A past edition of Future Fabrics Expo, a trade fair showcasing the latest innovations in textiles, supply chain and packaging for the fashion industry.
Paul Cochrane
LONDON — The last week of June could be the greenest of the year, with two major fashion and sustainability events taking place simultaneously — The Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen and Future Fabrics Expo in London.
While the GFS focuses on talks, seminars and policy, the Future Fabrics Expo is mainly a trade fair showcasing textiles, finishes, packaging and manufacturing innovation. It also hosts seminars and thought leadership events.
This year LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and the Kering-owned Alexander McQueen are supporting projects at the London fair alongside not-for-profit environmental organizations including Parley for the Oceans and Canopy.
Future Fabrics Expo describes itself as “the largest dedicated showcase” for sustainable materials and aims to place “the preservation and regeneration of nature, climate and biodiversity” center stage.
It will run from June 26 to 28, at Magazine London in Greenwich, and will be set over more than 34,000 square feet. The fair was founded, and is run by, The Sustainable Angle, a Swiss not-for-profit.
Organizers said more than 10,000 materials and solutions will be on display covering the entire textile supply chain. There will be an Innovation Hub featuring emerging, cutting-edge materials and technologies; seminars with industry players, and specially curated areas that focus on specific themes.
There will also be a focus this season on bacterial and plant-based dyes, finishes and wicking agents. Traditionally, those dyes and agents have been made with petrochemicals.
Exhibitors will include Lenzing, Bananatex, Clean Bamboo, Advance Denim, Ethical Fashion Initiative and Natural Fiber Welding.
LVMH is supporting an area called Biodiversity Applied, which showcases the “action-oriented projects” that the luxury giant has taken so far to protect ecosystems and preserve biodiversity within, and outside, the fashion supply chain.
Alexander McQueen is supporting a new area at the fair called “Revival of the U.K. Textile Supply Chain: Through a Sustainability Lens.”
The display aims to spotlight the heritage of the U.K. textile supply chain, and look at how the fashion and textile industry is attempting to push boundaries with regard to sustainability and to revive the historic skills and knowledge of farmers, herbal dyers, tanners and artisans.
This is particularly important in the U.K. By the 1980s, companies such as Marks & Spencer had transferred most of their clothing production offshore. As a result, many specialist artisanal skills are quickly disappearing in a country that was once a textile manufacturing giant.
There will also be an area dedicated to regenerative agriculture solutions, and one dedicated to “forgotten fibers” such as linen and hemp.
Fibral, the international material alliance that brings together companies and individuals that create innovative materials out of “ancient, underrepresented and novel plant-based sources,” is one of the organizations taking part.
Canopy is supporting an installation dedicated to packaging solutions that are low-impact, circular and aimed at preserving ancient and endangered forests. The display will showcase “innovative next-gen material solutions” from Canopy’s Pack4Good initiative.