Can Julie Pelipas Make Recycling Work on a Large Scale?

Julie Pelipas has not only built a fashion brand.

Stylist and former fashion director Mode Ukraine has ambitions that go far beyond the typical influencer-turned-fashion founder. Her three-year-old brand Betters, a slick collection of vintage menswear reworked for women has caught the attention of fashion firms and a coveted spot on the list of finalists for this year’s LVMH Prize.

But the technology-powered tailoring that underlies the brand’s ability to transform old, disliked garments into desirable fashions is at the heart of what Pelipas is trying to do.

The ultimate goal is to prove a scalable recycling solution for the huge volumes of waste generated by endless mode churn that big brands can leverage.

Millions of tons of clothing end up in landfills or incinerators every year, but industry continues to produce more. Turning old clothes into new ones is complicated and expensive because instead of the blank canvas offered by a roll of fabric, designers have to grapple with materials that are non-uniform in shape and size and have been cut and sewn for specific purposes. That’s why while recycling isn’t a new concept, it’s mostly confined to small-scale capsule collections.

My husband joked, Julie, if you launch a mediocre brand you will be very successful, said Pelipas. But that was never on the agenda. This particular concept was in the back of my mind when I decided to launch it wasn’t going to be like a small collection of one parts, scrap pieces of rags or whatever, it was going to be industrial problem solving technology.

Technology Powered Recycling

The concept for Bettter had been eating away at Pelipas for years, hovering over his head during frenetic fashion shows and conversations with exhausted designers. There is so much pressure, so much excess, so much waste in the industry, he observes.

We continue to produce tons of these clothes and it’s as if we don’t see the problem at all, said Pelipas. When you see how to solve it, when you see the formula, it just sticks in your brain and it’s silly not to do it.

While many young designers have gravitated toward the increasingly fashionable recycled concept, for the most part this has meant turning to reels of leftover deadstock fabrics. This comes with the headache of sourcing, but it also allows designers to get high-quality fabrics at a discount and claim a nice green halo for their labels.

Remaking old clothes is much more difficult. While brands such as Marine Serre, Ahluwalia, and Connor Ives have earned acclaim for collections made from reused vintage clothing, it is a hard-to-measure approach.

The rework of the tailored pieces was the most difficult due to the meticulous technical nature of the work required to assemble the clothing for the human form. That is the problem that Pelipas is pursuing.

[Julie] not only did he create collections, he also created systems. It’s completely different from everyone else, says Julie Gilhart, head of brand development incubator Tomorrow Ltd. and president of Tomorrow Consulting. There’s a level of sophistication that I don’t find comparable to anything else.

Better is supported by a series of adjustment algorithms designed to take the complexity out of the reconstruction. It took years to develop, taking apart the suit stitch by stitch and using digital design and the appropriate software to map out the virtual pattern and necessary adjustments. Now data forms an increasingly digital backbone that allows companies to quickly calculate how to tailor a men’s suit to fit a woman’s body without losing its original shape and proportions.

We try to imitate [the design] process in the most efficient and precise way, so that in the end you have a perfect product in production that will take no more than a few hours, explains Pelipas.

From Covid to Conflict

Better was built in extraordinary circumstances.

The brand launched in August 2020 as the world grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic. It was actually the right time, said Pelipas. Forced isolation created space for Better’s team to figure out how to make the business model work and develop its tailoring algorithms.

People stuck at home also spend a lot of time surfing the internet and shopping. With almost 250,000 Instagram followers of his own, Pelipas had a pre-existing platform to launch his first collection. Produced in small volumes, they sold out almost instantly.

In early 2022, Pelipas felt the company was on solid footing. Shed is building an R&D and production facility in Kyiv with the support of a handful of angel investors and is considering raising more money to fund expansion, while exploring wholesale and brand partnerships.

Then his world fell apart.

Days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Pelipas juggled his Paris Fashion Week schedule with efforts to raise awareness of the crisis, support creatives still in Ukraine and figure out how to evacuate his team.

Over the past year, he had to start over many times. The production team initially moved to Portugal, but were asked to return after several months. Back in Kyiv, they work under the constant threat of air raids. Pelipas lives in fear of a phone call telling him someone has been hurt. As the bombing escalates and the warehouse filled with Better’s clothing is about to catch fire, he draws a line and asks if the team is moving again. Bettter now runs production from Portugal and R&D from London, although Pelipas hopes to one day return the company’s operations to Ukraine.

It was just a bad dream, to be honest, said Pelipas. I lost my hair, I lost my health, my time with my children. He wasn’t sure whether to continue with his business. For nearly a year, the company was in survival mode. Things are held together only through a mix of adrenaline and determination, fueled by his belief that he is doing something important.

A Concept with Currency

This year, Better is once again poised to expand.

As a finalist for the LVMH Prize, the brand is on the radar of fashion companies. Pelipas is exploring wholesale partnerships and plans to open its own retail space in 2024. He is also moving with ambitions to build Bettter into a platform that partners with other brands to recycle their dead goods.

This is an unconventional, but trending, business model. The younger generation of brands selling recycled products has made retailers more accepting of the concept. And even though consumers are driven more by price and aesthetics than ethics, they may be thinking more about products with responsible stories.

It’s very timely and fashion is all about timing, says Gilhart. You can have the best idea, but if the timing isn’t right, it has no currency.

Meanwhile, regulations and the economy are pushing brands to explore new ways of managing excess inventory, making them more open to unconventional ways of working and growing collections, says Betters open technology Pelipas. The financial fluctuations of recent years have meant many companies are stuck with warehouses of unsold clothing and policy makers are pushing to ensure they are disposed of responsibly. Last week, EU governments agreed that the bloc should ban the destruction of unsold clothing.

While Bettter is still a fledgling brand, Pelipas says it is on track to achieve profitability by 2024. The company has entered into partnerships to recycle deadstock for major luxury players and plans to raise at least $1 million this year to invest in its technology. . platforms.

I am not a person who is there to gain success or status or earn big money, said Pelipas. The initial impetus was to completely change the system.

Disclosure: LVMH is part of a group of investors who, together, hold a minority stake in The Business of Fashion. All investors have signed shareholder documentation guaranteeing BoF’s full editorial independence.