The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
The new leadership and cash infusion are intended to help bring the company’s “biofabrication” technology, which can replace fossil fuel-based textile coatings and enhance the performance of natural materials, to commercial scale for the first time.
Modern Meadow is primarily known for its lab-grown leather, an area of innovation that has attracted mounting interest from fashion brands looking to curb their environmental impact but also struggled to produce commercial-scale technology.
“We’re far enough along in the development of the technology, in the process engineering,” said Bakst. “We’re ready now.” The company said it would announce a coalition of fashion brands and industry partners within the next six to nine months.
While the main focus will be on scaling its coating treatment, some of the company’s funding will also go towards research and development of lab-grown materials and biotechnology.
Bakst, an industry veteran who chairs Modern Meadow’s board and has held executive roles at Kate Spade, Michael Kors and Donna Karan, succeeds co-founder Andras Forgacs, who has served as the company’s CEO since its inception in 2011. Forgacs will stay on as a board member.
The funding round was led by Key Partners Capital with participation from Astanor Ventures, Horizons Ventures and Cape Capital, bringing Modern Meadow’s total funding to $184 million. (The company declined to disclose its valuation.)
Over the last decade, the industry has ratcheted up its spending on lobbying efforts in the US. Now, emerging sustainability regulations are drawing increased attention.
How to best spend the large sums it will take to cut the fashion industry’s carbon emissions? The Apparel Impact Institute is launching a pre-vetted portfolio of climate solutions in an effort to better direct investment.
The brand’s hyperrealistic (but fake) animal heads sparked outrage this week, highlighting the increasingly delicate balance brands must strike between provocative marketing and shifting consumer values.
Shifting weather patterns are making shopping behaviour harder to predict, adding to inventory management challenges for brands and retailers.