ancor garments presents the "T-Shirt_01"

ancor garments is a fashion brand, making basics 100% upcycled in France 🏭 It means that all of our designs are 100% produced in series from second hand goods collected and transformed in France ♻️ We offer an alternative to traditional, industrial fashion, a major contributor to global pollution and labor exploitation in many producing countries ‍🙅 Our ambition is to maximize the reuse of existing textile waste within our territory, transforming it into functional, beautiful, and comfortable clothing ✨ ancor garments it's also us, Valentin and Basile !👋 We met 3 years ago while working for major fashion brands on textile recycling and waste optimization projects ⚙️ At that time, we realized the limitations of recycling but, above all, the potential of upcycling to: 🔸 systematically reuse textile waste 🚯 🔸 reduce the use of polluting raw materials 📉 And after more than a year of development, we are super proud to present our first product : The T-shirt_01 !! ✨ Available now for pre-order! Pre-orders will be open until mid-October ⏱️ T-shirts will be produced at the end of the pre-order period and delivered in December! But what's the problem with "classic" fashion? The problem it's the conditions under which fast-fashion products are manufactured, but above all, our overconsumption of clothing! 📈 According to ADEME, the production of a T-shirt consumes: 🔸 1.3 kg of cotton ☁️ 🔸 14 m² of land 🌏 🔸 2,500 liters of water 🌊 Considering that around 20 billions T-shirts are produced each year 😱 In France, a garment is worn an average of 10 times before being resold or thrown away ⏱️ Because of this trend, 4 million tons of textiles are thrown away each year in Europe 📊 These products have already cost a lot in terms of natural resources, but they continue to pollute because about half are exported to so-called "Southern" countries, and 25% end up in landfills for lack of buyers 🤢 So what do we do now? At ancor garments, we've decided to kill two birds with one stone: 🔸 reduce the proportion of new clothing consumed each year ️🛍️ 🔸 reduce the proportion of second-hand clothing exported each year ️🗑️ All while offering you everyday clothing, beautiful and comfortable, that is 100% made from upcycled clothing 🤩 So how does it work? A clothing brand made entirely from recycled second-hand clothing is an opportunity to imagine a new kind of supply chain 🏭 Step 1: We buy raw materials from sorting centers, which collect and condition clothing from deposit bins 🚮 These centers send us sorted material according to our criteria. For example, for the T-shirt_01, we ask for second-hand T-shirts: 🔸 in 100% cotton jersey ☁️ 🔸 sorted by color 🎨 🔸 with a minimum weight of 150g/m² ⚖️ 🔸 with as few prints as possible ️🖼️ Step 2: After inspection, we send the second-hand clothing to be washed in an industrial laundry 🧽 Step 3: The garments are then sent to our cutting and industrial manufacturing partner to be transformed into T-shirt_01 ✨ This partner is responsible for: 🔸 Taking apart garments (dismantling and removing any tough spots) 🧰 🔸 Cutting the individual pieces for the new garment ✂️ 🔸 Putting the new product together 🪡 🔸 Completing the garment and preparing it for shipping 📦 All these steps explain the price of the T-Shirt_01 Why does our T-shirt look like this? Our T-shirt_01 is the result of a long development process, both of a product and a way of producing it 🧠 🏭 ⚙️ To produce upcycled clothing in series, we need to find a way to standardize the cutting and assembly steps 🧠 And cutting into already assembled clothing isn't as simple as cutting into a roll of fabric ✂️ The T-shirt_01 is composed of different pieces 🧩 The shape of these pieces directly results from the manufacturing process: 🔸 they are designed to produce as little waste as possible ♻️ 🔸 they have been reworked by our partner to be easier to assemble 🏭 Who do we work with? Origin Textile, for the raw material Based in Poitiers, Origin Textiles collects and conditions second-hand clothing locally 📍 We buy what we call "grade B" from them: it's the quality that is just below the products intended for thrift stores, and which is generally intended for export. 🚢 ⚠️ This doesn't mean that the clothes are of poor quality, but that they are less well-preserved or do not have aesthetic interest ⚠️ Losanje, for the transformation The sorted clothing are sent to Nevers, at Losanje, our partner who ensures the cutting and production of the T-Shirt_01 🪡 Our collaboration with Losanje is ongoing, for the development and realization of prototypes of all our models ⚙️ The cleaning of our raw material is also carried out by Losanje, who have a partnership with an industrial laundry and a reintegration project 🫧 Neyret, for the labels Neyret is a reference in French fashion. Based in Saint-Étienne, this weaving factory supplies most of the fashion houses ✨ Our label is not printed, but woven in Jacquard, for a qualitative rendering and better durability 🧵