The highly innovative material science company Ambercycle and BESTSELLER share a mission: To transform worn-out clothing into a resource with the greatest possible value.

Specialised in recycling polyester – with virgin polyester usually dependent on petroleum-based resources – Ambercycle’s material cycora® is nothing less than a regenerated alternative to conventional polyester. This means that Ambercycle converts worn-out textiles from consumers and industrial waste into a new innovative material.

“We are very focused on accelerating the enormous opportunity of enabling circularity in the fashion industry. We see textile-to-textile regeneration as one of the most impactful actions the industry can take toward decarbonisation and are grateful for like-minded, supportive partners like BESTSELLER who operate with a long-term focus on circularity,” says Shay Sethi, CEO and co-founder, Ambercycle.

Through BESTSELLER’s investment arm, Invest FWD, the Danish fashion group invested in LA-based Ambercycle early on.

“Companies like ours, with ambitious sustainability targets and commitments, must continuously support textile-to-textile recycling innovation to make it an everyday reality. Ambercycle has a technology that is quite unique, using molecular regeneration which is less dependent on energy compared to other recycling processes,” says Camilla Skjønning Jørgensen, BESTSELLER’s Innovation Manager.

“With their ongoing focus on the integral systemic shift, which BESTSELLER also works for, Ambercycle isn’t just an obvious investment case. They’re also a long-term business partner. Simultaneously, the high quality of cycora® definitely matches pristine virgin materials, which the new SELECTED FEMME garment is a prime example of.”

Remarkable innovation

As one of the first fashion brands, SELECTED FEMME/HOMME has created a limited-edition cycora® dress.

Working with fibre innovation is nothing new to SELECTED. Over the past years, several innovative fibres have been introduced to the brand’s collections – spearheaded by Louise Lund, Sustainability Manager at SELECTED FEMME/HOMME. Now cycora® regenerated polyester has become the latest addition to SELECTED’s fibre selection.

“Cycora® is a truly remarkable innovation. It solves a worldwide waste issue by preventing used clothes from ending in landfills and bringing them into a circular system. This will be key in the future of fashion, and we are proud to be among the first brands to bring this solution to the European market and make it available to shoppers,” Louise Lund comments and continues:

“Circularity has been a key focus for SELECTED for years. We have been educating our designers on designing for circularity – like how we can make garments last longer and promote recyclability. But design is one thing. Using versatile materials with a lower footprint is another way to make a change, and for that we need great innovators like Ambercycle.”

Limited-edition summer dress

The new limited-edition SELECTED FEMME garment, a printed dress made with 50% cycora® mixed with 50% recycled polyester, will be available on SELECTED’s webshop and in select retail stores in Denmark on 13 July.