The circular economy knows that clear eyes and full hearts can’t lose—and not only on football Fridays. To that end, Ambercycle pondered: “who better to bring circularity to the National Football League than Taylor Swift?”

For Swift’s debut football fit of the season, the self-described showgirl wore a dress made with trashed textiles.

More from Sourcing Journal

“We had no idea she’d be wearing it; our partners at Ganni sent over messages, and we were just ecstatic,” Nava Esmailizadeh, Ambercycle’s head of brand, told Sourcing Journal. “It was such a wonderful surprise—one of those moments that reminds you how collaboration and creativity can lead to something far bigger than you could ever plan.”

Donning a customized Ganni x Cycora dress from Paris Fashion Week—featuring the Kansas City Chiefs logo for fiancé Travis Kelce—Swift may have caught the textile-to-textile recycler by surprise, but ultimately reminded Ambercycle that “circular design doesn’t just look good—it always wins.”

“For us, it’s not only about seeing a celebrity wear Cycora, but about realizing that something that once lived in our lab—an idea to turn old clothing into new—is now part of global culture,” Esmailizadeh said. “The best innovations are the ones that make the change we need feel natural, even inevitable.”

The oversized league mini dress comprises 70 percent recycled polyester (aka Cycora) and 30 percent polyester, featuring a V-neckline and relaxed silhouette. The style, tagged $495, was designed with contrasting sleeve panels and an “08” graphic across the back, skirt and sleeves.

Seeing Cycora on one of the “world’s largest icons” felt deeply symbolic, Esmailizadeh said, perhaps representing “the beginning of the new culture our brand is intended to build.” While it is Ambercycle’s job to develop the innovation—to make materials like Cycora possible, per Esmailizadeh—it’s the creative partner’s (like Ganni) job to bring those innovations to life.

“This moment captures the very reason we’ve spent the past 10 years building what we have,” she continued. “We remember the early days when creating even one garment brought us so much joy, because it represented the possibility of a new system for fashion; one that could reimagine waste as the foundation for something beautiful and enduring.”

To that end, Swift’s Cycora sighting is something of a full-circle moment for Ambercycle; just less because of what happened and more so because of how.

“It’s about the entire ecosystem behind it: the technology, the partners, the people—the belief that fashion can exist in harmony with the planet,” Esmailizadeh said. “Moments like this don’t just remind us why the work matters—they help build that demand and prove we’re on the right track.”

Once off the track, friend and soon-to-be family member, Samantha Corum (married to Kelce’s cousin, Tanner) shared post-game fits to Instagram that revealed the revamp.

Per the post, the Ganni x Cycora dress—Taylor’s Version, mind you—replaced the Ganni logo with that of the Chiefs and, of course, swapped the “08” graphic out for the musician’s preferred number, 13. The “most thrilling” part, per Esmailizadeh, was that even with the tweaks, Cycora’s logo remained front and center.

“It’s a meaningful moment for us because it shows that materials become just as important a part of the story as the design itself—that circular fashion can live at the center of culture, not just behind the scenes,” she continued. “For years, sustainability has often been treated as something technical or invisible; seeing Cycora in a moment like this proves that circularity itself can drive the meaningful narrative that consumers care about.”

The varsity-style dress made its debut last September, during the Ganni S/S 2025 show at the Galerie Haute in the Palais de Tokyo—marking Ganni’s PFW debut—as part of the Fabrics of the Future program—thus reading, “Have a nice day, please recycle!” across the chest. At the time, Ganni described the collection as an “ode to individuality” that “revels in the interplay of contrasts—masculine and feminine; tailored and diaphanous; sophistication and playfulness; utilitarian and [actually] romantic.”

“We wanted to channel the Ganni woman’s intuitive confidence and dynamic energy— someone who is tuned in,” creative director Ditte Reffstrup said in a statement. “This collection is about courage, empowerment and connection—pushing our boundaries across both design and innovation. My heart beats the most for responsible fabrications; our Fabrics of the Future program feels like magic.”

To back up a bit: Cycora is part of Ganni’s Fabrics of the Future program—set up in 2019 to research, test and eventually scale innovative materials that can “challenge conventional material methods, paving the way for the future of fashion,” per the Danish label. The innovation lab is, effectively, Ganni’s primary way to “champion radical new technologies that rethink the way materials are made.”

And, given that Ambercycle’s recycled polyester is made from post-industrial and post-consumption waste, Cycora stood out. So much so that, at the end of 2024, Ganni signed a four-year offtake agreement with Ambercycle to secure the consistent use of Cycora.

Cycora employs a molecular regeneration technology—its proprietary “Ambercycling” process—that atomically separates and purifies post-consumer waste to produce regenerated polyester. The resulting material has quality on par with its virgin counterpart, but releases fewer greenhouse gas emissions; the Reformation partner previously estimated that Cycora offset nearly half the emissions associated with virgin polyester production.

However, Esmailizadeh pointed out, the goal of scaling isn’t to simply produce more of its material—which, for what it’s worth, was named a Time’s Best Inventions of 2024.

“Our goal to multiply our impact, creating real demand for circular materials that displace the need for virgin ones,” she continued. “Our community and partners have all been so excited about it—because it’s not just a win for us, it’s a win for the entire industry. It shows how collaboration, creativity and innovation can come together to push circularity into the mainstream.”

Ganni’s founder agreed, noting such arrangements are “vital to scaling innovative materials and reducing the fashion industry’s carbon footprint,” Nicolaj Reffstrup said. “There’s an urgent need to support innovators and drive long-term collaboration while holding ourselves accountable for transitioning to better material choices.”