Fashion Green Hub: A good network of circular economy authorities in France are thinking ahead

For years now, the style Green Hub association (ex-Nordcrea) has played an integral role in the responsible fashion landscape, working on topics including eco-design and new business models in the industry.

Manner Green Hub is notably in the origin of the style Tech Days. Experts and makes meet to advance on "green" innovation popular, where there are times of seminars around a variety of crucial matters. The association as well organizes the style Green Days, the discussion board for circular and eco-designed fashion.

Founded by Annick Jehanne in 2015, Design Green Hub is supported simply by local authorities and the Express (ADEME, Hauts de France Location, European Metropolis of Lille, City of Roubaix). Additionally it is supported by professional organisations, including the Defi, Re-Manner (ex-Eco TLC, an association centered on recycling), the Union of Textile and Garments Sectors (UITH), and the Trade Alliance. Today it includes 200 fashion industry players, makes such as Promeod, ID Groupe and La Redoute, schools and little designers. The association as well provides funding through its production, training and service actions, from its "headquarters" and workshop, the Plateau Fertile, in Roubaix. Fashion companies are overtaking the expertise of the paradoxical start-up (an agile and reactive framework), but most importantly advocating social, human and native values. A "follow-up" association that's focusing on all fronts of eco-design. At the same time of a overall health crisis, a worldwide panorama of Manner Green Hub's actions was timely. FashionUnited talked about the network’s outlook with Annick Jehanne.

FashionUnited: You will be the soul and the organizer of this association. Why did you create it, and just why has it just lately changed its name?

Annick Jehanne: Quickly on the name. We result from the North, the cradle of superb northern makes, we started our actions between Lille and Roubaix. THE STYLE Techs Days and nights are held there. But just as we grow, we have become more and more international. Regardless, we cover the whole territory with this 200 partner makes. We needed a name that reflects the diversity of our users.

I come from purchasing in shops in the central buying office buildings. Then I became a consultant and I trained a whole lot of managers in vogue. This way I approached the upstream, the development side of the business enterprise. And I quickly realised that the system was running out of steam. That is why in 2015, I made a decision to create this association, to help make the knowledge I had acquired in these fields for businesses. Today there are about ten of us at the Plateau Fertile, which acts as a workshop for the eco-designed projects that the makes we support and need to carry out-we certainly are a workforce. Arielle Lévy manages communication and products, Majdouline Sbai pilots the style Green Days and "sustainable development" tasks, and Benoit Frys chaperones production. We are also surrounded by a pool of freelance stylists specialised in eco-design.

We think that fashion must change rapidly and rebuild a different business model. A unit that reduces its effect on the planet, offers consumers goods that are creative, functional, healthful, sustainable and produced under humane conditions, permits sustainable economic activity because of its players-from the entire chain of supplies to trade, recreating careers and providing training in the territories.

Our first aspect is knowledge sharing. For this reason we've been organising these B to B incidents, Fashion Green Days and Vogue Tech Days, since the beginning of the association, to provide pragmatic answers to the industry. In 2020, we are organising four thematic editions of Manner Green Days, within an online format. The up coming ones will need place from October 19 to 23, in two parts. It will be a series of face-to-face professional workshops, by appointment, with a maximum of about 20 participants inside our premises. From October 22 to 23, you will have webinars devoted to circular tables on the dissemination of guidelines in sustainable development and collaborations between your economic, educational and institutional worlds in helping the change of the fashion industry’s business model.

The next area of action is regional manufacturing, upcycling and support for project leaders. Through partnership programmes, the association helps makes and retailers to gather them around in an useful ecosystem, to find means and training. Several experienced consultants in sustainable and circular versions will provide support.

Our workshop opened in 2018 in Roubaix and will there be for that. It is a developing workshop (prototyping and mini-series) for all our young brands. It is more and more specialised in upcycling and its own development has intensified this season with a group of ten people. We are able to thus propose to the makes to accompany them within their native manufacturing and upcycling projects because of our team of designers and model manufacturers. For example, within the framework of Manner Green Lab, our program for sustainable and responsible trend in which we carried out a job with Blanche Porte: a number of fashion accessories made utilizing their stocks of mismatched home linen. A completely circular range, which was an excellent success. We also carried out a task with Camaïeu, recovering lettering from their stocks of printed items to create a variety of t-shirts with a note. These days we are as well launching our own type of positive message t-shirts manufactured in our workshop. The brand was conceived by a collective of designers and the developing process should go from yarn to dyeing and knitting. The complete generating "zero waste materials" via manufacturing on demand.