Trace Collective is a new UK-based fashion brand that is aiming to “leverage fashion as a tool for environmental regeneration”, creating clothes solely with fabrics made from fibres that have a positive environmental impact (hemp and linen), while using blockchain to provide ‘radical transparency’ of the supply chain to their customers.

While the past years have witnessed a steady growth of sustainable fashion brands and positive industry initiatives, the brand says that it is the first label to make such a firm commitment to environmental regeneration and transparency.

Trace Collective says its fabrics use 90-97% less water than standard industry fabrics, and produce up to 50% less greenhouse gas emissions. It says that the crops it is working with have the additional benefit of increasing soil fertility and agro-biodiversity, making them “healing crops for the environment”. By choosing to store its data on blockchain, the innovative start-up gives its customers full transparency on product origin, environmental impacts and even production costs. But most importantly for the customer, says the brand, the clothes feature unique designs and prioritise everyday comfort.

“Trace Collective was born to provide a solution to the current social and environmental challenges of the fashion industry”

Aroa Alvarez, co-founder of Trace Collective, says: “Trace Collective was born to provide a solution to the current social and environmental challenges of the fashion industry. Each of our pieces embodies our commitment to our values, showing that beautiful design can be responsibly undertaken. The design aspect is fundamental to us: we partner with leading designers for each of our collections, leaving behind the stigma that sustainable fashion is boring. Our customers no longer have to choose between values and style, we merge both into unique collections that speak to today’s society, and build our brand through dialogue and feedback from our community. Returns to us are not only financial profits, but positive social and environmental impacts, and neither stands alone as valid without the other two”.

Trace Collective says it is “brings a wholistic solution that responds to markets”. It aims to raise £20,000 over the next month in order to enter full production of its first collection. The brand launched 48 hours ago and has so far raised 50% of its goal and been selected by Kickstarter as a favourite project on the platform. This week the team has also showcased its products at the Web Summit in Lisbon, the world’s largest technology conference.