FASHION COMMENT
‘THE UK WILL LEAD THE SUSTAINABLE FASHION REVOLUTION’, PREDICT INDUSTRY EXPERTS
F
By Eleanor Green from Imperial College London Professor Mary Ryan, Professor of Materials
ashion industry leaders, investors and founders joined 11 of the UK’s top innovators at Imperial College London
this Spring to discuss what is needed to get the best fashion and textile innovations out of the lab and into wardrobes: long-term investment, and the support to stay, scale and manufacture in the UK. With fluctuating oil prices making polyester
production costly, climate change harming cotton production, and a raft of sustainability regulations coming into force, fashion industry leaders – including fashion designer and Vogue Business Young Creator Award Winner, Genaro Rivas – predict science and technology will come to the rescue of the global fashion industry. From bio-sequins inspired by beetle wings, and 18-carat-gold jewellery made from electronics, to vivid dyes made from algae – UK sustainable fashion technology has “never been more ready to drop in to supply chains, and be adopted by big brands”, according to fashion investor and CCO of Imperial spin-out DyeRecycle, Irene Maffini. The Imperial campus is rapidly becoming a
hub for sustainable fashion innovation and is at the heart of the White City Innovation District, a cluster of the WestTech London ecosystem. Imperial staff and students have created 17 sustainable fashion start-ups and spinouts in the last five years – many supported by Undaunted – a hub for the UK’s climate innovation community.
Science and Vice Provost at Imperial College London, chaired the discussion and emphasised the need to stop the UK’s best innovators in this space going elsewhere to scale up. She said: “We can reclaim Britain’s proud
heritage in the textile industry by embracing frontier technologies that are both disruptive and sustainable. We’re entering an era where vats of bacteria can be designed to synthesise planet- friendly textiles, new chemical and biological tools are capable of breaking down existing fashion waste into the molecular building blocks for new materials, and CO2 is being removed from the atmosphere and turned back into valuable products. If we are smart about supporting the ecosystem all the way up the value chain then the UK economy can reap the benefits.”
A new facility for pilot manufacturing To help keep start-ups staying and scaling in the UK, Imperial unveiled a first-of-its-kind facility for pilot and demonstration advanced manufacturing in West London. Here, Imperial spin-out Solena Materials is
developing novel materials using computational design. CEO and Co-Founder Dr James MacDonald said: “From the Stone Age to the Silicon Age, civilisation has always followed breakthroughs in the materials we can make. At Solena, we’re using AI to design entirely new textile fibres – materials
that outperform existing options while being manufacturable from non-petroleum feedstocks. Solena exists to restart fibre innovation after decades of stagnation and to give the textile industry a material platform that can finally compete with incumbents on performance, scalability and impact.”
More British companies are emerging Irene Maffini predicted a second wave of companies emerging from the UK, after what she described as the “hype and then heartbreak of US-based overvalued companies”. Ms Maffini said: “Investors have had their fingers burnt. But British companies have watched and learnt – the alternative materials they’re developing are genuine replacements to climate-destroying products like leather, cotton, fur, and polluting dyes.” London-based Peruvian fashion designer and
Visa x Vogue Business Young Creator Award Winner, Genaro Rivas – who has used plant- based alternatives to leather and fur in his most recent London Fashion Week collection – said: “Innovation in fashion only matters if it reaches people. Designers play a key role in translating new materials into something desirable, accessible and culturally relevant. That’s how sustainability can truly scale.” Forbes-30-under-30 entrepreneur, Julian
Ellis-Brown, co-founded Ponda while studying at Imperial in 2020. Ponda is a biomaterials company transforming bullrushes grown on UK regenerated wetlands into new insulative materials for fashion. Ponda’s plant-based insulation BioPuff has already been used in collaborations with brands Stella McCartney and Berghaus. Ellis-Brown’s latest step moves beyond materials and into garments, with a Ponda x Imperial College London collaboration in development, hoping to launch later this year. Also on show at the Imperial event were
products already commercially available – including Petit Pli’s children’s and maternity clothes, inspired by satellite folding, that grow with children and baby bumps, and Incador’s fine jewellery designed and crafted from discarded electronics: Petit Pli garments are currently on sale at a pop-up shop in Harrods, and Incador have just expanded into bespoke engagement rings, worn by the likes of Sophie Habboo and Melissa Tattam.
16 • FOOTWEAR & FASHION TODAY • JUNE 2026 DOWNLOAD THE FOOTWEAR & FASHION TODAY APP NOW SPONSORED BY
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
