H&M Foundation is a non-profit – functionally and financially independent from H&M Group but share the same industry connections. The Foundation asked us to help it leverage that unique position to achieve its core mission of jump-starting a sustainable transformation in fashion.

It’s a monumental challenge. Many have tried but the vastness of fashion’s supply chain, all parts of which need reform, has tended to dilute the reforming actions of individual brands. Without coordinated, sector-wide focus – in materials, manufacturing and re-use—no tipping point is reached. Meanwhile, progress has been slow on changes that might involve dismantling low-cost operations across the developing world.

A clothing collection that wasn’t aimed at consumers, but at an industry.

We identified 10 startups globally – from Kenya to Estonia – with the greatest potential to bring sustainable revolution to fashion. Start-ups with breakthrough technology but that were all missing something, funds and backing to scale their investments.

Each innovation was turned into a virtual garment, showing both how the garment could look, the amount of money the start-up was seeking (the price) and the potential sustainability impact that innovation could have.

The key message was that the innovations for a sustainable fashion industry already exist - they just need the right support.

Our target audience was potential supporters and fashion decision-makers, a general audience interested in fashion, and, of course, the media.

In order to spread the message, we crafted a press release, hero film and ‘making of’ video - all directing traffic to the website which showcased the lookbook and all innovations included in the campaign.

Working with analysts that brought a 360-degree value approach to the collection with the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals in mind. The model shows each innovation could have a big, positive impact for the planet, if given the opportunity to scale.

Hiring acclaimed French fashion designer Pauline Chardin to design clothing for each business. Pauline’s collection reflected the big-picture brief – ‘fashion 2030’ futurism – with gender-fluid designs and an environmental palette of clays and floral tones.

Using CGI specialists to produce ‘fashion shoot’ photos for our lookbook – creating realistic 3D clothing from Pauline’s designs, then sewing them over a digital avatar ‘model.’

The avatar itself was a first as well where instead of creating the models face and body over an existing human. Instead the model was created from scratch, making her not a derivative of an existing human, but her own unique person, however virtual.

On June 10th, we sent out a press release describing the project and collection, directing journalists to the Billion Dollar Collection website, hero film and making of film to learn more.

Since we created the collection with the goal of getting our message across to potential supporters and fashion decision-makers, we targeted fashion magazines such as Vogue and Fashion United. In addition to this, we also made sure to target media focused on sustainability, in order to reach the general public and people interested in questions of sustainability.

In addition to this, we crafted a messaging handbook for the start-ups that they used for spreading the news through their owned channels on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

PRESS

135 articles in 23+ countries

Universally favorable coverage for both the concept and H&M Foundation, including both dailies and key fashion titles.

Coverage was most prominent where we needed to hit to promote fashion reform (UK and US).

SOCIAL

95 million earned reach

3 100+ social engagement

1 000+ lookbook downloads

SUPPORTING START-UPS

Two start-ups; Algaeing (undisclosed amount) and Fairbrics (€ 4,6M) - an innovation that potentially could reduce emissions of CO2 by 720,000 metric tons annually by 2030 - have cited the Billion Dollar Collection as a direct contributor to closing their recent investment rounds.

Others are currently in negotiations and have been using our assets directly in meetings with potential supporters.

THE FUTURE OF THE COLLECTION

H&M Foundation is getting numerous requests to share the collection and have decided to continue to use the messaging, maintaining the momentum for transformation in the fashion industry.