A World Where Chanel is Never Old: Chanel Nevold

July 25, 2025

Luxury design house Chanel is entering the world of circular fashion with first-class efforts, backed by an investment of upwards of 80 million euros.

Recently, Chanel unveiled Nevold – short for “never old”. This all-new sector of the luxury fashion house will be a fully independent platform dedicated to developing recycled materials at industrial scale. Nevold is a B2B (business-to-business) model created with goals of circular textiles usage for Chanel collections and third parties across the fashion spectrum. Nevold is geared to offer hybrid materials such as yarn made from a blend of virgin and recycled fibers, and recycled leather material that has already been integrated into 30% of Chanel bags and 50% of certain Chanel footwear lines.

Sustainable practices aren’t necessarily new at Chanel, as the brand has an in-house recycling lab, L’Art Metiers. The house also doesn’t destroy unsold products but instead seeks innovative ways to extend the life of these products. Company leadership has been experimenting for years on methods and systems that would eventually close the loop of their luxury product lifecycles. However, the Nevold venture will formalize its endeavors. The brand recognizes the scarcity of high-quality raw materials, such as cotton, wool, cashmere, silk, and leather, and therefore utilizes recycled threads in their tweed, as well as processed leather waste, to reinforce damaged shoes and bags.

LONGTERM ALTERNATIVE – FAR BEYOND NEXT SEASON

For Chanel, Nevold is a surge towards environmental sustainability that extends beyond surface-level ideas of circularity with a resale, buyback program, or upcycling finished products. As yet, Nevold doesn’t have any hard-set metrics to reach, no expected returns to deliver, nor KPIs on how much recycled content will be used in future Chanel collections. Its centralized focus is on the components - not the product. Taking an in-depth look at what can be created when recycled and virgin content is fused with the technical standards of luxury manufacturing. In acknowledgment of the global material crisis, Bruno Pavlosky, president of fashion at Chanel and Chanel SAS, insists “[Chanel] is not trying to replace what nature gives us to use”, but preserves it in a way that still provides “best quality with full transparency and traceability”. The goal is not to change Chanel’s identity, but to equip current and next-generation Chanel customers with the knowledge, capability, and resilience of what is possible with environmentally focused innovation, heritage craftsmanship, and desirability.

Sources:

https://luxiders.com/chanels-nevold-a-debut-with-circular-fashion/

https://www.voguebusiness.com/story/sustainability/chanel-unveils-new-recycling-platform

Global Fashion Summit 2025

June 29, 2025

A few weeks ago, I had the absolute honor and privilege of virtually attending the Global Fashion Summit. I enjoyed this event because it’s a place where like-minded individuals join to discuss innovative methods of reversing the environmentally destructive ways of the fashion industry. Industry stakeholders from all backgrounds and levels of expertise ascended Copenhagen with an agenda of pushing the needle toward net positivity through collaboration, impact, sustainable innovation, education, and of course policy and regulatory initiatives.

Currently, the fashion industry is responsible for about 10% of carbon emissions and pollutants pouring into our atmosphere, with a predicted increase to 26% by 2050. This massive carbon and environmental footprint will only be reduced by real behavioral changes by brands and consumers. No longer are cheap synthetic materials made in warehouses with little to no regulations and by underpaid workers acceptable. The fashion industry must come to terms with the fact that approximately 85% of non-biodegradable textiles end up in landfills each year due to overconsumption and lack of end-term waste or circulatory solutions. CEOs, retailers, manufacturers, and producers are being held to task when it comes to taking actual steps towards a sustainable transition.

Major TakeAways

The Panels I enjoyed the most covered topics relating to alternative materials - The Bio-Design Futures and Fibre Futures. Discovering alternative biomaterials always piques my interest because I believe sustainable materials paired with amazing design and affordability will truly change the trajectory of the adverse impact caused by the fashion industry’s reliance on fossil fuels.

From the panel, I was introduced to Innovera material, which is an alternative leather material made from plant proteins, biopolymers, and recycled rubber; as well as Phycolabs, a company from Australia creating seaweed-based fabrics solely from cultivated seaweed. Speakers spoke at length about how important it is to make these alternative materials accessible, affordable, and attractive for consumers so that they may truly stand a chance at marketability. I think it is important to mention that none of the speakers considered alternative materials to be a direct competitor of conventional materials, but rather to be placed in its category with its own regulations to support it and/or protect it. High-quality and sustainably produced alternative biomaterials can coexist alongside their conventional counterparts.

Policy regulators expressed the importance of legislation that would outline parameters for a sustainable transition. EU Parliament Member Rasmus Nordqvist spoke specifically about the positive outcomes that true transparency for consumers could lend. And contrast, how greenwashing and the abuse of buzzwords could diminish credibility and progress.

Lastly, during the Fibre Futures segment, panelists spoke at length about material traceability and post-consumer waste. The overall goal here is to prevent synthetic fibers and textile waste from ending up in landfills causing even more harm and detriment. Many environmentally conscious producers are hoping to bridge the gap and drive adoption with sincere materials free of pollutants and harmful dyes. Brands like Haelixa, are adding natural [DNA] to fabrics which will “…verify the origin, quality and ethical production of any textile fibre”. Through partnerships with other brands, this traceability technology will garner trust from consumers, as well as impart knowledge of an item’s authenticity and its circularity potential.

Quantifying Goodwill

May 2, 2025

Goodwill Industries International is a nonprofit social enterprise whose primary mission has been charitable giving derived from sales of donated clothes and household items. More than 85% of earned revenue goes directly toward supporting and growing community-based programs and services. They also stand behind an environmental sustainability model of “reuse and repurpose” which helps communities extend the life of items and prevent more items from piling up in local landfills.

For many years, my local Goodwill was the sole destination for many of my secondhand shopping excursions. During these trips to the Goodwill I would score so many unique and even designer pieces. When I was first introduced to thrifting, I was most impressed by the prices of such good clothing that had been discarded by individuals. My friends and I would spend hours combing through racks and racks searching for goodies from decades that had since passed. Genuine leather coats, wool pencil skirts, pussybow blouses all from the 70s, or chunky cable knit sweaters and door knocker earrings from the 90s. The finds were endless, and the prices were the absolute best part. Nothing was more than $4.99, including coats. Times have since changed and I don’t know if we can place blame on the pandemic nor inflation. The cost of “Goodwill” has skyrocketed right before our eyes. The free donations of people giving to the organization are now being sold at a premium price. Now there is even a Goodwill Boutique, which sets the prices of high-end, designer donations on a much higher pricing scale with discounts based on the MSRP.

‘The Bins’ - Goodwill Outlet Stores

If, like me, you’ve been priced out of Goodwill’s retail stores but would like to contribute to creating a positive impact and support their mission, let me introduce you to ‘the bins’ - Goodwill’s outlet stores. This branch of Goodwill stores are set up using bins, rather than regular display racks. Inside these stores the big blue bins are overflowing with clothing, housewares and beyond that weren’t sold at the regular Goodwill stores within 5 weeks allotment. The bins outlet stores are ideal for resellers, upcyclers and overall treasure hunters alike, offering merchandise priced by the pound - often at significantly lower prices than traditional Goodwill retail stores.