All garments from the collaboration are designed using deadstock fabric sourced through Queen of Raw
SHEIN, a global online fashion and lifestyle retailer, announces the launch of SHEIN X Rescued, a collection by six SHEIN X designers that use deadstock materials sourced through SHEIN’s partnership with Queen of Raw.
Queen of Raw is a global circular economy technology company whose flagship software, Materia MX, specializes in solving supply chain’s excess inventory issues for the world’s Fortune 500. Through its partnership with Queen of Raw, SHEIN is able to repurpose high-quality leftover fabric inventory from other brands towards a more circular model that mitigates textile waste and reduces the use of new raw materials. According to Materia MX’s impact measurement, SHEIN procured and rescued 19,927 meters through its partnership with Queen of Raw in 2023. This translates to estimated savings of 41.08 million gallons of water, 3,051 kgs of chemicals, and 28.94 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents that would have been generated if those materials had to be newly produced instead.
“SHEIN continues to invest in innovative initiatives towards circularity. One of the goals in our sustainability journey is to achieve a fully circular economy by 2050,” said Caitrin Watson, Director of Sustainability, SHEIN. “To meaningfully reduce emissions in the fashion industry we need to not only minimize our own waste, but work collectively to eliminate the concept of waste altogether. Partnering with Queen of Raw to source deadstock materials in place of new fabrics allows us to collaborate with other industry leaders and emerging designers alike to propel the circular textile economy forward.”
As part of the company’s evoluSHEIN roadmap, SHEIN is aiming for 50% of SHEIN branded products to qualify under the evoluSHEIN by Design initiative by 2030, supporting its decarbonization strategy by accelerating the use of preferred materials and scaling responsible manufacturing processes.
All garments in this collection were designed according to evoluSHEIN by Design standards, where garments must consist of at least 30% preferred materials, like recycled polyester, forest-safe viscose, and rescued deadstock, and must be manufactured by suppliers that have achieved high social and environmental compliance verification through third-party audits. All pieces are also produced using SHEIN’s small-batch, on-demand production model and shipped in packaging made with recycled content.
SHEIN X Designers, Christian Caldwell (US), DeJohnea Thorpe (US), Rajvizithi Singh (US), Ngozika Okeke (US), Mel Dorey (UK), and Daniela Ricciardelli (Italy), were handpicked because of their passion for designing lower-impact fashion products that leverage circular design principles.
Said UK designer, Mel Dorey, “The future of fashion is going to be sustainable. Using deadstock fabrics is a great way forward – it’s going to make a better future for everybody and more designers should be doing it. The challenges along the way will also create amazing opportunities because it forces you to think out of the box – and that’s really exciting! A lot of my customers come back to me because they love the ethos behind the brand.”
The SHEIN X Designer Incubator Program aims to make the business of fashion accessible for the next generation of creative fashion minds. Through the program, participants are guided through the end-to-end production process, including product design and development, manufacturing, marketing and supply chain logistics. They are also offered opportunities for training and upskilling, as well as unique tools such as SHEIN’s real-time product performance monitoring suite, which they can use to respond to up-to-the-minute consumer demands. The program fronts the cost of the production and logistics process, lessening the financial risk or burden of producing and launching these fashion collections. Since launching in January 2021, the SHEIN X Designer Incubator Program has grown from only seven to more than 4,600 designers and artists from over 20 countries. In September 2023, SHEIN announced that an additional US$50 Million will be committed towards the SHEIN X Designer Incubator Program over five years. This additional funding will bring the company’s total investment into the program to US$105 Million till 2028.
