Hurstel, former president of the US branch of show organiser EurovetFashionNetwork.com

The Arianee consortium was co-founded by Hurstel with Frédéric Montagnon, ​Julien Romanetto, Alexandre Cognard and Luc Jodet in February 2019, and is aiming to attract fashion labels to its independent blockchain.

Since 2017, when Hurstel set up Remode – a worldwide conference series on sustainability challenges – he has become aware of the “major survival issues facing brands,” and of questions such as “how can we make products that are better and more responsible?” and “can we improve the sustainability of our entire value chain?”

“As brands aim to address the twin challenges of operating sustainably and deploying an omni-channel strategy, I’m convinced that technology and innovation will enable them to achieve their goals, and enjoy sustainable growth and sustained success,” said Hurstel. According to him, “such innovations must be introduced end-to-end across the whole [value] chain, from thread [production] to the final consumer.”

Initially, these innovations were only a basis for implementation strategies, but Hurstel says that “they are now being internalised by the majority of labels, which are working on sustainability and traceability because they know that environmental impact measurement and coefficients will become mandatory, and that digital product passports are coming.”

Hurstel thinks that fashion and luxury companies are currently better equipped to grow within the Web3 digital ecosystem, but they still need to address a number of challenges.