Sequinova: Biodegradable Sequins At Scale

Fashion manufacturing and sustainability. Two things that appear eternally at odds. 

The pollution and waste caused by fashion manufacturing – embodied in towering landfills and plastic-ridden beaches – is well documented, as defining as the industry’s biggest brands.

Today, fashion production comprises 10% of total global carbon emissions – as much as the European Union according to Business Insider.

A staggering 85% of all textiles go to landfill each year, many of which are non-biodegradable.

The most egregious – and glamorous – of all these textiles are sequins. At every step of the manufacturing process, they are unsustainable.

The unsustainability of sequins is a serious problem for our planet. A problem that’s only set to grow, as the material becomes increasingly popular with today’s digitally engaged fashion consumers.

Sequin mad: a glitzy, growing market

Sequins have always been popular. They’re glamorous, they’re dynamic, they’re almost magical with how they capture light and send it dancing.

Historically they’ve existed in many forms.

Sequins in these forms required hours of hand sewing by seamstresses, making them highly inaccessible to the average person. But during the turn of the early twentieth century, manufacturers made several major sequin breakthroughs. 

The first was the creation of lightweight sequins using gelatin coloured with lead paint.

While these sequins looked great, they were impractical, melting in low temperatures and dissolving in water. 

Then in the 1930s scientist Herbert Liberman developed acetate sequins whilst working in film production for Eastman Kodak, creating sparkling, ostentatious costumes and uniforms.

These sequins were the foundation for today's modern sequins, which are typically made of Mylar or plastics.

Thanks to modern technology, sequins are highly accessible today, a fact which has fuelled their growing popularity.

According to the Sequins Apparels Market Size and Trends 2023-2030 Report, sequins are set to grow by a CAGR rate of 6.7% and reach a projected value of US$22.3m by 2028.

Sequins maintain a status as ‘seasonal’ event wear, cropping up for festive parties and summer events.

According to Oxfam, 1.7 million sequinned items are binned after party season, with eBay reporting that 58% of people only wear sequined outfits once or twice before donating or throwing them away. 

Fuelling this is the impact social media sites, such as TikTok and Instagram have had on consumer fashion choices.

Online voyeurism has enhanced the global populace’s image sensitivity, fuelling a demand for more experimental and distinctive clothes. 

With the power to curate an online persona, many opt to showcase new outfits in every photo, creating a competitive climate.

Fashion microtrends, which change monthly, encourage further overconsumption.

These sparkly dresses donned to mark celebrations end up as emblems of consumerist defeat, sitting forever in a landfill.

Sobering up from their magic it can feel more like a curse, blinding us to the future.

As sequins grow more popular, who is going to tackle their devastating sustainability impact?

Many hands shoot up in the air for show. Greenwashing remains a persistent problem across many industries, and fashion is far from exempt.

But it’s both cynical and wrong to say that there aren't manufacturers who take these commitments seriously.

Some even make sustainability a core business principle, seeking to enhance circularity across operations. 

When it comes to sequins, many manufacturers are making moves.

But none are doing things quite like Sequinova- a biodegradable sequin manufacturer that emphasises scalability and sustainability solutions that ‘slot in’ with our existing world.

Sequinova: Fully Biodegradable Sequins 

Many manufacturers have strived towards sustainable sequins. 

Stella McCartney for example, collaborated with Radiant Matter to create its bio sequin jumpsuit, made from non-toxic, fully biodegradable sequins. 

A fashion manufacturer that incorporates sustainability into everything it does, Stella McCartney is renowned for utilising sustainable plant-based materials, seeking to eliminate toxic and unsustainable textiles from the market. 

The company also uses technological advancements to trace products and lower energy consumption whilst using 50% recycled content for its packaging.

"Fashion designing alone doesn’t feed my soul, ” Stella said during an interview with Plant Based News. "It does creatively. But for me, I really find it so rewarding to try and save the planet at the same time.” 

Worn by Cara Delvinge and showcased on the April 2023 cover of American Vogue, the Stella McCartney sequin jumpsuit sent a critical message to the wider industry: sustainable sequins can be done. 

But can they be done at scale? 

Enter Sequinova, who says that yes, they can.

Sequinova is a spin-out of Bodici, a four-year R&D project that delved into creating sustainable, systemic change in the fashion industry.

Launched during the pandemic, Bodici highlighted a need to 'rethink' existing manufacturing and supply chain systems according to co-founder Clare Lichfield.

"The pandemic, as hard as it was, showed the need for a complete rethink towards supply chains, towards design and redesign and manufacturing overall,” she says.

"Especially supply chains showing just how vulnerable they are to global situations.” 

Bodici came to fruition as an emerging women’s wear brand, set to launch its first collection. The R&D also led to the creation of a vegan silk alternative called VegSilk and of course, Sequinova.

Today it has a patent-pending design and a micro-factory in North London, challenging how garments are manufactured, designed, sized and sourced. 

Sequinova was founded on two critical pillars according to Clare:

“ To create a whole new generation of women's wear that wasn't technically possible before, and to do so with respect for the planet and people at its core.”

Sequinova: sustainability & scalability 

When Clare first started exploring Sequinova's concept, she was surprised by the fast growth of the sequin industry.

“I really thought that consumers would be phasing out the use of sequins.” She says.“ But actually, the demand is higher than ever, and it's only growing.”

Clare is now highly conscious of this growth, noting that sequins are “a US$15bn industry set to double in the next ten years.”

Sequinova has the opportunity to address the materials in many huge markets, which include children's wear, where health and safety considerations are a major concern.

Sequinova sequins are made from cellulose, making them fully biodegradable.

They’re an innovative sustainable alternative to the toxic, non-recyclable plastic options that currently dominate the market.

These sequins biodegrade, instead of sitting in a landfill for centuries or needing to be incinerated, a fact which majorly reduces their environmental impact, particularly on global waterways.

"When washing a sequin garment, they shed thousands of microplastics into waterways,” Clare says. 

"By replacing PET plastic in our sequin production, we're removing that entirely.

"So our sequins are certified to biodegrade in freshwater, leaving no toxic residue in under eight weeks.”

Clare says as a company, Sequinova is in a privileged, exciting position.

"There is no circular way of doing sequin textiles at the moment. And with Sequinova, we’re developing a material from scratch, enabling us to build in textile to textile recycling from the get-go.” 

Sequinova is exciting. It’s part of a new wave of biomaterial manufacturers who are leading on innovation and sustainability, working to confront growing markets. But it has something that sets it apart from the majority: manufacturing expertise and a foundation to scale.

Naturally at the heart of creating new sustainable materials is science. But you can’t manufacture from the lab, and what is often missing from these novel, innovative companies is experience scaling in the industry, as Clare points out.

"The pain point we find with dealing with a lot of biomaterials companies is the problems they face when scaling.” she says.

"It's very difficult to take something from a lab and get it into a factory. They're two very different things.” 

Sequinova by contrast is a team of manufacturing specialists, scientists and product specialists who started in the factory and worked their way back to the lab.

It was critical that they avoided the silo-ing so common in the manufacturing industry, bringing people together across the value chain and considering how they’d practically integrate ideas at every point.

“We developed something that was custom made for the status quo machinery that already exists to be able to scale it quickly and easily,”  Clare says. “ We created a custom solution for something that already existed in the supply chain.”

Sequinova has also built up partnerships with factories across Europe and Asia, with future expansion in mind.

According to Clare, textile manufacturing will be kept in Europe where its feedstocks are, enhancing the sustainability of their process

"We’d go with a tried and tested method as to how to scale it, that we’d have perfected in Europe,” she explains.

The organisation is also speaking to universities about potential collaboration opportunities. This comes after Sequinova’s first production run in Italy, a success despite the supply chain issues they had to navigate.

"We had a couple of late deliveries, we had cancelled flights, it was almost comedic what happened,” Clare jokes.

"But we made it in the end.

"What was wonderful was getting all the commercial agreements in place with the factories.

"And proving to ourselves that our material is compatible with the machinery, going beyond the theory.”

From fashion buyer to manufacturer 

The organisation of Sequinova, and its capacity to scale, has been significantly shaped by Clare’s experience in the manufacturing industry.

A founder full of expertise, passion and vision, her desire to revolutionise sequin manufacturing and foster greater sustainability across fashion manufacturing is palpable.

She knows the realities of the industry first-hand, starting when she studied in Hangzhou, China for a degree in Chinese Studies.

Whilst there, she worked in the garment manufacturing industry, occupying roles focused on supply chain management and sourcing.

"I think being 19, 20 working in garment sourcing, production manufacturing in China is quite a unique position to be in,” she says. 

"I went just south of Shanghai, the capital of the Jiangsu province, which is where the majority of clothing manufacturing happens.

"So I got a lot of work experience there.”

She worked in a purely Mandarin-speaking team, after which she went on to become a fashion buyer at John Lewis and Primark.

“So I started at Primark, I was in women's shoes, and then I was at John Lewis in men's accessories,” Clare explains. “ So different parts of and different levels of product and volumes.” 

From this she acquired a unique, top-down perspective of the value chain, having firsthand experience with every step involved.

"It helped me get a clear understanding of how they all work together, what influences what, who makes the decisions, and how also to best optimise it,” she says.

"There's a lot of wastage that happens in terms of too many players, too many people working in silos, people not cooperating. There's a lot of inefficiencies and wastage happening there that I want to address.” 

Slot-in sustainability

Sequinova’s approach to sustainability also sets them apart, seeking to provide what I call ‘slot-in solutions’.

They seek product integration, not market overhaul, an objective shaped by their understanding of consumer behaviour.

"We just can't rely on consumers to change their behaviour, I think,” Clare says. 

"But also, we can't punish them as well.

"Yes, of course, the consumer has power, but I think we assign too much responsibility to them.

"The way to drive change is to create something that is a direct substitute.

"The consumer won't see a difference, it looks and feels the same, but it's just much, much, much better. I believe that that's the way forward.” 

This is a strategy commonly deployed by vegan food brands, marketing their products as delicious ‘no-chick’ burgers or ‘beef-free’ mince.

Core to this approach is a desire to alleviate the consumer perception that they’re making a major change or a big dietary sacrifice. Instead they promise the same flavour experience as meat without the associated impact. 

"I think people want to live a nice life.” Clare continues.

"And through people getting creative and joining forces, we can create a much better, more sustainable system of consumption without needing the customer to change the way they consume.” 

This system will also radically cut the waste and pollution caused by people's day-to-day consumption.

Behind Clare’s mindset is a desire for Sequinova to make the biggest, quickest impact.

"I think we can spend hours thinking about how things should happen, but I'm just a pragmatist, and the way I see it is we're running out of time,” She says.

"What's the fastest, most efficient way? In my opinion, it's creating zero-compromise products, products that look, feel and behave the same, if not better.

"Products that people genuinely want, and that they purchase because they want them as opposed to because they should.” 

This is in contrast to the blaming and shaming tactics that often arise in discussions surrounding sustainability.

Even I, earlier in this piece, couldn’t help but get a dig in.

This is not to say that people and institutions shouldn’t be held accountable, but more to highlight the flaws of certain approaches to activism.

When sustainability becomes about moralising judgement instead of collective, quantifiable action, you risk fostering a climate of performativity and obligation that generates resentment.

The issue is with broader pre-existing systems of production, rather than with the people who are incentivised to make specific financial choices.

This is a perspective Stella McCartney agrees with, saying on X: 

"Sustainability means community. It means action. It means working together, not placing blame on each other.”

Condemnation is cathartic and easy.

What’s harder is accepting that life is hard, and that it's very human to cling despite the consequences to sources of joy.

Maybe it's not the best impulse, but it's one that's extremely hard to get rid of. 

"I think consumerism comes very much from the heart, not the mind,” Clare says. “It's very much an emotions-driven thing. And knowing that, we can work with that to quickly boost change.” 

Tonight, Sequinova is in the running for ‘Manufacturing Futures 2024’ an event and programme in London organised by Fashion District where emerging sustainable fashion manufacturers are judged by experts in the industry.

The winner wins UK£15,000 to grow their business.

Sequinova offers something new in both its materials and perspective.

We wish them luck and hope to see them continue to evolve in the future. 

With big brands like Stella McCartney championing sustainability, and emerging companies like Sequinova spearheading material innovation, fashion manufacturing’s future is brighter than ever before.

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