Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are doubling down on their commitment to fashion.
As The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports, the Bezos Earth Fund awarded $34 million in grants to institutions studying and developing materials that might someday replace polyester and cotton—the world’s most popular textiles and among the most reliant on natural resources. Researchers are creating biodegradable textile fiber and plastic-free synthetic silk, among other alternatives, that are costly to produce but could reduce the climate impact of the clothing industry.
As the Fund posted on LinkedIn, “this funding will go to teams of scientists and researchers across the United States who are re-inventing the fabrics that clothes are made of by developing next-generation materials that look and feel like today’s rayon, silk, and cotton. We believe in the power of “and” over “or” and the work these teams are doing has the potential to make sustainable clothing choices easy, widely available, and ultimately better for the planet. Thank you to the teams at Columbia University, Fashion Institute of Technology, National Cotton Council of America, Clemson University, and University of California, Berkeley who are spearheading this amazing science. We’re so excited to work together!”
“When you start asking questions about what clothes could be made of, the answers are incredible,” Sánchez Bezos, the foundation’s vice chair, told The Wall Street Journal in a statement. “We’re investing in the scientists changing what fabric is actually made from. The future of fashion is being invented right now. We’re just supporting the people doing it.”
In addition to funding these grants through their foundation, separately, the pair is leading the sponsorship of this year’s upcoming Met Gala, with a donation that supports both the event and an associated fashion exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their donation supports both the event and a new fashion exhibit opening to the public in May.
Learn more here: https://bit.ly/42qoKqH.
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