In a bid to manage waste and foster recycling practices, the luxury business house Chanel made a major stride in the sustainability sector by announcing the launch of Nevold (derived from the concept of ‘never old’), on Monday.
This new venture from the high-end French fashion house will aim at tackling the issue of pre-consumer waste, which includes offering solutions for textile offcuts, fabrics that remain unused, and management of old and unsold products. With an investment ranging between €50 to €80 million in Nevold’s growth as per WWD’s reports, this B2B initiative will operate as an independent set up from Chanel, thereby giving room to other brands to collaborate and will also encourage participation from other sectors such as hospitality uniform and athleisure.
Talking about the initiative, Chanel’s president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky stressed on more strategic thinking when it comes to preserving raw materials and its optimal usage. Further, this new line of business by Chanel will also leverage conversations around the increasing wastage of resources by the fashion houses, and their unhealthy treatment of unsold stock. For instance,a couple of years ago, Burberry was among the leading fashion houses that had come under the sustainability scanner for its incineration of clothing worth €28.6 million. Even luxury fashion conglomerates like Kering and LVMH have been criticised for their accumulation of unsold inventory, which has amounted to billions of dollars.
The former CEO at Patou, Sophie Brocart will oversee the running of Nevold and as such, this sustainability platform aligns with Chanel’s investment in recycling projects like ‘Atelier des Matières’ that focuses on association with academic institutions to enhance recycling work.
