YORK – In our latest podcast, host Philip Berman is joined by Ashley Gill, chief strategy officer at Textile Exchange, and in a first for Ecotextile Talks, a working farmer, Frans Van Hasselt, from Frances VH Mohair, who’s active at the heart of South Africa’s mohair industry.
They enjoy a wide-ranging discussion on the challenges associated with the local production of luxury fibres for the high-end fashion industry and the role that Textile Exchange plays in connecting small producers to the global supply chain through its Responsible Mohair Standard.
We hear how Van Hasselt, who is involved in everything, from farming her family land that is home to 7,000 Angora goats, to landing high-end fashion deals.
With South Africa acting as a global hub for the production and processing of mohair, the fibre made from the hair of the Angora goat, Van Hasselt discusses how her work with Textile Exchange provides the industry with a platform to engage with the global supply chain and crucially, brands and retailers.
“Everybody is looking for long-term partnerships in which they trust,” she tells Berman.
“Textile Exchange provided us with a platform and for the first time allowed for land level actors and tier four producers to be included in the conversations, setting these standards, setting these policies.
“It didn’t change the way that we produce, you have to produce responsibly in the way that we farm. But it gave clarity as to what we do and to define what responsible practices are.”
Gill agrees, telling Berman that without these types of standards, the landscape can be very difficult to navigate for suppliers and for producers. “Textile Exchange aimed really to not just create a kind of convening line among brands and retailers, but to set that up against the reality of production at tier four, and to bring those voices into the room.”
