& Other Stories’ latest summer drop wasn’t just ocean-inspired—it was sourced from the sea.
The H&M Group-owned label has teamed up with Keel Labs on a beachy, boho crocheted set made from Kelsun, the material innovator’s seaweed-derived fiber, for 2025.
“We continuously seek new technologies and materials to evolve our designs. For us, fashion and innovation are intertwined,” said Cecilia McNeil, & Other Stories head of sustainability.
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The plastic-free, bio-based material was the perfect canvas for the brand’s designer, Frida Billegren, who said she wanted to create pieces that highlighted the organic shapes and “fluid beauty” of sea life, pointing to anemones as an example.
What resulted from that vision was a cream, cropped, crocheted boat-neck top with long flared sleeves and an open knit design featuring floral motifs. The semi-sheer, breezy finish complements a tie-front skirt made from the same material—70 percent cotton and 30 percent Kelsun.
“Wear the pieces as a set or style casually as summer separates, they are soft, relaxed, and kind,” she said. “Using the natural color of the fiber also felt essential, no dying techniques were used; the set is presented in its purity. These pieces remain true to nature, blending seaweed fiber with organic cotton for both softness and strength.”
Keel Labs co-founder and CEO Aleks Gosiewski called Kelsun a “unique fiber, completely free from plastics.”
“Its versatility allows seamless blending with other natural materials, enhancing both softness and durability,” she added.
Founded as Algiknit in North Carolina in 2017 and rebranded Keel Labs in 2022, the materials science company has gained recognition from brands and the fashion sustainability sector at large in recent months as brands increasingly incorporate next-generation materials into their portfolios. The gains in traction throughout 2024 allowed Keel Labs to scale its production 10 times over, the firm said.
In October, Kelsun was deemed “Innovation of the Year” by Textile Exchange during its Climate and Nature Impact Awards. It also teamed up with California lifestyle label Outerknown for a reimagined version of its bestselling Blanket Shirt made with the seaweed-based fiber, and Stella McCartney featured Kelsun in her Spring-Summer 2025 collection, which debuted on the runway last fall.
H&M Group, no stranger to backing the industry’s future-facing environmental pioneers, has made news of its own recently. In June, the company inked a deal with fiber-to-fiber recycler Circulose (née Renewcell) to source a substantial segment of its man-made cellulosic fiber intake from the fellow Swedish firm. Circulose uses discarded textiles as a feedstock, creating a proprietary dissolving that is used as the base for viscose, lyocell and modal.
