Textile Exchange

Happy Holidays from Textile Exchange! As we enter the new year, we’re excited to continue our collective work to create lasting impact for climate and nature through raw materials production and sourcing. Wishing you a joyful and restorative holiday season 📷 Anass Ouaziz

UNWOVEN: An editorial project in print by Textile Exchange 🐑🌱 Issue 02 delves into the deep, generational knowledge essential for nurturing the land and livestock that underpin responsible material production. It also highlights the innovators redefining what happens to waste, by advancing and scaling recycling processes to create value from what already exists. UNWOVEN is printed on recycled paper, with a cover made from 50% hemp fiber paper by G.F Smith, and bound using singer stitch. Publication by: Textile Exchange CEO: Claire Bergkamp Commissioning editor: Beatrice Murray-Nag Produced by: Carla Bradley Designed by: Rachel Bullock Printed by: Taylor Brothers Contributors: Alejandra Orosco, Anass Ouaziz, Carl Van der Linde, Danilo Arenas, Julia Webster Ayuso, Kin Chan Coedel, Lindokuhle Sobekwa, Madeleine Brunnmeier, Morgane Nyfeler, Priyadarshini Ravichandran, Sabrina Duarte, Whitney Bauck, Will Portman. Featured people and projects: Ambercycle, Beaufront Farm, Brett Walker, Coleo, CJ Lotter, Esplar, Lindsay Humphreys, Magnum Photos, Mohair Empowerment Trust, OBEPAB, PAN UK, Richie Herold, Solidaridad, Trenly Spence, WWF-Türkiye.

At the heart of UNWOVEN Issue 02 are three essential actions that shape the future of sustainable material production: caring for land and livestock, cultivating crops, and converting the old into new. Part 01: CARE is a space for the stories of growers and herders who have honed their ability to nurture their animals and surrounding ecosystems through changing climates. They demonstrate how care is the essential first step toward long-term environmental balance, placing the land and all it sustains at the heart of their practices. Part 02: CULTIVATE highlights the expertise of farmers who sow and harvest the raw materials for fashion and textiles, from cotton to natural indigo. Their stories reframe these plants as essential components of cultures and food systems, as well as powerful tools for nature preservation and social mobility. Part 03: CONVERT explores how textile waste can be reimagined and given new life. These stories speak to a new system, in which value can be created from what already exists, and the future of discarded materials is redefined. Read the full publication online https://bit.ly/3P03Sjv

Introducing UNWOVEN Issue 02: Care, Cultivate, Convert 🐑🌱 UNWOVEN is an editorial project by Textile Exchange that aims to pull apart and reconstruct perceptions of clothing and textiles today by deepening our understanding of the materials that make them, and the stories, questions, and concepts behind them. Often seen as the starting point for further creative development, Issue 02 reframes raw materials as the culmination of years of dedication and know-how instead. From herders who have honed their ability to care for animals through changing seasons, to growers with an unmatched understanding of the soil that sustains them, to innovators redefining what happens to textile waste — this issue tells their stories. Read it here https://bit.ly/3P03Sjv

📢 Reminder: The economy is not separate from the environment — it depends on it. But as Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, a leading economist specialized in how economies impact nature and biodiversity, warns, humanity has been exceeding the biosphere’s limits for decades. Released last week, our Reimagining Growth Landscape Analysis report delves into how the fashion, apparel, and textile industry can realign with planetary boundaries. It explores the systemic shift needed to switch from the increasing extraction of new resources to make new products towards a model that is aligned with regenerative economy and post-growth principles. Download the full report for further insights on building a fashion industry where economic activity works within nature’s limits 🌿 https://lnkd.in/eRKREQ_b Image: Angela Ponce

Science shows that six out of nine Planetary Boundaries — a framework developed in 2009 by the Stockholm Resilience Centre quantifying critical components for maintaining the stability and resilience of Earth’s life support system — have now been crossed. Through this lens, our latest report looks at why reimagining growth beyond exponential increases in resource extraction to make new products will be essential to bring the fashion, apparel, and textile industry back in line with these boundaries. Read the full Reimagining Growth Landscape Analysis https://bit.ly/3Zk4y7X Images: Danilo Arenas Ireijo and Sabrina Duarte

This #WorldSoilDay, let’s celebrate the farmers who are restoring soil health, urging brands to support regenerative practices through direct, long-term commitments. Why does this matter? Because improving soil organic matter and biodiversity through regenerative agriculture will be essential to protect the ecosystems and communities behind our materials — building a resilient future for the fashion industry too. Learn about İrfan Uysal and the regenerative project in Türkiye in our case study: https://lnkd.in/dxwwu6ZB Explore more about regenerative practices and their outcomes in our Regenerative Agriculture Outcome Framework: https://lnkd.in/eAh_n8jd 📷 Anass Ouaziz

Our latest report calls for a reimagining of “value creation” in the fashion, apparel, and textile industry, in line with “post-growth” and “regenerative economy” principles. Swipe to learn more about what these concepts mean, and download the full report for more definitions of key terminology related to the conversation about growth https://lnkd.in/eRKREQ_b Images: Madeleine Brunnmeier, Agnese Morganti

Introducing the Reimagining Growth Landscape Analysis 📈 Our latest report presents a vision of what the fashion, apparel, and textile industry needs to work toward to transform its current business model in alignment with “regenerative economy” and “post-growth” principles. Central to this is a complete reimagining of value creation. The report calls for business success to be redefined from that based on exponential increases in production and consumption volumes, toward sustainable and ethical practices, prioritizing well-being and prosperity for all stakeholder groups over the long term. Find out more and download the full report https://bit.ly/3Zk4y7X 📷 Madeleine Brunnmeier

How can we reimagine growth for the fashion, apparel, and textile industry? Releasing next week, our latest report aims to drive a shift away from unchecked resource extraction. It calls on existing scientific and academic literature to provide a set of pathways to reimagine value creation in the industry beyond exponential increases in the extraction and production of new raw materials to create new products. Stay tuned to find out more. 📷 Madeleine Brunnmeier