7 Eco-Friendly Fabrics That Will Disrupt the Luxury Fashion Industry
THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE Bettoni's audience included several finalists from the CFDA + Lexus Fashion Initiative,...
Cooper Hewitt’s “Scraps” Exhibit Makes Do, Mends With Leftover Textiles
Scraps: Fashion, Textiles, and Creative Reuse, currently on view at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum...
Adidas Makes Biodegradable Sneaker From Artificial Spider Silk
Adidas has just unveiled the first performance shoe made from artificial spider silk. The Futurecraft Biofabric,...
“Back to the Future” Inspires Self-Charging Textiles, Clothing
One movie buff scientist from the University of Central Florida's NanoScience Technology Center has turned to the...
Preview “Scraps,” a Cooper Hewitt Exhibit About Using Up Leftover Textiles
SCRAP WORK “Telling the inspiring and empowering stories of three women designers and entrepreneurs who hail from...
Are We Overlooking Human Hair as a Raw Material?
Designer Sanne Visser’s new recycling project repurposes an important resource most of us walk around with daily-...
Sealtech: A Fabric That Repairs Itself With Just a Touch
SEALTECH \s?(?)l?tek\ n. 1: A lightweight, water-resistant nylon ripstop that heals itself of minor punctures...
Felder Felder Eco-Friendly Dress is Basically 97 Percent Car
DRIVEWAY TO RUNWAY The "fully sustainable" textile, which is not yet available to fashion designers in significant...
Cotton Incorporated, Archroma Create Natural Dye From Cotton Waste
Cotton Incorporated, the folks behind those "fabric of our lives" commercials, has joined forces with Swiss dye...
Squid-Inspired Fabrics Repair Themselves, Neutralize Toxins
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have developed a way for fabrics to repair themselves with just a...
Mushroom-Infused Burial Suit Helps the Body Naturally Decompose
For the human body, death is only the beginning. These meat sacks of ours are hothouses of chemicals, and not just...
FIT Students Turn Algae, Fungi Into Biodegradable Textiles
BIOMATERIAL But alginate is typically used in sheets, a form that doesn't lend itself well to fashion designers....
Dutch Designer Turns Cow Manure Into Clothing (It’s Not as Gross as You Might Think)
POO POWER She dubs the material Mestic, from mest, the Dutch word for manure. While people have sought to manage...
Blue Loop, TenCate Create World’s First Recycled-Denim Tent
The maker of the world's only 100 percent recycled-denim jeans can now claim bragging rights over the world's first...
MuSkin: A Vegan “Leather” Made Entirely From Mushrooms
MUSKIN \m?s?kin\ n. 1 a: A 100 percent biodegradable vegetal leather, extracted from mushroom caps and "tanned"...
World’s Leading Brands Score Poorly on Use of Sustainable Cotton
Organic cotton. Better cotton. Fair-trade cotton. Recycled cotton. Cotton made in Africa. You'd think with all...
Timberland to Make Shoes, Bags From Recycled Plastic Bottles
Timberland is partnering with Thread, a Pittsburgh, Penn.-based manufacturer of sustainable fabrics, to create...
Could Programmable, 3D-Printed “Fur” Become a Thing?
Scientists from MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group have devised a way to three-dimensionally print hair-like...
Watch “Harvesting Liberty,” a Short Film About America’s Hemp Problem
BATTLE FOR HEMP Directed by surfer-environmentalist Dan Malloy, the documentary follows Lewis as he explains how...
Your Next Patagonia Jacket Could Comprise Yeast-Engineered Silk
Looks like The North Face isn't the only outdoor-apparel brand toying with the idea of synthetic spider silk. Patagonia...
Agave Silk: A Cruelty-Free Vegetable Silk Made From Cactus
AGAVE SILK \?-?gä-v? ?silk\ n. 1 a: A cruelty-free textile composed of filaments derived from the crushed leaves...
Faux “Leather” Made From Fermented Tea Could Revolutionize Fashion
TEA TIME These "green-tea based cellulose fiber mats" could soon be a viable alternative to materials derived...
Evrnu Recycles Old Cotton Garments Into New Fibers
FUTURE OF APPAREL Evrnu's patent-pending technology "purifies" post-consumer cotton waste first by shredding it,...
Levi’s is Making Jeans From Discarded Fishing Nets, Used Carpets
Levi's and Aquafil, an Italian company that recycles waste materials into good-as-virgin nylon fiber, are making...
MIT’s New Manufacturing Hub to Lead U.S. in Textile Innovation
Photos by M. Scott Brauer for MIT The U.S. Department of Defense has tapped a broad coalition of manufacturers,...
Brave GentleMan’s Unisex Fashion Features Vegan Wool, Faux Leather
HE FOR SHE Like it's done in the past, Brave GentleMan partnered with Novacas, a cruelty-free label based in New...
No More Laundry? These Textiles Clean Themselves With Sunlight
Could this be the end of washing? Scientists at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia have discovered...
Tripty Project Makes Zero-Waste Bags, Clothing Out of Discarded Pineapples
Luke Swanson and Brooke McEver were working in Bangladesh at the time of the incredible garment industry tragedy...
Minan Wong Brings Recycled Fabrics, Feminine Designs to NY Fashion Week
During a snowy, bitter-cold New York Fashion Week, the Nolcha Shows “Ones to Watch” heated up the runway, spotlighting...
Ecotec: A Traceable, Italian-Made Yarn Derived From Recycled Cotton
ECOTEC \?k??tek\ n. 1 a: A Marchi & Fildi yarn derived from 100 percent pre-dyed cotton textile clippings. b:...