In February 2019, Make Fashion Circular brought together a group of industry experts in an intensive workshop, to collaboratively test and further develop a common vision of what good looks like for jeans. As an outcome of the workshop, a draft set of Guidelines were produced for the Jeans Redesign, these have been tested and iterated with representatives from brands, garment manufacturers, fabric mills, recyclers, and academics in addition to those present on the day.
The result of this work is a set of co-developed Guidelines that define a starting point for the industry to design and produce jeans in accordance with the principles of a circular economy at scale. The Guidelines are divided into four areas: durability, material health, recyclability, and traceability. This document lays out the definition of terms in each area, the detailed requirements that must be achieved as a minimum, and the process for validating these achievements.
Thus The Ellen MacArthur foundation launched its JEANS REDESIGN initiative.This initiative aims to make the jeans manufacturing process a circular process.This initiative promises to meet guidelines including minimum requirements on garment long lasting capability , using material which is good for environment and the workers , recyclability and traceability. The Jeans Redesign was created by Make Fashion Circular Initiative by British Circular Economy Charity.The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has extended these norms to allow fabric mills and manufacturers to join the project.
GUIDELINES
Durability – Garments should have labels with clear information. Jeans should withstand a minimum of 30 home laundries.
Health – Jeans manufacturing should be free of chemicals and organic methods must be used to ensure the environment safety.
Recyclability – The materials or accessories used in the jeans should be easily removable for re-use and re-cycle. Jeans should be made with 98% cellulose fibers.
Traceability – The garments with the Jeans Redesign logo should be traceable and easily available.
The foundation was launched in 2010 to make the economy circular. Make Fashion Circular was launched by UK charity the Ellen MacArthur Foundation at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2018.
For joining the Jeans Redesign initiative, the mills must fulfill the guidelines for ZDHC (Zero Discharge Hazardous Chemicals) including testing and produce less than 0.025 MN of wastewater per yard.This initiative aims to improve jeans manufacturing, track the waste management and is developed for denim heads from brands, retailers, manufacturers, sorters etc.
“More companies joining the Jeans Redesign demonstrates the appetite in the industry for practical solutions that support the transition to a thriving fashion industry, where all our clothes are used for longer, are made from safe and renewable materials, and are made to be made again. This kind of industrywide shift needs companies from across fashion to work together,” Make Fashion Circular’s Francois Souchet said in a recent statement.
How To Participate
To take part in the Project, Participants must specify how their jeans will meet the Jeans Redesign Guidelines, and how they intend to accelerate progress against the Guidelines beyond the minimum requirements set out.
Participants will detail the validation methods that will be used to confirm the Guidelines have been met. This information will be provided on the Participation Form and, unless otherwise stated, will be publicly disclosed as part of the reporting progress by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on behalf of Make Fashion Circular.
Participants are encouraged to disclose the percentage of jeans produced that will meet the Guidelines in either their annual report or sustainability report to offer a benchmark for progress. In addition, Participants are requested to disclose the number of their jeans produced that will meet the Guidelines to Make Fashion Circular which will publish the figure as an aggregated number for all Participants.
By the end of May 2021, Participants will be required to submit the Report Form to Make Fashion Circular to confirm that they have met the initial agreed specifications, to share any deviations from this original specification, and to provide details of how these meet each element of the criteria. To comply with its charitable objectives, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on behalf of Make Fashion Circular will make the information submitted on the Report Form public on the Make Fashion Circular website. Make Fashion Circular encourages third-party verification or assurance of reported data where appropriate. If Participants confirm this has been obtained, this will be included alongside the Participant’s reported data. Make Fashion Circular do not verify or audit the data provided to it, and this is then reported on an ‘as is’ basis.
Participants need to provide high-level information about the type of third-party organisation who will
perform the verification or assurance exercise, and any plans for future development of verification or assurance processes for the data reported. It is the responsibility of each Participant to make available on request information on the third-party verification that confirms compliance with any element of the requirements set out in Guidelines. Participants meeting the logo terms and conditions will be granted permission to use the Jeans Redesign logo on jeans produced in line with the Guidelines. Use of the Jeans
Redesign logo will be reassessed yearly, based on compliance with reporting requirements.
Participants
Over thirty leading brands, manufacturers and fabric mills are using the Guidelines to make jeans that will be available on the market by Autumn 2020. The members currently joined the foundation include H&M, Tommy Hilfiger, Lee,Guess, Ateliers and Repairs as Brands. Advance denim mill, Artistic Miliners, GAP, Cone Denim, House of Gold (through Blue Diamond: Xingtai H&J Textiles Co. Ltd), Prosperity Textiles, Soorty as Fabric Mills. BESTSELLER (through the VERO MODA brand), Boyish Jeans, C&A, GAP, Hirdaramani, H&M Group (through the H&M and Weekday brands), Saitex , HNST, Kipas, Lee®, Mud Jeans, Arvind Limited as manufacturers.
