Annie Gullingsrud
Director of Fashion and Textiles | Fashion Positive
Annie Gullingsrud has progressive experience in Fashion Design and Sustainability and Marketing Communications and has worked as a sustainability director, consultant, writer and designer.
After several years of working in marketing and advertising agencies, Gullingsrud went back to school to study fashion design at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She was introduced to sustainability principles for fashion in her sophomore year, and the application of these principles brought deep meaning, purpose, and richness to her practice and design. The introduction to Cradle to Cradle design principles and methodology brought optimism, joy, and the perfect solution. She had found her path.
Gullingsrud has studied natural dyeing and weaving with local artisans in Guatemala; worked as a fashion designer at a sustainably run factory in Madhya Pradesh, India; and has developed a process of cutting and patterning that eliminates pattern-cut waste. Gullingsrud has consulted for Gap Inc.’s Corporate Social Responsibility Department along with providing sustainability education to Swedish companies through the textile association TEKO. Gullingsrud’s first book, Fashion Fibers: Designing for Sustainability, was released in January 2016 by Bloomsbury New York. The book provides a holistic overview of the benefits and environmental impacts of fibers at each stage of a garment or product’s lifecycle, and offers suggestions, guidance and design exercises on how to design around or reduce them.
Currently the Director of the Fashion and Textiles Sector at the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, Gullingsrud leads the globally-focused Fashion Positive Initiative leading apparel companies and suppliers in developing Cradle to Cradle Certified circular materials for the fashion industry.
