Good Morning,
and great to have you join us for the Weekly Debrief for week 20 of 2021. We got the latest from the world of plant-based business, food, fashion, travel, and lifestyle, curated and contextualized for you.
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This week, we got Drake memes, billions of dollars for oat milk, luxury fashion going fur-free and a sofa made of old jeans.
The Oatly IPO is here and the Hype is on
It happened: Swedish oat milk brand Oatly has been listed on the stock market this week. With a listing price of $22.12 at the end of the first day of trading (an increase of almost 25%), Oatly can now look forward to a company valuation of around $13 billion.
This piece in the New York Times came out only days before and is well worth a read.
Daring Chicken raises $40 m Series B
Part of “the new wave” of plant-based meat, according to CEO Ross Mackay, the vegan chicken company has a focus on the nutritional value of their products; high in protein, low in calories and non-GMO.
Also, Canadian rapper Drake joined the recent funding round as a backer, which is why we jumped at the chance to illustrate this news with the most obvious meme idea in the history of the internet. You will just have to deal with it.
Lab-grown Meat Firms are Thriving
Interesting read in the Guardian by author Damian Carrington, discussing how lab-grown meat companies have been attracting a sixfold increase in investment. “Funding soared in 2020, while study shows 80% of people are open to eating meat grown in bioreactors.” Alright, then!
Valentino goes Fur-Free
Moving towards becoming a more ethical, environmentally-friendly brand, Italian Luxury fashion house Valentino has pledged to go fur-free until 2022 — and is joining an ever growing list of fashion brands committing to stay away from fur.
Even though the fur industry has been fighting back for years, painting vegan alternatives as “unnatural” and bad for the environment, the numbers speak for themselves — and it’s time for fashion to adapt.
So… can we talk about leather next?
Ikea x Mud Jeans
Dutch ethical fashion brand Mud Jeans joins forces with Swedish furniture multi Ikea “to expand our positive impact beyond the fashion industry”. “At Ikea, we are transforming into a circular business,” says Piotr Jakubiak, Deployment Leader at Ikea, and this collab is one cool piece of PR work to illustrate it.
So if you’re in the market for a sofa cover made from recycled and organic cotton jeans fabric, have at it!
New Virtual Sustainable Fashion Network Launches
In collaboration with the UN office for Partnerships, the new initiative is aptly named The Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle Network and has been created in support of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. The website allows industry stakeholders (brands, retailers, manufacturers, governments and NGOs) to share sustainable solutions and report progress. Find out more here.
Last but not Least:
If you’re in Paris and didn’t get the memo: It’s going down!
Our fav shoe brand in the world, Virón, has partnered up with our favorite concept store in the world, Aujourd-Hui Demain, for a very special pop-up. Get served techno and vegan empanadas while shopping with a hefty discount on samples and last sizes from the Virón catalogue.
We wish we could be there just for the ballsy window display. Marché Virón!
132 Rue de Turenne, 75003 Paris
11:00 – 20:00
Events:
“Techno & Empanadas”
May 22, 16:00 – 20:00
“House & Sweets”
May 23, 12:00 – 16:00
As always, thanks for reading and have a great weekend. Read you next week!
Yours truly,
Eric Mirbach
(Editor in Chief)
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Curated, selected and contextualized for you by the Antagonist editorial team.
