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OneThread Africa

@onethread.africa

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Sustainable by tradition. Provable by data. Making African Fashion Sustainability Visible, Measurable + Verifiable.
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The sustainability industry has a language problem. And it might be stopping us from recognising the work already being done. 🧵🌍 We talk about circularity, traceability, responsible sourcing and transparency. But what happens when businesses are practising things they don't necessarily have the language to describe? A designer reuses fabric offcuts without calling it circularity. A manufacturer maintains relationships with local craftspeople without describing it as community engagement. These practices aren't automatically sustainable. But they deserve to be understood before they're evaluated. And the reverse is equally important: knowing the right terminology doesn't mean a business can substantiate its claims. At OneThread, we believe sustainability should be understood through the realities of how businesses operate, not just how well they speak the industry's language. In our latest article, founder Nyaniso Tutu-Burris explores the gap between sustainability vocabulary and practice, why context matters, and how we move from language to measurable evidence. If a business is doing the work but doesn't know the language, are we measuring its sustainability or its vocabulary? That's the question we're asking in our latest article. 📖 Read The Sustainability Industry Has a Language Problem on the OneThread blog. Then tell us: what sustainability practices do you think the industry is overlooking? 🔗 Full article at the link in our bio. #OneThread #SustainabilityIntelligence #AfricanFashion #SustainableFashion #FashionTech Transparency CircularFashion by @onethread.africa
🌍🧵 ICYMI: IN CASE YOU MISSED IT! Welcome to OneThread’s Weekend Roundup, where we catch you up on the latest developments in fashion, technology, sustainability and the regulations shaping the industry’s future. Here’s what you might have missed this weekend 👀 🇳🇬 Lagos Fashion Week brought African craftsmanship, circularity and the future of local fashion economies into focus. ♻️ Circular fashion on the runway: AJANÉÉ showcased how reconstructed denim and repurposed textiles can become something entirely new. 📲 Fashion meets technology: Prada’s use of NFC-enabled technology highlights how digital traceability is evolving beyond authentication towards richer product information. 🇪🇺 DPP Regulatory Watch: No newly identified textile-specific regulation this weekend, but preparations for the EU’s Digital Product Passport requirements continue. 💡 The bigger picture? From Lagos to Europe, the conversations shaping fashion’s future are increasingly about what happens behind the garment: the materials, the people, the processes and the information that connects them. At OneThread, we’re following these developments because building a more sustainable fashion industry requires more than good intentions. It requires accessible information, credible evidence and systems that work for different fashion ecosystems. Swipe through for your weekend catch-up. ➡️ Sustainable by tradition. Provable by data. #OneThread #ICYMI #FashionTech #AfricanFashion #SustainableFashion DigitalProductPassport CircularFashion FashionInnovation by @onethread.africa
Fashion carries stories. Some of them are written into the garments. Others are carried through generations, cultural knowledge and the identities we bring with us. For his @safashionweek debut, designer Dali Ngcebetsha (@endlessdawn_studio ) drew on his Xhosa heritage to explore metamorphosis, identity and the stories we choose to carry forward. Through butterflies, contemporary silhouettes and a deeply personal interpretation of the Xhosa rite of passage into manhood, Dali introduced himself to the fashion industry on his own terms. But this conversation goes beyond the runway. What does it mean to draw inspiration from your heritage while protecting what is sacred? How do we preserve cultural knowledge while allowing it to evolve? And what does sustainability look like when we consider not only what a garment is made from, but also the stories and identities it carries? In our latest feature, OneThread founder Nyaniso Tutu-Burris sits down with Dali to explore these questions and the importance of cultural sustainability in fashion. As Dali puts it: “I want people to remember the story. In its truest essence, I am a storyteller.” Read Beyond the Rainbow: Dali Ngcebetsha on Heritage, Metamorphosis and the Stories Fashion Carries on the OneThread website. #OneThread #BeyondTheRainbow #SouthAfricanFashion #AfricanFashion #CulturalSustainability SouthAfricanFashionWeek FashionStorytelling by @onethread.africa
Rock, paper, scissors. by @onethread.africa
Can you really judge a fashion brand’s sustainability by looking at its fabric? 👀 At @safashionweek , I found myself thinking about how quickly we judge a garment’s sustainability by the materials it uses. But what if we’re looking at only one part of a much bigger picture? Materials matter. Of course they do. But so do the people making our clothes, the waste generated during production, how long a garment lasts, the communities a brand supports, and whether the business can sustain its own practices. When I started researching African fashion and sustainability six years ago, I realised that we were asking brands to solve a much bigger problem with a very narrow definition of sustainability. For many emerging designers, choosing certain materials can come with real financial and practical constraints. And sustainability doesn’t stop at the fabric label. This is one of the reasons we built OneThread around 10 sustainability pillars. Because understanding a brand requires us to look beyond the garment and examine the decisions, systems and relationships behind it. We need a more nuanced conversation about what we’re expecting from brands, what sustainability looks like in practice, and how we help businesses strengthen what they’re already doing. So, what actually makes a fashion brand sustainable? And are we asking the right questions? I’ve unpacked this in our latest blog. Go read the full piece on the OneThread website. 🔗 Link in bio. Let’s move beyond judging the fabric and start understanding the whole system. Sustainable by tradition. Provable by data. #OneThread #SustainableFashion #AfricanFashion #FashionSustainability #CircularFashion Sustainability by @onethread.africa
African fashion needs sustainability and traceability infrastructure built around the environments it operates in. That’s what we’re building at OneThread Africa. Our story is in these slides. We’re early in the journey, and being shortlisted in *The Future of Our Planet* at the Investec ESEYs means a great deal. I’d love your support to help us reach the finals. Voting closes on Thursday 29 October. Vote link in the first comment. by @onethread.africa
Things on our platform that just make sense. A thread (lol) Individual product pages. Every product has its own space to document claims, evidence, and log entries. We are working on digital PRODUCT passports after all 🙂‍↕️ Achievement Badges. Verify a pillar, earn a badge. Complete all ten, earn the gold badge. Progress should feel rewarding. Flexible evidence uploads. Sometimes your evidence is a screenshot. Sometimes it's a voice note. We accept both. Load-shedding logs. Because sustainability documentation needs to work in the real world. And that includes Eskom. 🇿🇦 Private evidence library. Your uploaded docs arent visible to our team until you submit them for verification. We can only see what you actually give us access to see. by @onethread.africa
Africa has always had a sustainability story. What it needs is the infrastructure to prove it. 🌍 Across the continent, fashion brands are working with local materials, preserving cultural knowledge, supporting communities and finding creative ways to make more with less. But good practices alone aren’t always enough to access new markets. Brands increasingly need the evidence, documentation and transparency to demonstrate what they’re doing and meet evolving market expectations. That’s where OneThread comes in. We’re building sustainability intelligence infrastructure for African fashion brands, helping them document their practices, understand what they can prove, and work towards greater transparency and market readiness. Our approach recognises that sustainability doesn’t look the same everywhere. African fashion has its own contexts, knowledge systems and ways of creating value. Those realities deserve to be part of how sustainability is understood and documented. 🧡 ARE YOU AN AFRICAN FASHION BRAND? LET’S GET YOU STARTED. 👇 Comment ONETHREAD below, and we’ll send you an invitation to take the first step towards documenting your brand’s sustainability journey. Know a fashion brand that needs to see this? Tag the founder or share this post with them. We’re building the infrastructure for African fashion to prove its value to the world. And we’d love for your brand to be part of it. Sustainable by tradition. Provable by data. #OneThread #AfricanFashion #SustainableFashion #FashionTechnology #CircularFashion by @onethread.africa
3 More days! Public voting for the @investec ESEY Awards closes on 29 October at 11:59pm, so if you haven't already: please make your way to the voting page and give me a vote! (Direct voting link is on the @onethread.africa bio) @join.opus by @onethread.africa
A letter from our CEO! 📈 African fashion brands, manufacturers and sustainability leaders: how do you prove the impact of the work you’re already doing? From responsible sourcing and ethical production to traceability and transparency, sustainability requires more than good intentions. It requires the systems, data and evidence to demonstrate progress. At OneThread.Africa, we’re building sustainability infrastructure to help African fashion businesses understand their current practices, identify gaps and turn sustainability commitments into measurable progress. Our latest blog explores why the future of sustainable fashion depends on stronger systems, and why Africa must help shape them. Read more: https://www.onethread.africa/blog/the-future-of-our-planet-needs-more-than-solutions-it-needs-systems Sustainable by tradition. Provable by data. #OneThreadAfrica #SustainableFashion #AfricanFashion #FashionTechnology #SupplyChainTransparency by @onethread.africa
Once a Girl in Blue, always a Girl in Blue! 💙 Our very own Nyaniso Tutu-Burris (Class of 2014) is a Top 25 finalist in the Investec ESEYs — Future of Our Planet category! 🌍 Now she needs the Blue & White community behind her! 🗳️ SCS, LET’S GET VOTING! Head to the link in @onethread.africa’s bio, cast your vote and share with your friends, family and fellow girls in blue! ⏰ Voting closes 29 October. Every vote counts! #AlwaysAGirlInBlue #StCyprians #OneThreadAfrica #InvestecESEYs by @onethread.africa
We’re delighted to share that OneThread Africa has been shortlisted in The Future of Our Planet at the Investec ESEYs, powered by OPUS. We’re building towards a more sustainable future for African fashion, and we’re proud to see that mission recognised. Public voting is now open. We’d love your support: https://www.theeasies.com/vote Thank you to everyone backing the journey so far. @OPUS, #DayZero and @Investec #ESEY #OneThreadAfrica by @onethread.africa

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