Chanel has officially launched Nevold, a groundbreaking business-to-business (B2B) platform focused on sustainable luxury and circular fashion. Unveiled on June 10, the initiative marks a major turning point in the fashion industry’s ongoing reckoning with environmental impact. More than a statement, Nevold is a strategic shift—one that underscores Chanel’s deepening commitment to circularity, innovation, and long-term responsibility.
At its core, Nevold sits at the crossroads of technology, sustainability, and craftsmanship. It’s designed to bring together brands, manufacturers, and creative innovators under one digital roof—all united by the goal of reducing waste and extending the lifecycle of luxury goods. From textile recycling and regenerative material sourcing to resale, repair, and upcycling, the platform offers a full-spectrum solution. And true to Chanel’s legacy, every process is expected to uphold the house’s uncompromising standards for quality and design.
Nevold: Chanel’s Ambitious New Chapter in Circular Luxury
Coined from the words “never” and “old,” Nevold’s guiding philosophy is to give materials a longer, more meaningful life, turning what was once considered waste into the luxurious resources of the future. This bold, future-facing initiative is spearheaded by Sophie Brocart, former CEO of LVMH’s Patou, and serves as much more than an internal tool. Instead, it’s an open platform—one that welcomes collaboration across the fashion industry and beyond.
Backed by a substantial investment of €50–80 million, Nevold represents a serious commitment from Chanel, not just to innovation but to transformation. Among its key pillars is the collection and reprocessing of leftover materials and factory offcuts from Chanel’s own production lines. These remnants are reimagined into premium components, then reintroduced into the creation of new pieces, preserving both the house’s design legacy and its standards of excellence.
In addition, the platform is actively innovating composite materials, combining recycled fibers with virgin materials to meet Chanel’s famously exacting specifications. The goal isn’t just to recycle—it’s to regenerate, refine, and raise the bar for what circular luxury can look like.
“We started by asking ourselves what happens to the materials that don’t make it into a final product, or those that reach the end of their first life,” said Chanel’s president of fashion, Bruno Pavlovsky. “At Chanel, we didn’t destroy unsold products. But we also didn’t yet have a real system to understand their full potential. Nevold is that system.”
With Nevold, Chanel is not only setting a precedent for sustainable luxury but also inviting the rest of the industry to rise to the challenge. It’s a vision of fashion’s future—collaborative, conscious, and decidedly couture.
The Need for Nevold
The luxury fashion industry is at a pivotal crossroads. On one hand, demand for sustainable practices is growing rapidly, driven by conscious consumers and urgent environmental concerns. On the other hand, sourcing high-quality, traceable raw materials is becoming increasingly difficult.
At the heart of this challenge lie five core materials: cotton, wool, cashmere, silk, and leather. Together, they make up nearly 80% of Chanel’s material volume. Yet today, these fibers are harder to source sustainably. Climate change, land degradation, and rising geopolitical tensions are all disrupting global supply chains, creating uncertainty around both availability and quality.
“We are not trying to replace what nature gives us,” Pavlovsky explains. “But the ability to get the best quality with full transparency and traceability is becoming more difficult. Nevold is how we explore long-term alternatives—not for next season, but for the next generation.”
This shift isn’t just about ethics—it’s about survival.
He continues: “It’s becoming more and more important and more and more strategic for us. If we want to continue to exist and to do what we are doing, we have to anticipate and to see how we can rethink this idea of materials and raw materials.”
With Nevold, Chanel is actively confronting these realities. The goal is clear: build a future where craftsmanship, luxury, and sustainability can coexist, without compromise.
From Waste to Worth: Nevold’s Materials-First Approach
Nevold tackles fashion’s sustainability crisis not by upcycling finished products, but by innovating at the component level. Its core mission is to create hybrid materials, blending recycled fibers with virgin ones, to dramatically reduce waste without compromising luxury standards.
The results are already showing. For instance, Nevold has developed a technique to transform waste leather into supple, durable components. Today, these are used in over 30% of certain Chanel footwear lines. This method not only preserves performance and quality but also aligns seamlessly with Chanel’s iconic aesthetic.
Strategic Collaborations: Scale Through Openness
Chanel understands it can’t solve the sustainability puzzle alone. That’s why Nevold is built as an open platform, encouraging collaboration across the fashion and material innovation ecosystems. “Chanel is too small on its own to build the scale this requires,” says Pavlovsky. “That’s why we created a separate, open platform that can bring others in.”
Partnerships play a pivotal role. Nevold works with industry leaders like Filatures du Parc, a French wool spinner known for its eco-conscious methods, and ETH Zurich, one of Europe’s top science and technology institutions. “It’s not about Chanel recovering her waste to do Chanel,” Pavlovsky added. “It’s Chanel recovering waste from Chanel and from whoever on the market who is ready to sell us the waste to recreate new kind of materials.”
This collaborative spirit is rare in luxury fashion, where secrecy is often the norm. Yet, by pooling knowledge and resources, Nevold is unlocking scalable solutions that could benefit the entire industry. From small ateliers to global fashion houses, other brands can tap into this ecosystem, fast-tracking their sustainability goals without starting from scratch.
A Long-Term Vision Rooted in Legacy
Importantly, Nevold is not a short-term fix. It’s a bold, future-facing commitment that will take years, possibly decades, to fully realize. But Chanel is playing the long game. “It’s not about saying 50% of our materials will be recycled tomorrow,” Pavlovsky emphasizes. “What’s mandatory at Chanel is to create a dream. Nevold gives us the ability to continue doing that, because if we don’t try now, we’ll never be ready for what comes next.”
This approach aligns with Chanel’s wider climate goals under its Mission 1.5° initiative. The brand aims to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2040. Nevold is critical to that mission, offering new ways to reduce dependency on virgin materials, cut energy use, and eliminate waste from the production process.
By redefining luxury from the inside out, Nevold positions Chanel—and the wider industry—for a more sustainable future. Not just by preserving craftsmanship, but by ensuring it can endure.
Featured image: Chanel
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