Interview
French start-up Losanje, founded by Simon Peyronnaud and Mathieu Khouri, winner of the ANDAM 2025 Fashion Innovation Award, established itself as a key player in textile upcycling. Thanks to its proprietary technology and an integrated approach, Losanje succeeded in making upcycling economically viable and, ultimately, scalable.
A year after our last meeting, we asked Simon Peyronnaud and Mathieu Khouri six questions to take stock of their strategy, their industrial ambitions and their role in structuring the EPR textile sector.
Many companies involved in textile recycling have not yet found their business model. How does Losanje manage to industrialise such a traditional practice as upcycling?
That’s a good question. To be profitable, upcycling must meet two conditions: it must be economically relevant for brands and environmentally sound on an industrial scale. At Losanje, we have developed a global approach: we don’t just produce, we support brands along the entire chain. Our design team works closely with clients, with the support of our design office, to design bespoke products tailored to their upcycling project. We also support them in identifying the most relevant stocks.
Upcycling creates a triple value: an economic one, by giving a new lease of life to unsold, defective or used products; an environmentally friendly one, with a process without direct emissions; and a narrative one, because each garment tells a unique story. A good example is our capsule collection with Paris Basketball, which consists of old shirts that have been transformed into lifestyle sportswear. The result was that a range of T-shirts and shorts sold out in just one week.
Is your model more technology-based, manufacturing-based, or service-based? And how far do you want to go?
Our value is based primarily on the use of our own technology. We have automated a significant part of the process – the cutting – and can thus significantly reduce the unit costs. As a result, the cost price of our upcycled products is comparable to that of traditional channels.
What really sets us apart, in my opinion, is our systemic approach. There are two possible scenarios: either a brand already has stock that needs to be re-evaluated, or it has no material and we then source the appropriate products for it, often from sorting centres.
In both cases, our design office is at the heart of the process: sourcing, selecting materials, design, pattern making, starting the cutting in our own factory, then assembly by partner workshops in France or in Europe. This comprehensive support explains our leading position.
How can we standardise products made from varying materials, while ensuring industrial consistency?
It’s a technical challenge that we have taken on – and that we also see as a competitive advantage. Through upcycling, we can create products with a strong message that stand out in a saturated market. These pieces tell a story: that of transforming unsold or used clothing into unique creations.
At an industrial level, we adapt: if clients supply their own stocks, we work with a homogeneous material, which guarantees standardised production. For second-hand warehouses, we carry out targeted sourcing of large quantities via our dedicated team. Today, we have developed efficient lines for materials such as T-shirts, sweatshirts, jerseys and denim. As a result, we are able to offer consistent references in large quantities, while reducing the carbon footprint by up to 95 percent.
What does the ANDAM Innovation Award mean for you? And what are your short-term investment priorities?
This award comes at a strategic time. We are currently closing a new round of financing, which follows on from the one in 2023. This award will enable us to move forward faster in three key areas:
- R&D and automation: perfecting our cutting lines, developing new modules, expanding our software solutions.
- Industrialisation: we will soon be moving to a factory twice as large to expand our production.
- Team building: we are hiring for various positions – sales, project management, modelling, etc.
The Andam award also represents a real recognition from the fashion and ready-to-wear industry for us, in front of an exceptional jury, which is also convinced from the outset that upcycling can be “the next big thing in fashion”.
Where are you in your collaboration with major fashion and luxury brands? What volumes do you handle?
We are already working with several luxury brands in quantities of 5,000 to 50,000 pieces. These projects will be launched between the end of 2025 and 2026 with the spring/summer 2026 or autumn/winter 2025 collections. Our model has made it possible to remove the technical and economic obstacles to the introduction of upcycling. The real challenge today is still to convince the creative teams. You have to show them that upcycling is not a constraint, but a real artistic lever. We are convinced that every brand will have an upcycling corner in store in the short term. Perhaps in a different form, with different names or business models, but Losanje will be there to build this new standard together with them.
Losanje also seems keen to play a role in structuring the textile EPR sector. However, the specifications for the textile EPR sector will be completely revised by 2026, with a clear objective: to relocate the collection, sorting, and recycling of textile waste, while supporting innovative industrial infrastructure. What is your position on this issue?
Our aim is to play a structuring role in the textile EPR value chain. Upcycling is an emerging sector that has now reached a certain level of maturity. With the commissioning of our first factory, we can already reuse several hundred tonnes per year, with the capacity to increase to several ten thousand tonnes.
One of the biggest advantages is that there are no restrictions on the composition of the materials. Unlike some recycling technologies, upcycling enables the recovery of heterogeneous deposits. Two second-hand jeans can be transformed into a high-quality jacket, the environmental impact of which is close to that of second-hand jeans.
However, for the sector to develop fully, we need to work together on the issues of sorting, eco-modulation, labelling and the regulatory framework. This work has already begun with ADEME [the French Agency for Ecological Transition, ed.], France 2030 [a 54 billion euro investment programme launched in 2021,ed.] and in collaboration with the Circular Fashion Federation.
We are ready to build a solid sector that is both economically efficient and environmentally exemplary.
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