Stella McCartney is releasing a limited-edition sweatshirt in collaboration with Adidas, one of the first 100 per cent recyclable garments made by a commercial brand.
“It’s a completely circular piece of clothing,” Stella McCartney says. “It’s a real first.”
The Infinite hoodie is the result of a partnership between the two companies and Evrnu, a Seattle-based research firm that says it can transform most post-consumer waste cotton into a pulp that can then be converted into yarn. While some young fashion brands have adopted upcycling or the reuse of waste, Evrnu’s technology allows it to create entirely new material from waste.
When a typical cotton garment breaks down, about 10 per cent of the material is lost due to wear-and-tear. Evrnu says its technology allows for practically no wastage, and the end product is indistinguishable from a normal sweatshirt. “We’re not asking consumers to compromise on the way the product feels or performs,” says Stacy Flynn, Evrnu’s chief executive officer.
“They’re made to be remade. We won't want them to not be remade,” adds James Carnes, Adidas vice president of strategy creation.
Only 50 editions of the sweatshirt will be produced — “We can't roll it out into the hundreds of thousands yet sadly,” says McCartney, citing the limitations of a nascent technology — and it will not go on public sale. Evrnu, which has signed up partners including Levi’s, is testing the technology for commercial deployment by 2020.
As part of the innovation pilot, McCartney and Adidas also announced the creation of a tennis dress in collaboration with Bolt Threads, a California textile innovation firm that she has worked with previously. Crafted from a blend of cellulose yarn and Microsilk, the prototype piece is designed to biodegrade like real silk rather than a synthetic.
“Some days it feels like [these developments are contained] just to a lab,” says Carnes. “[But scientists are] crafting solutions for the future. And I think that needs to be somehow recognised on a bigger scale.”
While McCartney has strong sustainability credentials, the designer says that she chose to release the sweatshirt through her 14-year partnership with Adidas because it had the potential for greater accessibility. “The minute I design anything, I'm potentially creating in some kind of waste the planet doesn't need,” she tells Vogue Business. “Maybe if I can show someone an alternative others will follow.”
“Clothes are not going anywhere until Jeff Bezos chucks it all out into space — which isn't necessarily the right thing either.”
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