Written 4th July 2025
Last week I spent 2 days at the Future Fabrics Expo at Magazine in London. I've been to the show numerous times, and written about it previously. As industry events go its one of my favourites.
This year it was once more an excellent show, with a great balance of new/ experimental innovations, textile developments in the process of scaling and existing options to source across fabrics at the ‘more sustainable’ end of the spectrum. There were as always a range of engaging talks and it was a great opportunity to connect and reconnect with industry colleagues and peers!
In recent years events like this tend to pull me in two different directions:
On the one hand I find new fabrics, yarns and textile technologies super exciting, and enjoy the possibilities of what they might bring to the different garments I might design. I love hearing talks and debates, learning new things and gaining different perspectives on more familiar topics.
And then
On the other hand, I feel a sense of heaviness and an almost overwhelming concern that despite all the clothing and textiles already in existence, often piling up as waste with no functioning end of life solutions, we are still, as an industry, out here looking for new materials to make ever more new products!! And also the amount of talk frustrates me, when so much of it is seemingly around topics that have been discussed multiple times for many years previous, with comparatively slow progress in meaningful change.
BUT
Ruminating over the negatives isn't going to help the planet or my mental health, so I have resolved to focus on the positive takeaways. I will refrain from a full on show report, but instead share some of the things I scribbled down over the course of the 2 days.
Below is a combination of (slightly paraphrased) quotes I heard, and some questions and observations I made whilst listening, watching and reading:
“We need context specific place based solutions, we cant have one rule that fits all.”
“We need to break down power dynamics and share knowledge, informally and face to face.”
“We need a more than human approach that educates up as well as down.”
“What would the most vulnerable person on the earth have us do?”
“Resiliance is the new return on investment.”
“As things become ever more digitised and mass produced the human aspect (like hand crafts) will be considered luxury.”
“Small collections and capsule ranges are the future of fashion.”
“Can small capsule collections and/or upcycling lead to a revival of a more creative and interesting Fashion industry.”
“People rarely adjust their expectations in a way that allows a move to a more circular model - how can we overcome this?.”
“Collaboration and community are important, at a grass roots level and up.”
“How do we ensure new designers are educated in a way that enables them to shift the system.”
“Theres too much amplification of the doom and gloom. You can’t scare people into action. There is so much that IS progressing and happening and we need to tell these stories louder.”
So, What kind of picture does that give you?
It makes me feel kind of hopeful and tentatively positive. It indicates that at least some of this industry recognises the value and worth of every being involved in a supply chain, and that humans are not the only factor to be considered! There are ways of creating textiles and clothes that meet the needs of not just people but also planet. That quality is infact better than quantity, that there is value and skill to be appreciated in the design and creation of our clothes.
Some of this talk is really beginning to echo other conversations I’ve been having, particularly with humans in and around Re-Action Collective and the #Actionism community.
I’ve been part of the apparel industry for over 20 years. It's abundantly clear that the system is broken and we need a completely new way of doing things.
Achieving something different is exceptionally difficult when you are working within the expectations, rules and demands of the status quo. But as illustrated (I think) in the above soundbites, there are increasing signs of positive change.