Kering, the French luxury goods holding company, is the first founding anchor partner of the ‘Plug and Play – Fashion for Good’ accelerator, a collaboration with Fashion for Good and the C&A Foundation to fast-track sustainable innovation within the luxury and apparel industries. Via the accelerator, the partners will identify innovative start-ups and support them in scaling-up their technologies, methodologies and business models.
The fashion retailer and Plug and Play will work with the selected start-ups to accelerate their innovations by providing training, mentorship, networking opportunities, and other valuable resources. The accelerator will take a 360° approach to supply chain innovation, by concentrating on three priority areas: raw material sourcing; fabric and garment production (dyeing, finishing, sewing); and end of use (recycling, circular economies) with a particular focus on water use, energy use, waste, chemical use, and labour practices.
“The accelerator’s launch follows our recent announcement of a three-pillar sustainability strategy, including a focus on innovation via the ‘Create’ pillar. Collaborations like the Plug and Play – Fashion for Good accelerator will allow the textile industry to move more rapidly toward finding essential solutions to the challenges we all face,” said Marie-Claire Daveu, Chief Sustainability Officer and Head of International Institutional Affairs of Kering.
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Saeed Amidi, Founder and CEO of Plug and Play informed that in company’s ten years of investing in start-ups, they have helped more than 7,000 innovators build their dreams. “Fashion for Good inspires the daring invention and widespread adoption of good fashion practice. Through collaboration with Kering, and other partners, we are working to give promising start-up innovators the funding and expertise they need to grow so we can shift fashion from being less bad to more good,” said Leslie Johnston, Executive Director, C&A Foundation (Founder of Fashion for Good).
