The story behind World Collective and its DPP-Ready Textile Library

“Our goal is to create an ecosystem, not simply a fabric marketplace,” Jeanine Ballone, co-founder and CEO of World Collective explains when asked what her mission is. Ballone launched the digital sourcing platform in 2022 after years of working across what she described as a fragmented and relatively outdated global supply chain. To address these issues, Ballone sought to create a centralised, democratised and inclusive materials library designed to inform and support brands of all sizes.

It was imperative for Ballone that World Collective went beyond sustainability alone. During her time building supply chains from the ground up, specifically at companies like PVH and Germany’s Otto Group, the exec witnessed overused and undervalued systems dominated by huge brands that still lacked the necessary infrastructure to back scalability. “There was no central ecosystem where suppliers, brands, and creatives could connect, share information, and discover opportunities,” Ballone reflects.

A joint infrastructure and SME accessibility

World Collective was therefore established to serve not only as a marketplace, but as a storefront for suppliers, housing materials, innovation, and knowledge under one roof. This was then opened up to brands, many of which didn’t have the resources to access innovative materials due to the minimum order quantities required to source them. In response, World Collective built a demand aggregation platform enabling even SMEs to get involved.

Ballone explains: “A small brand in Japan may only need 25 kilograms, while another brand in Amsterdam may need a similar amount. Together they can reach the supplier's minimum requirement and gain access to materials that would otherwise be unavailable.”

The platform’s launch came amid an industry under pressure, with many brands now operated by reduced teams and, in turn, narrower bandwidths to manage sourcing complexities. As a result, Ballone says she has seen a strong demand for tools that remove friction.

Her vision was shared by other industry leaders who joined in building up the World Collective’s foundations. Julie Tran, who now serves as chief growth officer, has applied her 24-years of experience across workforce management, technology and business operations to the role. After questioning why innovative materials were failing to scale, Tran was drawn to World Collective’s mission and asked to join the team. “What has remained constant is our focus on materials innovation, accessibility, and creating process efficiencies that help brands make better decisions,” she says.

‘We don’t dictate what sustainability means for a brand…’

To ensure consistent quality, all suppliers are vetted and curated with an emphasis on innovation and natural fibres. “We don’t dictate what sustainability means for a brand,” Ballone explains. “Instead, we provide the tools and search criteria that allow brands to make informed decisions based on certifications, standards, and values that matter to them. For example, users can search based on certifications such as Oeko-Tex or Bluesign and identify materials that align with their requirements.”

Such information has become even more integral ahead of incoming EPR regulations, just one definitive factor dictating an industry speedily moving towards regulated transparency and brand accountability. To get ahead of the curve, World Collective has been exploring the idea of a compliance-ready textiles library made up of supplier-level data specifically designed to cater to Digital Product Passport (DPP) laws.

A pilot of the DPP-Ready Library launched for a set period last month alongside DPP infrastructure firm Kinset, initially spotlighting nine certified materials from three suppliers, each displaying information spanning composition to compliance to handling. After initial testing, the library has been put on pause as it moves into its next iteration, with additional materials expected to roll out further into its timeline.

Balancing compliance and regulatory burden

The pilot was a reflection of a long-standing belief of World Collective’s team: that material information should be captured at supplier level and travel with the product through its lifespan. The creation of a supplier-first infrastructure intends to balance out the burden of compliance so that responsibility doesn’t rest entirely on brands.

Despite the library launching prior to DPP regulations being set in stone, Ballone said she could already see where the industry was headed, and so the early introduction was a no-brainer. The mission is to disrupt a currently dysfunctional compliance system, marred by an industry that “keeps pushing responsibility downstream to suppliers without creating the support structures they need”.

The library therefore aims to make the process more efficient, allowing suppliers to maintain more control over their information, adjusting it in one place and approving brand access when needed.

From a brand perspective, Tran also notes benefits, specifically that in the present day these companies are being run by individuals who aren’t necessarily experts in regulatory frameworks. She explains: “Their priority is building products and growing their businesses, not studying global compliance frameworks. We remove that complexity by giving them access to vetted materials and DPP-ready information. That makes it easier for them to build responsibly without needing to become compliance experts.”

While much of World Collective is about accessibility, challenges in the current marketplace also extend to larger brands. To address this, the platform is currently working with brands of this scale on pilot projects targeting specific material categories. The process begins at the design stage, during which teams are aided in the identification of materials that meet their criteria. They are then supported through sampling, sourcing, manufacturing, DPP integration, and impact reporting.

‘We’re building roads, not just vehicles…’

“Better informed businesses tend to produce better products,” Ballone notes. “One of the biggest reasons innovative materials fail is that stakeholders don't have all the information upfront. By providing visibility into costs, impact metrics, certifications, and sourcing requirements early in the process, we increase the likelihood that those materials make it to market.”

As World Collective develops, so too will its features, with new technologies, such as mood boards and metric comparisons, currently being developed to make sourcing through the platform even more intuitive. Future initiatives will also look to support artisan-led and women-led programmes around the world, giving them access to brands through digital storefronts.

All of this contributes to the company’s vision of a future fashion supply chain defined by more visibility and greater business control. Brands, meanwhile, would be able to bring their existing supply chains into the platform, and use it as a sourcing and decision-making hub. “The goal is simple: give people better information so they can make better decisions. When sourcing, compliance, pricing, and impact reporting all exist in one place, decision-making becomes much easier,” Ballone says.

In the end, it is all about infrastructure for World Collective. “We’re building roads, not just vehicles,” Ballone concludes. “We don’t need to be the middleman. We simply want to provide the infrastructure that allows everyone to connect, communicate, and transact more effectively.”