"After graduating with a degree in biology, I went on to do a master's in sustainable business and innovation, and it was during my end-of-studies internship with an NGO in India that the idea clicked: to create a sustainable fashion clothing brand with local producers." For Debbie Kirsch, 30, creating her own brand Devï was an obvious choice six years ago. Today, the young Luxembourger works with more than 100 artisans in India, Morocco and Turkey.

"I go there for two or three months a year, live with them and look at their working conditions. The aim is not the clothes themselves, but their impact and their story. We are 100% recycling, we don't make new fabrics, there are so many of them already", she insists. The brand sells more than 3,000 items a year, and the aim over the next few years is to expand into other countries, such as the United States, Germany and the Netherlands.

Read all 100 #Nextgen portraits in Paperjam’s October 2024