Every piece of clothing has an end – but what happens after that? Most textiles end up as non-recyclable waste in incinerators or landfills. The reason: mixed materials, plastic, synthetic dyes. With CHARLE, I am pursuing a different path: 100% recyclable elastic bands , free of plastic, made from natural fibres. What we take from the earth should be able to return to it – without leaving any residue. Because recyclability is not a trend. It is the only future for a fashion industry that truly wants to be sustainable. In this article, I show why half-measures are not enough – and what we need to do differently if fashion is to become part of nature.

Sustainable fashion is on everyone's lips. Almost every label now has a green line, uses organic cotton or advertises with recycled materials. But what is really behind it? What good is the best cotton if plastic threads are invisibly woven into it? In this article, I explain why true sustainability doesn't start with fabrics – but with uncomfortable questions. I take you on my journey as a bridge builder in the fashion industry, as someone who never stops thinking ahead. Because real change doesn't come from trends – it comes from attitude.

As the founder of CHARLE, I didn't just design sustainable children's fashion – I also asked the seemingly simple question: ‘What's actually in elastic?’ The answer was shocking: plastic. But instead of giving up, I developed the world's first plastic-free elastic – and inspired an entire industry in the process.

We wanted to find out whether our elastic straps made from natural materials completely degrade in the soil within a year - a decisive criterion for compostability. To do this, we subjected one of our products to a comprehensive practical test. With the support of a worm farm in Austria, we were able to successfully carry out this test.

We have reason to celebrate – we have won two awards! Fairness First Award and Entrepreneur of the Future Award from the German Institute for Innovation for Sustainability and Digitalisation

Green Buddi Award - Logo --> GREEN BUDDY AWARD 2024 YEAH, we have won our first award. We won 3rd place in the "Retail" category for our commitment to sustainability, which we also

The cultivation of and the trade in natural rubber is not without its challenges of various kinds. The demand for the white gold is high, but the price is very low. So small, in fact, that the primary producers can barely make a living from it. We are lucky with our Malaysian supplier of natural rubber, as they already voluntarily take responsibility for their actions. Nevertheless, we go one step further and want to ensure that the farmers can make a good living from their work.

This news is worth a blog post for us, also because the initiator is one of our long-time customers. Australia wants to set the world's first commercial standard for composting textiles. This could make the country a pioneer for other countries to follow. Humus is created from textiles. A beautiful idea.

Since we often receive enquiries about how to process our elastics, we think it is an important step to make them available in the form of tutorials to anyone who is interested. Today we start with the tutorial on how to work with an elastic band in the visible area, which is worn directly on the skin.

Our first blog post is dedicated to a young designer who we find really great. With his intelligent and visionary final thesis, in which we were kindly allowed to accompany and support him, he has launched his own brand and has big plans beyond that. In an interview, we asked him, Frederico Badini Confalonieri, a few questions about this. Here we go!