INTRODUCING
REFASHION ASIA is a weekly Substack newsletter devoted to solving to the problems of plastics and industrial chemicals in the garment industry. The composition of garment waste has been known for a decades, but costeffective solutions are hard to devise and require substantial R&D. Whether we are a CEO, a shop floor manager, a boutique fashion designer, or a mainstream retailer, we all have a vital interest in the quality of materials we sell to the public.
REFASHION ASIA reports on the latest advances in Asia’s sustainable garment industry. Hence the lead items in every REFASHION ASIA issue will be summaries of the latest research published in the peer-reviewed science journals. Tomorrow’s economies begin with today’s science.
Technology is improved by its users. REFASHION ASIA will also cover how people are actually using technology. We encourage readers to report on developments in their industries and classrooms that advance our progress toward a more sustainable future.
VALUE PROPOSITION
The first two weekly issues of REFASHION ASIA will be free. Thereafter, each issue will present the week’s scientific papers for free. The rest of each issue will be accessible by subscription only — US$12 per month or $100 per year.
Each weekly issue will be separately published as a newsletter in A4 PDF on ISSUU.com. [See Vol.1 #1 in printer-ready A4 download here.]
Subscribers are encouraged to print and bind these as a state-of-theindustry updates for office, boardroom, or classroom use.
EXAMPLES OF WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT
SUMMARIES FROM THE PROFESSIONAL LITERATURE:
ECONOMIC VIABILITY REQUIRES HIGHER RECYCLING RATES FOR IMPORTED PLASTIC WASTE THAN EXPECTED, Kai Li, Hauke Ward, Hai Xiang Lin, Arnold Tukker. NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, Vol. 15, Article 7578 (31 Aug 2024).
“The environmental impact of traded plastic waste hinges on how it is treated. Existing studies often use domestic or scenario-based recycling rates for imported plastic waste, which is problematic due to differences in recyclability and the fact that importers pay for it. We estimate the minimum required recycling rate (RRR) needed to break even financially by analysing import prices, recycling costs, and the value of recycled plastics across 22 leading importing countries and
four plastic waste types during 2013–2022. Here we show that at least 63% of imported plastic waste must be recycled, surpassing the average domestic recycling rate of 23% by 40 percentage points. This discrepancy suggests that recycled plastics volumes from the global North-to-South trade may be underestimated. The country-specific RRR provided could enhance research and policy efforts to better quantify and mitigate the environmental impact of plastic waste trade.”
TEXT SAMPLE: “Our research indicates that while the average RRR of 63% is higher than the domestic average of 23% across 22 research countries, it still falls short of ideal recycling rates. This gap suggests a significant portion of traded plastics may be mismanaged29. To address this, transparent tracking systems, such as a robust prior informed consent procedure30, are essential. The OECD control system for waste recovery serves as a notable example, requiring disclosure of pre-consented recovery facilities and technologies in waste-importing countries31. Although recycling costs may be higher in developed countries, the overall environmental impact is often lower compared to that in Southeast Asia. These environmental concerns are reflected in the EU’s newly adopted waste shipment regulation, which bans plastic waste exports to non-OECD countries starting in November 2026.”
CORE COMPETENCY:
FREE downloadable Ebook from Fashion Technology Accelerator (Italy): THE FASHION BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS: TOOLS FOR YOUR STARTUP. “Creating a fashion startup requires a precise set of
tools and skills to succeed. There are some fundamental pillars to start, and through the creation of a strategic business canvas, you can focus on the value proposition of the brand, its positioning, competitors, and buyer personas.
“A business model canvas allows you to collect all the necessary information on a single page, to have all elements together at a glance. It allows you to organize logically and visually how your company creates value, reflecting in a single sheet the strengths and weaknesses to obtain the complete picture:
• The Product Offering Choosing the right merchandising plan, it’s fundamental for a fashion brand. Moreover, many can opt for a direct-to-consumers model reducing the variety of the catalog in the first phase.
• The Buyer Personas. Communication in fashion is a very relevant aspect. Defining customer segments is not enough. It’s important to develop the profiles of the main buyer personas to craft a perfect communication plan to reach through the right channels in each cluster.
• The Branding. A relevant space is assigned to the Brand Identity. The type of relationship you want to create with your customers starts from the promise you make with the values behind your brand.
• E-commerce. Discover how to craft your sales funnel and which actions lead to immediate results. Constant optimization of the different phases will play a major role in your company’s development.” Download the Fashion Digital Brands Canvas template here (halfway down the page).
INCUBATORS & ACCELERATORS:
F6S WHERE STARTUPS GET FUNDING, GRANTS, TALENT, CONTRACTS & FREE SERVICES ED: From information provided on their web page, “F6S helps founders and startups grow to solve the world's pressing social, economic, environmental, sustainability and innovation problems. F6S members include the world’s top companies, earlier stage companies, startups scaling towards unicorn status and other supporters. F6S works for founders and their companies with the help of corporates, governments and others in the global startup ecosystem. F6S tools deliver company growth through funding, investment, pilot contracts, grants, partnerships, jobs & talent and company services. F6S Members have received hundreds of millions of euros, pounds and dollars in government grants, R&D tax credits and support for investment schemes like SEIS and EIS tax relief. F6S members can connect with funding and grant opportunities, post or apply for jobs, get free founder deals and apply to startup programs (including accelerators)." ED: This web statement is followed by a rather formidable list of testimonials and endorsements web linked to original sources.
PRODUCT INNOVATORS:
STARTUP OF THE MONTH FOR OCTOBER 2024: OOLA MODEST SPORTS WEAR. Originally published in Fashion Technology Accelerator (Italy and Seoul). “Oola Sports’ inspiration came from necessity: Haya Al Ghanim and Amina Ahmadi from Doha, Qatar were training for a Mount Kilimanjaro hike. They had difficulty finding sports hijabs and performance garments that met their hiking needs, while also being aligned with their values. They immediately spotted the market opportunity of women who wanted to enjoy the great outdoors but could not easily find appropriate athletic wear. Too often Muslim women had to mix-and-match pieces that turned out to be unpractical. Al Ghanim and Ahmadi partnered with fashion designer, Lilian Gabriel de Almeida Barbosa to found Oola Sports — women's wear that performs well and comes in modest styles, without compromising on either. Their first step was to participate in a Fashion Technology Accelerator
https://refashionasia.substack.com/
training program. They then launched a crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo. which achieved 223% of their initial target.
EDUCATOR COURSE OUTLINES & LESSON PLANS:
LESSON PLAN: WAYS TO CONSERVE THE ENVIRONMENT, KIM ALVIN DE LARA (free pdf), from Sustainable Earth. GRADES 4–5. Duration: 1 week @ 30 min daily. “This lesson instills climate change awareness and responsibility among pupils. It promotes environmental and moral values essential to the present needs of the learners. It contains varied activities that lead the pupils to think and apply their knowledge and learn scientific concepts and values efficiently and effectively.”
It
is not profit that creates value, it is value that creates profit.
WHO PRODUCES REFASHION ASIA?
Douglas Bullis entered the publishing profession in 1980 with Chronicle Books in San Francisco. He forged a career as a native English-speaking/writer in Holland 3 years, France 5 years, Spain 1 year, Sri Lanka 5 years, India 2 years, Malaysia 3 years, Indonesia 1 year, Philippines 2 years, with extended visits to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Sarawak.
In 2000 he published the first survey of Asia's fashion design community, Fashion Asia, with the UK firm Thames & Hudson. He has also published the Asia-related business books Selling to India’s Consumer Market, Preparing for Electronic Commerce in Asia, Write a Winning Business Plan, and a 64page A4 book Asia Fashion Today (2024). The latter is a text/photo essay featuring fifteen designers from Japan to Mongolia. Mr. Bullis has also published numerous non-arts books which may be perused on the websites https://issuu.com/douglasbullis and amazon.com
Mr. Bullis translates the complexities of research publications into writing readily understandable by business professionals and creative artists. He summarized reports in the astrophysics journals into 15 monographs produced under the generic name Nightfall for the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa, and eight astrophysics monographs under the rubric Sky Candy, which may be accessed on https://issuu.com/douglasbullis All of these are freely downloadable at no cost.
Over the years Mr. Bullis has seen the opportunity to advance sustainable garment production by summarizing the complexities of recent scientific papers in his Substack Refashion Asia.