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In March, social entrepreneur Suzy Amis Cameron (whose husband is filmmaker James Cameron) launched a holding company with bold ambitions in fashion and beyond.
Co-signed by entrepreneur Erik Stangvik and former Deloitte partner Blair Knippel, Inside Out was positioned as a “wayfinding collective” designed to deliver “revolutionary solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges”, with Amis Cameron acting as founder and CEO. Its mission spreads across six key verticals: science research technology, fashion textiles and home, food, education, media, and wellness.
Just over six months in, the fashion textiles and home vertical — helmed by Vogue Business 100 Innovator and longtime sustainability consultant Matteo Ward — has already made two acquisitions: Wråd, the consulting studio Ward founded; and Sheep Inc., a UK-based wool brand focused on traceability. On Thursday, Inside Out unveiled the latest project: organic children’s and womenswear brand The Simple Folk.
To mark the occasion, Ward and Amis Cameron outline their shared vision for Inside Out, and how they plan to turn their blue-sky ambitions into reality.
Vogue: Why did you create Inside Out and what do you hope it will achieve?
Suzy: For years I’d been working across education, fashion and food, but these worlds were operating in silos. I wanted to bring them under one ecosystem that could align business agendas and the urgent needs of the planet. Inside Out was born from a simple realization. If we want lasting change, we have to redesign the systems that shape our daily lives, from the clothes we wear to the food we eat, the stories we tell and the way we nurture our families. Our objective is to improve the well-being of the world for generations we will never meet.
Vogue: You’re operating across sectors, but how does Inside Out plan to create sustainable change in the fashion industry specifically?
Matteo: Every day, we walk into work aware of the fact that nobody needs another pair of jeans or another T-shirt, but we all need better brands and better systems built around them, to fashion better habits and better habitats.
It’s beyond materials — it’s about redefining the role of the fashion industry itself. At the highest level, preserving the industry’s legitimacy and relevance. At the brand level, preserving their competitiveness and resilience. If we extract essential resources for life to make clothes, the bare minimum is to ask ourselves: what for? What can brands do for their communities? What’s the transformative promise of our projects?
Vogue: Your theory of change is centered around the Towards a Thriving Future framework, which redefines return on investment (ROI) as return on impact, integrity and investment (ROIII). Likewise, you say your goal is to operate as a “business for the environment”. What exactly will that look like in practice?
Matteo: We avoid palliative solutions that only mitigate symptoms. We are working to address root causes: overproduction and overconsumption, social inequity, exploitation of nature, and psychological manipulation. And we don’t do this in isolation. Inside Out operates as an ecosystem of interconnected enterprises whose strength lies in cross-pollination, finding value in the intersections of diverse industries united by shared values and purpose. Towards a Thriving Future is our internal compass — a living framework that guides how we direct our resources to where they can be most transformative.
Suzy: For me, “business for the environment” means turning the traditional model on its head. Instead of asking how much we can take, we ask how much we can give back. We measure our work by three things: investment, impact and integrity. When you truly understand the human and environmental costs of something, it changes how you design, source and build your community. Science and education guide us, but empathy is what keeps us on track.
Vogue: You have made three acquisitions in the fashion space so far. How do they support your broader vision for the company, and how did the acquisition process differ under the Towards a Thriving Future framework?
Matteo: No single brand can drive transformation alone, but together, a network of aligned and complementary enterprises and projects can. Our recent acquisition of The Simple Folk is emblematic of this approach. It’s not just a childrenswear brand, it’s a lifestyle brand that makes responsible living both simple and desirable. We can use the brand to raise awareness, educate and deliver impact for families beyond the borders of our company. This is why our due diligence goes beyond financial metrics. We assess impact and integrity, ensuring that every addition to the Inside Out family contributes meaningful value to the ecosystem. We look for changemakers, founders and teams with the courage to bridge the gap between a malfunctioning status quo and the world we want to live in.
Vogue: The Simple Folk recently appointed Luis Gamardo as CEO. How will you measure his success? How might this differ from other brands, which focus so heavily on growth?
Suzy: We’ll measure success in many ways. Yes, through performance and reach, but also through the quality of materials, the transparency of the supply chain, and the positive impact on families who engage with the brand. It’s a different kind of leadership. It’s slower, more considered, but also more enduring. For Luis, his role is to show that a brand can grow beautifully and responsibly at the same time.
At Inside Out, we talk a lot about regenerative growth — growth that restores rather than depletes. We aim to develop systems and products that genuinely enhance communities and ecosystems as they grow. To me, success isn’t about how fast we grow; it’s about whether we’re growing in the right direction. If each step leaves something healthier, cleaner, or more transparent behind, then that’s growth worth pursuing.
Vogue: What do you think your biggest challenge will be?
Matteo: The defining challenge for any brand today is to live up to my favorite definition of responsible design, by Italian architect and designer Michele De Lucchi, who described it as the ability to design projects that extend the pleasure of use through time. In other words, to design truly circular systems that generate value from the long-term use of products, rather than the short-term act of consumption. Short-term consumerism renders the technologies and the innovations meant to reduce impact irrelevant. Our task is to reconcile economic viability with ecological longevity, to redesign not only what we make, but how we value it.
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