Suzy Amis Cameron Redefines Sustainable Fashion & Innovation

PARIS — If you’ve followed Suzy Amis Cameron’s work as an early pioneer in sustainable fashion, you know her journey began with Red Carpet Green Dress, the campaign that put eco-conscious design on the map, proving that elegance and ethics could coexist.

But RCGD had limits — it gained attention, but it couldn’t scale the systemic change Amis Cameron wanted.

“Certainly, Red Carpet Green Dress started a big conversation, but it wasn’t making huge impact. I was at this place in my life where I was like, something has to be done, and if there’s a way for me to do that, I will,” she told WWD.

That’s why she closed that chapter in March 2024 and founded the international holding company Inside Out.

Erik Stangvik, the former The Body Shop executive behind the beauty brand’s U.S. expansion, joined as managing partner, tasked with solidifying the structure of the company.

“The idea was to build a holding company that reimagines how business interacts with both people and the planet,” Amis Cameron said of the privately backed venture. Inside Out approaches fashion from a biological and psychological perspective, to create what she calls “healthy clothes.”

“Not only are we solution-oriented, we actually have solutions,” she said. “And they are lucrative.”

Matteo Ward, a former Abercrombie & Fitch executive who co-created the documentary series “Junk” about fast fashion and textile waste, came on board to lead the sustainable fashion, textiles and home vertical, and the company opened its European headquarters in Rome in May.

Inside Out now operates across six divisions including education, media, brand creation and consulting, all backed by cross-sector research and innovation. The company runs educational workshops for children and teens, produces documentaries exposing toxicity in fashion, invests in brands, and consults with global luxury names including Salvatore Ferragamo. Consulting clients pay an additional fee to fund educational programs, creating a feedback loop with the financial infrastructure to support growth.

Recent acquisitions include the children’s lifestyle brand The Simple Folk, which Inside Out is using as a flagship for its “evolution, not perfection” approach. The company doesn’t see sustainability as a box to be checked; instead it will document incremental improvements in its chemical management, natural-fiber use, and skin-compatible design. With women’s and kids knitwear already available, it is in development on menswear.

It also invested in London-based Sheep Inc., the colorful sweater company known for its use of regenerative wool and transparent supply chains, in March.

Inside Out isn’t just designing clothing for commerce, but instead is taking a research-to-retail approach, studying how textiles affect people at multiple levels, including skin health and age. “If you’re an architect of buildings, you wouldn’t build a hospital like you would a school,” said Ward. “Why do we treat textiles like one-size-fits-all?”

The company also emphasizes the psychological impact of clothing. Synthetic fibers like polyester currently dominate the apparel market but are often quickly discarded and end up in landfills. Amis Cameron and Ward believe this is partly due to how synthetic fibers affect how people feel, while natural fibers like wool and hemp foster comfort, attachment and well-being, they contended.

With several high-profile next-gen materials companies such as Bolt Threads facing structural challenges or bankruptcy, investment has cooled considerably. U.S. university research funding, meanwhile, is under political pressure and facing cuts.

“If you’re just inventing materials for the sake of inventing materials, that’s when I don’t see a lot of opportunity in that space,” said Ward.

Inside Out positions itself as a cross-sector incubator, using its holding company model to fund and commercialize innovations internally while reinvesting profits into science and education.

The company’s engineered cellulose material, which is still in the development stage, is a case in point. It can be grown in 3D to create custom shoes or personally designed handbags, for example.

“If you’re trying to substitute polyester with this material, it’s never going to work economically. The incentives are not there. But if you’re redefining the role of the product, and then you’re finding these materials the best ally to reinvent the wheel with fashion specifically, then absolutely there is,” he said.

The company applies the same purpose-based research elsewhere, such as a water-filtration system developed with MIT and Texas Tech that removes PFAS, better known as “forever chemicals,” from water, repurposing the waste as fertilizer. In fashion, polyester redirected from landfills is used for essential items like car seats or medical equipment, rather than recycled back into new fast-fashion garments.

“The entire conversation around responsible fashion was that if you had the right material and you had a good supply chain, ta-da, you got sustainable fashion done. But in reality, who needs another T-shirt, even if you’re using a better material?” Ward said.

The company is also studying if there are emotional and physical components to why polyester clothing is discarded quickly.

Teams including chemical scientists, psychologists and textile designers are mapping these reactions. “What we wear affects how we feel. It’s not just physical health, it’s psychological as well,” Ward said. He has been working with the European Commission to explore clothing labeling, similar to cigarettes.

“If you buy fast fashion, there should be a sign that said, ‘Be careful, these items can cause mental and physical harm,’” Ward claimed.

Looking ahead, Inside Out plans to expand chemical management protocols, explore new brand investments, and evolve its product design for both health and environmental impact.

“We have a North Star, and we continue to walk towards it to sustainability as a destination,” said Ward.

For Amis Cameron, the research is there and scale is achievable. “Sometimes it feels fantastical and magical and science fiction, but it’s not,” she said. “It works. And it’s huge business.”