5 Eco-Friendly Fashion Startups to Watch in Europe With these companies, the spotlight is on sustainability.

Written by Ezgi Bilgi

At last season's Paris Fashion Week, Balenciaga introduced a groundbreaking new material on its Summer 2024 runway—the LUNAFORM™ Maxi Bathrobe Coat. Recently, the product has launched in the flagship stores of Balenciaga, marking a huge milestone for the creators of Turkish-owned, San Francisco-based biomaterials startup GOZEN.

LUNAFORM™ is produced through an innovative process in which microorganisms generate cellulose during fermentation, forming a nanocellulose lattice. From this, GOZEN derives a uniquely strong and flexible biopolymer. The result is a naturally translucent, 100% biobased material with a tensile strength but still lightweight, designed to replace animal-sourced leather and unlock new possibilities for sustainable design.

The launch of LUNAFORM™ comes at a time when fashion councils across Europe are raising the bar for sustainability standards.

Since 2020, Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW) has implemented strict sustainability requirements for brands participating in their show, and Berlin Fashion Week, Norwegian Fashion Hub, and Oslo Runway followed suit.

At this year's recent CPHFW, brands that could not match the sustainability criteria were not allowed to participate. The organizers have stated that the plan is to add one more criterion set, that will mean there are 19 sustainability-based criteria in total, for the next season.

As the fashion industry shifts toward more sustainable practices, 150Sec wanted to highlight four other European startups that are also developing materials for the clothing industry that are more sustainable than using traditional fabrication methods:

Sequinova (UK)

From holiday outfits, to Halloween costumes, to a glittery wave of outfits showering our social media feeds in the aftermath of Taylor Swift's ERAS tour, sequins are probably the most popular yet the most unsustainable material in the fashion industry.

Recent estimates suggest the sequin manufacturing industry is worth around $15 billion USD per year.

UK-based startup Sequinova is taking a novel approach to tackle this glittery issue, by creating a plastic-free, metal-free, mineral-free, and non-toxic alternative.

Sequinova makes sequin textiles from cellulose, which it says can biodegrade in fresh water in less than eight weeks, unlike traditional PVC sequins which not only contain harmful chemicals but are also virtually indestructible and entirely non-biodegradable, meaning they will sit in landfills for thousands of years.

Bananatex® (Switzerland)

Swiss fashion company QWSTION, known for producing the sustainable banana fiber fabric Bananatex®, has recently announced a partnership with fashion house Balenciaga to launch sneakers made from this innovative material. They have also previously partnered with Stella McCartney and H&M.

Bananatex® is created by extracting banana fibers and was already an established industry in the Philippines., However, this is traditionally a highly labor-intensive process, meaning a single worker can only produce one kilogram per hour, and to date there has been no success in automating the process with technology.

While the quality and resistance of Bananatex® are celebrated within the industry, the high price point of manufacture poses challenges for widespread adoption. Bananatex® is twice as expensive as organic cotton and over four times the cost of polyester, which are the most commonly used materials in the fast fashion industry.

To date, most interest has come from luxury brands like Balenciaga which find it easier to handle the higher price due to their typically higher profit margins.

BioFluff (France)

French startup BioFluff aims to replace animal and synthetic materials by developing more ethical and green plant-based materials created to look and feel similar to animal fur.

Savian, their luxury materials brand, is being cheered by industry giants like Stella McCartney, who featured BioFluff materials at the recent COP28 UN global summit for climate change and called for industry-wide changes to increase sustainability.

The designer has selected Savian as her choice for animal-free, plastic-free, fur, and debuted her first-ever coat made from the material for her Pre-Fall 2024 collection.

Ganni, another pioneering brand for materials innovation, is also using Savian faux fur made with BioFluff.

Last year, the company announced its €2.2 million seed round led by Astanor Ventures.

Beyond Leather Materials (Denmark)

Leather is widely used not only in the fashion industry, but also in the production of everything from car seats to footballs.

The industry is projected to grow to $738.61 billion USD by 2030, making it an attractive space for startups to disrupt.

Beyond Leather is another startup attempting to create materials with a similar touch, feel, and resistance as leather made from animal skin — a key element to many different popular items of clothing from shoes to hats and pretty much every item in between!

With the bold motto of "no apple should go to waste," Leap®, the company's flagship product, is created from the extracts of apples, up-cycled from Danish juice and cider producers with an impressive 89% bio-based composition.

Arda Biomaterials (UK)

Arda Biomaterials is another upcycled materials startup using waste.

Their first innovation was an animal and plastic-free material, New Grain, which uses spent grain from breweries and whisky distilleries to make a more sustainable alternative to leather.

Last month Arda partnered with Beavertown Brewery, one of London's leading brewers, to transform spent barley grain into branded bank card holders.

These accessories, featuring Beavertown's iconic branding, show that brewers can create consumer goods from their own waste.

Recent studies rank the fashion industry as the second most polluting industry after the oil and gas sector. But with increased pressure from within the haute couture old guard on fashion week catwalks, GenZ consumers' affinity for sustainable brands, and European regulators' pressure on fast fashion brands to make long-term changes, the tides are turning on manufacturers who continue to prioritize profits over impact.

By transforming waste and using plant-based alternatives, these five startups are challenging traditional methods of manufacturing and offering more eco-friendly solutions.
Startups are proving that alternative materials can reshape the future of clothing and accessories. Now, the pressure is on fashion brands to find a means of using these sustainable alternatives on scale.