurs that are helping to deliver circular solutions for the fashion industry of tomorrow. The Circular Fashion Innovator’s Fund champions pioneers in this space, and we were incredibly impressed by the expertise, commitment, and leadership demonstrated by each of our winners. We’d like to congratulate all six winners on what they have achieved so far and look forward to supporting them as they build, scale, and thrive,” said Caroline Rush, CEO at the British Fashion Council.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)
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