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Interview Fashion United Marjolein Stormezand April 2019

Sustainability expert Franklin von Winckelmann:
“I want to be the connecting bridge between a company and supplier”

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Franklin von Winckelmann, designer and founder of the brand VonWinckelmann and expert in the field of sustainable development and production of textile related collections, has set foot on Dutch soil again after years of working abroad, from South America to South east Asia.
In collaboration with professional partners as Modint (branch association), the designer offers its CSR expertise to fashion and textile related companies.

The textile & clothing covenant is the starting point to emphasize this, but denitely not leading.

FashionUnited speaks to Franklin von Winckelmann by telephone about the new step in his sustainable career.

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“Companies are quickly put off by all the rules that the textile covenant must comply with. While every step in the sustainable direction is already a good one,” Franklin von Winckelmann says to the editor by telephone.

His plan is therefore to work as a ‘hands-on-builder’. According to the designer, this means building a intercultural bridge between companies and suppliers.

The designer is qualified as an eco designer in 2007.

He went through all stages of a sustainable production chain from the cultivation of an organic cotton plant in South America to the final consumer product.

“With this project in Paraguay I achieved the highest level of sustainability: the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). Seventy percent of how I work today from Indonesia is sustainable. For VonWinckelmann, as a small company it was easier to make the switch to sustainability. The bigger challenge lies with SMEs who are just not small enough to be able to switch quickly and not big enough to be able to use huge of budgets,” says the designer.

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After twelve years of experience and knowledge, the designer entrepreneur wants, in addition to continuing to carry out his own brand VonWinckelmann, to support companies making their production-chain more sustainable. “As a designer and founder of my own brand, I understand fashion and textile related companies very well. I emphasize the energy that is put into making the production-chain more sustainable must also pay off in terms of turnover and public attention.”

“Because if the new sustainable direction does not pay off, it wouldn’t make sense to be sustainable.”

Franklin von Winckelmann offers his expertise to members of Modint (branch association), government and non government organizations, recruitment agencies and as an independent CSR expert through his network and Clean and Unique (an organization that helps fashion companies and designers to implement sustainable solutions).

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