Competition puts emphasis on sustainable fashion

Brussels – Thirty semi-finalists have been selected for the European Commission’s 2020 European Social Innovation Competition “Reimagine Fashion,” which is focused on the use of new sustainable materials, processes and solutions.

From a field of 766 applicants, 30 projects were picked representing 14 countries. The semi-finalists are all early-stage social innovation projects aimed at changing the way society produces, buys, uses and recycles fashion while also encouraging sustainable consumer behavior.

“Building on Europe’s position at the forefront of global fashion, this year’s European Social Innovation Competition set out to look for innovations that encourage more sustainability across the fashion industry,” said Slawomir Tokarski, director of innovation and advanced manufacturing at DG GROW. “We’re really impressed with the variety of creative ideas they’ve come up with to help reimagine fashion for the better.”

Among the semi-finalists are:

• Alma from Italy, which is a start-up focused on finding sustainable components to create vegan leather.
• Cultural Sustainability in Fashion from Romania, which is focused on reviving heritage European textile crafts.
• Dyeluxe of Germany, which is working to transform natural color pigments derived from food by-products into textile dyes.
• Hempcell, which is a German start-up promoting premium hemp Lyocell fibers as a sustainable textile alternative.
• Novel Dyes for Water-free Dyeing of Biofibers, which is a Swedish start-up looking to reduce water waste during fabric dyeing using a CO2-based biofiber dye.
• WoolWays from Romania, which monetizes waste wool by connecting shepherds to the yarn market, controlling the value chain from raw fiber to product.
• Fairbrics from France, which has a technology that converts CO2 emitted during fabric manufacturing into new synthetic fabrics.
• McyoTex, which is a Netherlands-based venture promoting the creation of custom clothing from a sustainable fabric made from mycelium—a substance found in mushroom roots.

The semi-finalists receive an online package of support from experienced social innovators to further the development of their ideas, including a multi-day training event and one-to-one mentoring with a local coach. This prepares them for the next stage, where they submit extensive development plans to the judging panel in late August. In September, the judges will pick 10 finalists and eventually three winners. All finalists and semi-finalists are invited to the awards ceremony, which will take place in October or November.