Following the success of the first round of Evo Fashion earlier this year, here at Fashion District, we’re beyond excited for our second cohort to embark on this experiential, high-impact programme. 

With this round specifically catering to fashion technology ventures, we’re thrilled to unveil the twenty-four start-ups offering innovative solutions for the fashion and materials industry, each with the potential to advance sustainability in the sector.

Designed exclusively for fashion technology businesses, the second round of Evo Fashion is a fully funded, five-month programme that takes an holistic approach to business strategy. With a focus on key areas such as environmental and ethical practices, business and financial planning, marketing and storytelling, founder wellbeing, and sustainable growth, the programme offers a comprehensive learning experience. Activities include a two-day intensive launchpad, masterclasses, peer-to-peer learning, panels, talks, and workshops – all structured to accommodate work commitments and culminating in an industry showcase.

Evo Fashion is part of the Grow London Early Stage programme, powered by London & Partners – a business support programme for early-stage growth companies active in high growth sectors that support sustainable and inclusive growth in London. The programme is funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Meet the twenty-four businesses selected for the first Evo Fashion programme: 

ASTRA

Astra is a pioneering tech startup that masterfully integrates Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to redefine traditional in-store retail experiences. Our cutting-edge platform allows customers, to preview upcoming fashion collections in VR, providing brands with critical data on consumer preferences and infusing a dynamic element of gamification into the physical shopping experience.

Bloomino

Bloomino provides AI-driven software that automates fashion resale and rental listings from purchase receipts. Our solution generates detailed listings with 16 key fields, including descriptions and photos. As a white-label product, we integrate with existing platforms to accelerate transactions, enhance accuracy, and increase appeal, simplifying engagement in the resale market.

British Pasture Leather

British Pasture Leather is the first supplier of leather from the hides of cattle raised on regenerative farms in the UK. Our mission is to connect design with ecosystem restoration through the production of leather. We supply designers with material that delivers positive impacts for land, animals, people, and nature.

CircKit

CircKit is the AI-powered ‘Circular by Design’ solution empowering fashion brands to design sustainable products, harmonise their data, and meet regulatory compliance. CircKit’s holistic algorithm aggregates environmental, social and economic factors. An award-winning SaaS platform, accelerating positive impact as a ‘nucleus’ technology solution for a circular global fashion value chain.

CQ Studio

CQ Studio is a regenerative fashion lab conducting the research & development of innovative materials by using regenerative practices including using mushrooms to clean textile-dye wastewater to make our detox bio-embellishment (patent-pending). They use various techniques in their research combining contemporary and traditional craft techniques.

Creanial

Creanial is revolutionising fashion with its portable robotic garment manufacturing hub, blending automation, sustainability, and accessibility. By tackling industry challenges, Creanial empowers designers and meets diverse consumer needs. This innovative approach paves the way for a more sustainable, inclusive future in fashion, minimising environmental impact while maximizing creativity and efficiency.

Della Yellow

Our innovation is a digital sewing school designed to make fashion-forward sewing, upcycling and repair skills accessible to Gen Z and millennials. This platform offers up-to-date tutorials and projects that reflect the latest styles, coupled with sustainable practices. Leveraging AI technologies, our platform will provide personalised learning experiences and real-time feedback.

ELVARDI

ELVARDI creates stylish, sustainable sneakers for the fashion-forward adults. Our footwear blends trendy colourways and elegant eco-friendly materials, emphasising sustainability through product care, recycling, and reselling. Each purchase supports underserved creatives, allowing our customers to express their style while making a positive impact on the world.

Eslando Circular Fashion

Eslando is a circular fashion tech company on a mission to accelerate textile recycling. Our aim is to create the easiest and most efficient path to recycle textiles. Our Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered software leverages Digital Product Passports (DPP) to sort textile waste for recycling with pinpoint accuracy.

Fung Studios

Stephy Fung is a digital fashion artist, educator, and content creator in London. She blends urban streetwear with traditional Chinese elements, aiming to establish a Web3 digital fashion brand. Her designs, reflecting her British Chinese heritage, bridge the gap between physical and digital fashion.

Galore.club

Galore.club is a solution platform that combines NFC tags and blockchain technology to address current infrastructure issues faced by luxury retailers and manufacturers. Our solution is simple: We provide a tool that creates digital twins to sync product data, giving stakeholders lifecycle visibility in real-time.

Gemell Technology

Gemell is tackling the needless overproduction of fabric and yarn samples with 3D visualisation technology. Gemell’s offering is unique, generating photorealistic digital twins of yarns and fabrics down to the filament level, using only the data from the yarn recipe and the weave pattern file. No samples. No scanning. No waste.

Genie

Genie is a search engine and shopping tool for pre-loved fashion. With the pre-loved fashion market expected to grow at 77.8% from 2023-2028 there has been an explosion in inventory and pre-loved shopping destinations. However, each product is unique making it challenging to find what you’re looking for and stay on top of what is available on the market. Genie allows users to set alerts on particular categories or products to source what they are looking for from across the internet.

Labelld

Labelld is a pioneering company specializing in digital product passports and post-purchase experiences. Leveraging Web3 technology, we enhance brand-customer relationships through blockchain-based authenticity, traceability, and innovative after-sales services, driving engagement and loyalty in the luxury and fashion sectors.

LAYBL

LAYBL creates unique connections for retail brands by tracking clothes from production to recycling, extending their reach, preparing for EU DPP and reducing carbon footprints. And our smart wardrobe app connects these items to their buyers, encouraging product longevity using AI and gamification to make being eco-friendly, easy and fun.

Loom

Loom connects you with designers to upcycle (redesign) your unworn and damaged clothes. Simply tell us about an item you no longer wear and we give you ideas on how we could transform it. Or if you have an idea already, we’ll bring your vision to life!

Or Collective

Or Collective is the first design-led rental subscription for babies and children. A tech-first model working with all the cult kids wear brands, or collective curates current, high quality fashion led collections that are available for members to rent, wear and rotate as they need.

PhygitalTwin

Our AI engine provides a seamless, cost-effective gateway to 3D digital product creation, automating and scaling the design of skins and fashion collections. It converts these into production-ready patterns in real time, enabling mass customisation, and sustainable production, revolutionising the fashion industry’s design-to-production process. Designs can effortlessly be transformed into skins for your favorite games or social media profiles, creating opportunities for validation and additional revenue streams.

Redress

An AI-powered platform that provides personalised outfit recommendations by analyzing trends, styles, and user preferences. It empowers discovery through tailored and dynamic experience, enabling users to access, interact, and act upon bespoke and relevant information. We believe in a new way of shopping.

SEWN DIGITAL

At SEWN DIGITAL FASHION, we envisage an industry where digital garments and AI imagery are developed alongside physical products. Our innovative approach addresses industry challenges such as waste reduction, carbon reduction, efficiency, and accuracy through cutting-edge fashion tech solutions.

TEOZ

TEOZ’ mission is to create fashion that goes beyond what is possible in the physical world. Our goal is to create new possibilities for people to engage with fashion by leveraging mixed reality technology and innovative production approaches. We make fashion that is kinder to the environment and more fun.

THE FASHION BLUEPRINT

THE FASHION BLUEPRINT (TFB) is a community-focused digital agency promoting sustainability in fashion. It supports underrepresented fashion entrepreneurs and connects freelance Fashion Upcyclers with retailers to reduce deadstock and combat waste colonialism. TFB’s tech platform aids brands in joining the circular economy and addressing fashion waste issues.

VAIVR

VAIVR transforms online fashion retail with advanced 3D virtual try-on technology. Shoppers create precise 3D avatars from a single photo to try on garments in their exact size. We simulate realistic fabric behaviour and movement, enhancing fit accuracy and customer confidence, leading to reduced returns and better shopping experiences.

Zori Tex

Zori Tex is a climate tech start-up on a mission to drive circularity in the hugely resource intensive fashion and textiles industry through innovative AI-powered technologies – combining machine vision and the latest deep learning networks to optimise the sorting and availability of complex non-reusable feedstocks, ready for closed loop recycling.

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Last week, we gathered our 10 shortlisted businesses at Plexal’s Innovation Centre for Critical Friends Day, officially launching our 2024 programme.

Taking over the spacious venue, the day was meticulously organised for our 10 shortlisted businesses – Arda Materials, Fibe, Fab Materials, Oxford Biopigments, TRUSS, Sequinova, Zori Tex, Fiiba, PACT, and The Seam – to present their businesses to industry experts and receive valuable feedback ahead of their final presentation to the judges.

Manufacturing Innovation and Sustainability

Manufacturing Production

Investment Insights

Marketing Insights

Business Growth and IP

Empowered by real-time feedback on their businesses, many of the startups left with actionable steps outlined by the critical friends to help elevate their growth. Throughout the day, breaks in the timetable provided ample opportunities for the businesses to get to know each other, fostering the exchange of ideas, opportunities, and mutual support.

Fuelled by the high energy in the room, the day proved to be a resounding success, leaving our shortlisted businesses eagerly anticipating our upcoming event, the Development Day on 30th May. Closing the event, the startups were given the opportunity to offer feedback about their experience. Woody Lello, CEO of TRUSS, spoke on behalf of them all, saying, ‘It was a really fun day!’