Can Technology Build a Better Market for Fashion’s Unused Fabrics?
Over the past several years, there’s been a flourishing movement of brands from Reformation to Marine Serre buying up deadstock fabrics unused by others and turning them into collections and sales of their own.
But for all the brands that want to get their hands on these materials, sourcing them remains a mostly analog process that’s time-consuming and difficult to do at scale. Brands often need direct relationships with other designers or mills to get information about their overstock. Or they can turn to jobbers who specialise in selling surplus fabrics and odd lots. Some resort to more hands-on methods.
“Basements,” said Collina Strada designer Hillary Taymour, explaining where she finds her deadstock. “It’s all in the know. A lot of people approach me now, which is nice because that’s a lot easier.”
Digital platforms such as New York-based Queen of Raw and Nona Source, an in-house project from LVMH,