Upcycler MARTAN wins

Global Fashion Agenda has named Amsterdam label MARTAN among the 15 winners of Recycle the Runway 2026. (globalfashionagenda.org) The winners were announced April 13 by Global Fashion Agenda and Visa as part of Visa Young Creators: Recycle the Runway, a program for emerging designers working on circular fashion. Five of the 15 winners were also named prize winners and will each receive 10,000 euros, a place at Global Fashion Summit: Copenhagen Edition 2026, mentorship and product-development support. (globalfashionagenda.org) One of those five prize winners will be picked as the grand prize winner at Global Fashion Summit on May 6 and receive an additional 10,000 euros. Global Fashion Agenda said the 15 winners were selected by a jury that included Gemma Styles, Vogue’s Laura Ingham, eBay executive Kirsty Keoghan, British Fashion Council executive Shailja Dubé and Visa Europe executive Philip Konopik. (globalfashionagenda.org) “Circular” fashion usually means keeping textiles in use longer through repair, resale, recycling or reuse instead of making clothes from new raw material. MARTAN’s model centers on upcycling, which means turning discarded fabric into new garments rather than sending it to waste streams. (globalfashionagenda.org) (martan-official.com) MARTAN says it makes clothing from waste textiles from the luxury hotel industry, including bed and table linen that hotels discard over small stains or holes. Product pages on the brand’s site describe shirts, tops and overshirts cut from linen sourced from Amsterdam luxury hotels. (martan-official.com 1) (martan-official.com 2) (martan-official.com 3) The label is not new to the fashion-week circuit. Amsterdam Fashion Week says MARTAN showed its Spring-Summer 2024 and Spring-Summer 2025 collections on the official schedule, and Copenhagen Fashion Week included MARTAN in its Autumn-Winter 2025 official brand line-up. (amsterdamfashionweek.nl 1) (amsterdamfashionweek.nl 2) (copenhagenfashionweek.com) Paris Fashion Week’s organizer, the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, runs SPHERE showrooms for emerging brands during the official calendar, underscoring how support programs and trade platforms are becoming part of the route for younger labels seeking buyers and press. MARTAN has framed its own work as sitting between ready-to-wear, art and sustainability as it pushes beyond the Dutch market. (fhcm.paris) (martan-official.com) For MARTAN, the win adds funding, industry access and another international stamp of approval to a business built around fabric that most hotels would throw away. The next milestone is May 6 in Copenhagen, when Global Fashion Agenda names the grand prize winner. (globalfashionagenda.org)