PIONEERS since 2011, the annual Future Fabrics Expo once again showcased the material solutions that place the preservation and regeneration of nature, climate and biodiversity at centre stage.
The Expo is run by The Sustainable Angle and is the largest dedicated showcase for sourcing certified, sustainable material solutions for a planet positive fashion future.
The fashion and textile industries are currently responsible for significant impacts upon the planet, its people and nature. However, fashion can and should be part of the solution, representing a powerful force for positive change. With materials being responsible for the majority of a fashion product’s environmental impact, the Future Fabrics Expo is an essential resource of sourcing solutions for brands.
The Future Fabrics Expo is also an educational platform that aims to galvanise the fashion industry around the critical imperative for sourcing responsibly and operating within planetary boundaries.
At this year’s Expo, which took place at the end of June, more than 10,000 materials and solutions were on display:
- Mills & suppliers in a multitude of fibre categories, showed effective solutions throughout the supply chain
- An Innovation Hub featured emerging, cutting-edge materials and technologies representing the Material Revolution
- The Solutions Area featured Content Partners of Future Fabrics Expo 2023, presenting their solutions to address the most pressing key environmental issues around climate, biodiversity, soil and oceans
- And the popular Seminar Series featured the voices of global thought leaders and industry vanguards
The Expo’s brand partnerships and curated areas were also used to demonstrate a range of fashion innovations:
- “Next Gen Fibres: Here Now” supported by Laudes Foundation and powered by Canopy and Fashion for Good, highlighted the latest innovation research and opportunities in next generation feedstocks and fibres (including agro-residues), for the future of fashion.
- “Biodiversity Applied”, supported by LVMH, showcased the action-oriented projects the Group has taken to ambitiously address three key pillars – Regenerate, Circulate, Innovate – with the aim to protect ecosystems and preserve biodiversity within and outside the fashion supply chain.
- The Future Fabrics Expo partnership with Parley for the Oceans continued across the Innovation Hub, featuring emerging, cutting-edge materials and technologies representing the Material Revolution of the future.
- Regenerative Agricuture Hub – Since 2019, the Future Fabrics Expo has been showcasing advancements of regenerative agriculture solutions for fashion. This year, the Regenerative Agriculture Area continued to communicate how the fashion supply chain can create positive impacts in biodiversity, climate change and soil health through regenerative outcomes. The Regenerative Agriculture Area featured various companies and organisations producing and working with regenerative agriculture practices infiltrating the fashion design space.
- Bast Fibres Area, featuring Fibral; The Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp; and a dedicated Hemp Hub. Fibral is an international Material Alliance that brings together companies and individuals that create innovative materials out of ancient, underrepresented and novel plant-based sources. The Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp (formerly known as CELC) is the only European agro-industrial organisation that brings together all players in the European Flax-Linen and Hemp value chain.
- Packaging Solutions supported by Canopy: New to the Expo this year was a dedicated Packaging Solutions installation supported by Canopy. The display aimed to inspire and educate the industry to rethink the materiality of packaging; our unsustainable dependency of forests as feedstocks; and how we can innovate to redesign systems and shift to low-impact, circular solutions – with the goal to protect Ancient and Endangered Forests. The display showcased innovative Next Gen material solutions from Canopy’s Pack4Good initiative.