Episode 306: An Inspiring Chat with Nicolas Prophte About the Denim Industry
This Blue Cast episode, Tuncay Kilickan talks with industry pioneer Nicolas Prophte. They catch up on highlights from Nicolas Prophte’s career and talk about where the denim industry is heading in 2023 and beyond.
Nicolas Prophte, as head of PVH’s denim center, drives innovation across the fashion house’s brands, including Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. In March 2022, under Prophte’s oversight, Tommy Jeans debuted its first collection that follows Ellen MacArthur’s Jeans Redesign guidelines, made with 100 percent organic cotton fabric. To date, Tommy Hilfiger has trained more than 80 percent of its designers on circular design principles and launched Tommy for Life, its first circular business model. Under the Tommy for Life program, the company takes back items from customers and partners and cleans, repairs and resells them, keeping products in use longer.
In the face of false information, Prophte said PVH needed to “be cautious and very careful that everything we claim has to be bulletproof.” He has taken stands against both greenwashing, which encompasses false claims about sustainability made to the public, as well as bluewashing, where mills entice brands with sustainability claims that they can’t back up.
Prophte is hoping to extend the sustainability conversation across brands. In July, PVH’s European division signed the Dutch Denim Deal, an industry collaboration initiative for sustainable denim launched by the Dutch government. Within the deal, the signatories will work collectively to foster supply and use of high-grade recycled cotton fibers in denim. The main targets are to produce collectively a total of 3 million pieces containing a minimum of 20 percent post-consumer recycled cotton by the end of 2023.
Listen here.