In its ongoing efforts to reduce its environmental footprint, LVMH now shines the spotlight on deadstock materials from its luxury brands with Nona Source.
Earlier this month, the LVMH marketplace Nona Source opened its first London showroom. It’s a showcase of deadstock materials available from the brand’s Maisons, which include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, Loewe, and Givenchy, among others.
The platform sells its materials online, but has opened showrooms in Paris and now London. “The opening of the London Location will bring new opportunities to fashion and design creatives in the UK, allowing them to weave in sustainable and circular fashion ethics into their collections, by using high-quality deadstock materials,” LVMH says on its website.
Nona Source participated in LVMH’s DARE incubator where fashion industry experts Romain Brabo and Marie Falguera brought the project to life. According to LVMH, Brabo identified “sleeping beauties” in his work with LVMH brands Givenchy and Kenzo–high-quality deadstock materials that he knew could have a second life in resale.
“When we saw these mountains of fabrics, which were so beautiful, it was natural to start this project,” Brabo told Vogue. “There is real demand [for deadstock], and I think Covid has accelerated everything.”
LVMH sustainability
LVMH has been working steadily to reduce its environmental footprint. Last year it announced the first gender-neutral and vegan Louis Vuitton sneaker. The label’s late creative director Virgil Abloh helped bring a sustainability logo to offerings. Earlier this year, the parent company announced it was working to develop lab-grown fur to replace its animal fur with sustainable high-quality materials. It’s one of the few remaining luxury labels that hasn’t banned fur.
Nona Source falls in line with the ever-increasing sustainability commitments outlined in the Group’s LIFE 360 program (LIFE: LVMH Initiatives For the Environment).
“It is such a major step forward in Nona Sources’ commitment to develop circular creativity and creative re-use as well as supporting young and emerging designers, talent, and brands” Brabo says of the London location, chosen for being one of the creative centers of the fashion world.
“To foster greater creative circularity in the fashion industry is one of the ambitions of the LVMH environmental strategy LIFE 360,” says Hélène Valade, Group Environment Director. The space, hosted by the Mills Fabrica, is a “great illustration of this commitment,” says Valade. “By supporting the London and U.K.-based creative community, we also aim at boosting circularity and upcycling of our unused fabrics as we have done with the Parisian showroom for one year now.”
Deadstock
Deadstock isn’t a wholesale solution to the fashion industry’s problems, which include issues with materials production, wastewater, labor, and end of life, to name a few. But it’s as good a place to start as any. A growing number of designers are working with deadstock materials.
According to Stella McCartney—LVMH owns a stake in the designer’s eponymous label—less than one percent of materials used to produce clothing is ever recycled. “This is where Nona Source comes in,” she said, “taking these incredible deadstock fabrics and leather from the world’s leading fashion Maisons under the LVMH umbrella and offering them at competitive prices—meaning they are accessible for all brands, new and old.”
Accessibility, for the most part, means smaller purchase commitments and lower pricing.
“Nona Source has afforded us the opportunity to develop new ways of working – continuing to grow horizontally without it being so resource-intensive,” designer Richard Malone, told Vogue. He says Nona Source addresses some of the main problems that young designers face, “including minimum order quantity requirements.”