The new exhibition at The Mills Fabrica in London uses a combination of interactive tools, experiential retail and immersive workshops to highlight the sustainable breakthroughs that are being made in the denim industry.
The Mills Fabrica’s acting head of Europe Amy Tsang explains denim was chosen as the focus of the event due to its integral role in the fashion sector.
“Everyone has a pair of jeans,” she tells Just Style. “It’s not going to go out of style anytime soon. So it’s important that such an iconic wardrobe staple is made in a more sustainable way.”
Running for six months, the event showcases innovations from leading apparel and textile brands including AGI Denim and Huue. It also demonstrates recent advances in the denim industry's sustainability, circularity, and eco-friendly practices.
The Mills Fabrica notes that denim is “one of the most environmentally detrimental sectors” within fashion, thanks to the number of chemicals used in the dyeing process and an estimated 2,000 gallons of water is needed to make one pair of jeans, according to the UN's environment programme.
The goal of the exhibition is to demonstrate the need for change in the denim manufacturing process.
The event showcases many new innovations that have yet to make it into the mass denim market, despite making strides towards more sustainable fabric. Tsang said that brands need to invest in these new ideas to help further these sustainable innovations.
“Brands need to kind of take a chance on them – they need to do a lot of testing, trial and error,” Tsang states, adding: “At the end of the day, it’s no use if something is just a sample – it need to be hardwearing and it needs to be durable.”
Tsang also said that it was important that sustainable products are still desirable for consumers, so that they don’t have to compromise on sustainability and quality – something she says is “100% possible” given the level of innovation in the sector now.
“Our hope for the future is that these brands will work more collaboratively with these innovators,” Tsang added. “I think the future does look bright and hopefully one day we’ll get to a place where more of our clothes are made from recycled materials.”
The innovations on display at the Denim Futures exhibition
Denim manufacturer AGI Denim, which became Pakistan’s first company to achieve a B Corp Certification last year, is demonstrating the importance of circularity and collaboration.
Textile-to-textile recycling company Renewcell is exhibiting the world’s first 100% recycled denim made at scale, which was made for AGI Denim.
Sustainable fabric company Circ is showcasing new technology that returns polyester and cotton or lyocell fibres back to their reusable, raw state, and claims this technology is the first of its kind.
Sustainable technology company Xeros Tech is exhibiting technology that it claims can save millions of litres of water in the denim manufacturing process, while also preventing microfibres from ending up in the ocean.
Regenerative farming initiative Good Earth Cotton is sharing how it is empowering producers and members of the textile supply chain as agents of change.
The exhibition also includes an experiential retail area, featuring Beyond Retro’s Beyond Remade vintage collection.
