This Kenyan Company Won a Major Fashion Award for Making Fabric from Nettles
Monday, April 15, 2019
By Abdi Latif Dahir
Organic fibers made from nettles has bagged a Kenyan company one of the world’s top sustainable fashion prizes.
Green Nettle Textile was this year awarded almost $170,000 as part of the $1.1 million Global Change Award, a fashion innovation challenge initiated by H&M Foundation in collaboration with management consulting firm Accenture and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. Described by some as the Nobel Prize for sustainable fashion, the award seeks to disrupt the fashion industry by choosing early stage ideas and incubating them towards the goal of an environmentally-conscious, circular fashion instead of a wasteful, linear model.
This year, the competition received 6,640 entries from 182 countries, with a tremendous increase in entrances from emerging markets. Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa were among the top 10 nations that submitted entries for the award.
Photo courtesy of Steven Lilley.
Source: Quartz Africa (link opens in a new window)
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