14th - 18th August 2023

Friday is here! And to help push you through to the weekend our regular weekly briefing sums up the best news you may have missed over the last few days.

Here are the highlights:

Monday 14th August set the week off with news of the Californian recommerce specialist Trove, which runs branded resale and trade-in platforms for fashion brands, raising $30 million in a series E funding round.

In more funding news, a new £2m ($2.5m) UK project led by Northumbria University, was launched to bring together academic experts, manufacturers, brands, NGOs and consumers to examine how environmental impact across the fashion and textiles industry is measured and assessed.

On Tuesday, US footwear brand Allbirds announced it would be making available the technology behind what it claims is the world's first net zero shoe freely available to its rivals. The company has open sourced its toolkit for the M0.0NSHOT shoe - currently a prototype due for commercial launch next spring - by publishing it on its website.

Later that day, New research highlighted the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to help target extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes to make fashion companies pay towards the cost of treating textile waste.

Wednesday witnessed a call to brands that are still sourcing from Myanmar to conduct heightened human rights due diligence and plan to responsibly withdraw from the country if that is not possible, according to a new report from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC).

Also on this day, we reported that German textile technology firm Trützschler has teamed up with Turkish equipment supplier Balkan Textile Machinery to offer a complete machine line-up for making both rotor and ring spun yarns from recycled materials.

On Thursday, Madewell , an apparel brand of the J.Crew Group, has become the first US denim company to become a system partner of chemical management specialist bluesign technologies ag .

Meanwhile, online UK fashion sales were reported to have hit record levels in the first half of the year – despite the cost of living crisis and concerns from sustainability NGOs, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

So far today, Friday 18th August 2023, a public consultation conducted by the Northern Ireland government’s Department for the Economy has highlighted that textiles are viewed by the nation’s population as a key material for inclusion in future circularity legislation.

That wraps up this week's briefing, but before you go, did you catch the latest episode of our Ecotextile Talks podcast ?

Host Dave Styles sat down with human rights lawyer and researcher Allison Gill to discuss the latest report from Cotton Campaign which insists the time has come for the fashion industry to act conclusively on forced labour in Turkmen cotton fields, with Gill telling Ecotextile Talks that legal obligations must now be met.

Listen to "Time fashion gets tough on Turkmen forced labour?" now by clicking the image below.

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And, be sure to keep an eye on our LinkedIn page and on our website, Ecotextile News, to stay informed about the latest breaking news from the textile industry.

It's over and out from us – and have a great weekend when it arrives for you.