Stephanie Benedetto is leading the industry in circular fashion as the co-founder of Queen of Raw, an award-winning software that takes action on excess inventory, measures, and reports, and turns pollution into profit. This week, Benedetto joins a CFDA webinar on designing with deadstock to share her insights on the current landscape of this market and the opportunities and benefits of working with excess fabric.
What prompted you to start your business, Queen of Raw?
I had a factory and saw firsthand the massive amount of waste and breaks in complex supply chains. There are valuable resources sitting in warehouses collecting dust or being burned or sent for combustion. And organizations all over the world are looking for access to these materials. I realized this is just a supply-demand mismatch and we could use technology to bridge the gap, across industries and around the world. I left my job as a Wall Street attorney to tackle the problem head on and to build a solution for people, planet, and profit!
Can all brands (big or small) begin using deadstock as part of their design practices?
There is no company too big or too small to take advantage of integrating rescued fabrics into their designs – or to sell excess inventory that is no longer needed. We have large enterprise clients with millions of meters of high-quality materials which match well with other large brands looking to create entire deadstock collections. And we have smaller designers looking to create limited edition deadstock pieces but can’t commit to large, expensive orders.
Leveraging our proprietary software, Materia MX, they can get access to what they need, when they need it and drive the project from start to finish!
Realizing that all change is good change, we also offer a more basic membership in our software and network for smaller businesses who are looking to sell or purchase excess inventory but don’t need comprehensive ESG reporting or global supply chain integrations and inventory management.
