Is the future of fashion cyclical? William Calvert, Return to Vendor

Welcome to Happy Planet! 

Our guest this week is William Calvert, co-Founder and CEO of the NYC based startup, Return to Vendor. William is a fashion designer and entrepreneur who has lived in Paris, and Italy and designed for the likes of Balenciaga before getting the fashion-tech bug about 10 years ago. 

His first foray into the field led him to create fabric out of down for an Italian company and now he's 100% focused on 100% circularity. He and his partner are recycling abandoned nylon fishing nets (and thereby helping to clean up the ocean) and turning it into primary material that can be turned into fabric, buttons, zippers and more. The idea is to make 100% nylon garments (or suitcases or shoes) so they at the end of their life span they can be fully recycled and turned back into new products. 

William shares his business ideas but also his thoughts on how we can be better consumers and what the fashion industry might look like a decade from now. 

When I contacted William, I was looking to sidestep from the ocean for a moment to check in with other industries. But when I discovered William was procuring nylon from fishing nets I realized that, in the end, everything comes back to the ocean. Including every other breath.

We are going to take a break for the summer and will be back after Labor Day with interviews with the top three winners of Sustainable Ocean Alliance's 2024 Ocean Pitch Challenge. 

I am so grateful for all of your support. We have a growing awareness footprint and now we are regularly solicited by people hoping to be a guest on Happy Planet. Thank you for your part.