Textile Innovation

Australia’s clothing product stewardship scheme Seamless is on a mission to transform the way people choose, enjoy and recycle clothing in Australia. It has been operational since 1 July 2024, launching to drive the textile industry towards circularity and sustainable practices.  Seamless addresses the critical problems facing the clothing industry, with over 200,000 tonnes of waste ending up in A...

The Textile Innovation Podcast speaks to Gillian Ridley Whittle, founder and CEO of ethical underwear and clothing brand Peachaus. Ethical underwear and clothing brand Peachaus was born out of a need to drive positive change in the fashion industry and wider world. The collection of underwear, lifestyle separates and sleepwear is crafted entirely from recycled Italian lace, ethically sourced cotto...

The Textile Innovation Podcast speaks to Michael Markesbery, co-founder and CEO at Solarcore and OROS Labs, about scientifically advanced thermal solutions.  Materials technology brand Solarcore utilises the thermal advantages of Aerogel – the NASA-licensed material used to insulate spacecraft in the -450° F vacuum of space. The ultra-thin insulation provides maximum temperature control with minim...

The Textile Innovation Podcast speaks to Jeannette Cook, communications manager at the International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO), about the global wool supply chain and the main challenges it currently faces. The International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO) is the global authority for standards in the wool textile industry. Since 1930, the organisation has represented the collected interest...

The Textile Innovation Podcast speaks to Meredith Boyd of US-based textile solutions provider Unifi about its hero product Repreve and initiatives to create a sustainable value chain in textiles.  Unifi is a global textile solutions provider and leading innovator in manufacturing synthetic and recycled performance fibres. Through Repreve, one of the US-based company’s proprietary technologies, Uni...

The Textile Innovation Podcast speaks to Katie Fensome of UK conservation consultancy Biodiversify about biodiversity and how fashion businesses can better meet Environmental, Social and Governance targets. Biodiversify is a conservation consultancy advising a range of private, public and third-sector clients who want to act for nature. The company has worked with fashion brands including Primark...

The Textile Innovation Podcast speaks with Dr Yuly Fuentes-Medel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Fabric Innovation Hub about how academic collaboration is transforming practices within the fashion industry.  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT)’s Fabric Innovations Hub seeks to answer how academia can benefit industry. The hub fosters a community of experts in fibres an...

Cotton accounts for roughly 65% of the fibres present in wardrobes worldwide. It is therefore a key discussion topic in the textile industry’s transition towards a sustainable future.  In episode 96 WTiN’s Textile Innovation Podcast, we speak with Alia Malik, chief development officer at Better Cotton, about the company’s drive towards a traceable supply chain. Better Cotton is a world-leading sus...

This month, WTiN speaks with Daniel Rufenacht, chief executive officer at Bluesign. Based out of Switzerland, Bluesign partners with brands, manufacturers and chemical suppliers, from fibre to finished product, with the aim to make safer workplaces and textile products that are less impactful on the environment and people.  Rufenacht talks about the difference between a standard and an index – and...

This month, WTiN speaks with Kris Cody. Founder and chief executive officer at PAKA, a company paving its own path with natural fibres since 2015. The idea of PAKA and traceable alpaca wool came after Cody was in Peru as part of a backpacking trip. After returning home, he booked a one-way flight back over to Peru and lived among the alpaca farmers and their families before starting the company. N...

This month, WTiN speaks with Graham Stewart. He is the man behind a holistic patent-pending process called Fibre 52. The Fibre 52 process is holistic from prep to dye, and mill tests around the globe show it’s consistently repeatable. It also is integrated with no added machinery or upfront investment. Stewart talks about certification, sustainability, how the Fibre52 process came to be and how it...

This month, WTiN speaks with Ishan Chathuranga – an e-textiles engineer based in Ontario, Canada. Chathuranga has more than eight years’ experience in electronic textile product development, failure analysis, and manufacturing. Chathuranga delves into the issues around scaling e-textiles, stages of development and the need for plug-and-play technology and standardisation. To discuss any of the top...

Talk of the metaverse, blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) has taken over the textile industry as of late. This month, WTiN speaks with Eric Benoist – a technology and data specialist at Natixis, a Corporate investment banking company headquartered in Paris, France.  We talk about synthetic biology, how AI can help in terms of sustainability and the ethics that go alongside merging science...

When looking for more circularity within the textile & apparel industry, most look to existing fibres and ways to elevate them. Keel Labs were on the hunt for something new and looked to the ocean. On this episode of Textile Innovation, WTiN talks to Tessa Callaghan, the chief executive officer and one of the co-founders behind Keel Labs.  Based in the US, the company has an eye for innovation...

The way most of us know fungi best is by mushrooms. Ecovative’s innovation, AirMycelium, is expanding the possibilities of working with mushrooms. This month, WTiN talks to Gavin McIntyre, co-founder of New York-based company, Ecovative. There is huge demand for sustainable and planet-friendly leather alternatives that feel, look and perform like the real thing. Ecovative has a specialised soft go...

This month, World Textile Information Network talks to Edwin Keh, the CEO at the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel or HKRITA ⁠— an applied research center for the textile, apparel and fashion industries. It says it’s goal is to engage in useful research, explore enhancements and create new values, applications and solutions for the challenges in the marketplace and in society. ...

This month,  World Textile Information Network talks to Joel Furey, the founder and chief commercial officer at Noble Biomaterials. The intelligent materials company is based out of Scranton, Pennsylvania in the US and is the home of both Ionic+ and Circuitex – antimicrobial and conductivity solutions.   Its silver-based wearable technologies are used across the textile spectrum from military to p...

In this episode of The WTiN Podcast, we talk to Jason Finnis, executive vice president and chief innovation officer, and Caleb Beyers, brand and design manager, at Bast Fibre Technologies. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Victoria (British Colombia, Canada), Bast Fibre Tech produces 100% plant-based natural fibres for a wide variety of nonwoven applications. Currently it has two products: Sero...

In this episode of The WTiN Podcast, we talk to Dr Giovanna Graziosi Casimiro, head of Metaverse Fashion Week at Decentraland.  Decentraland is a software development company that is creating a virtual world (aka a metaverse) that will grow beyond any centralised control. To accomplish this, the company is building tools and applications designed to help people create three-dimensional (3D) conten...

In this episode of The WTiN Podcast, we talk to Jeffrey Hsu, chief innovation and marketing officer, and Peter Decorte, chief operations officer, at NTX.  NTX is a textile innovation and solution company that has developed a hybrid textile colouration system called NTX Cooltrans. Indeed, the pair say it is a mix of digital printing, sublimation and wet dye techniques – something they claim is comp...

In this episode of The WTiN Podcast, we talk to Yoel Fink, Professor of Materials Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).   MIT is well-known for its research concerning textiles & apparel, and most recently Fink and his team have developed a ‘fabric that hears’. The fabric works like a microphone, converting sound into mechanical vibrations, then into electrical signals, s...

In this episode of The WTiN Podcast, we talk to Scott Mellin, CEO of LifeLabs.  LifeLabs is a materials science company founded by Professor Yi Cui, director of Stanford University’s advanced materials laboratory, and Meng Sui, a chemist and CEO of clean-energy foundry EEnotech. The company has developed textile technologies to reduce energy consumption with the aim to shift the way that we think...

In this episode of The WTiN Podcast, Jessica Owen interviews Britt Howard, founder of the Portland Garment Factory.  Founded in 2008 and based in Oregon, US, the Portland Garment Factory is a full-service manufacturing company that can prototype, design, pattern grade, source fabrics and much more.  In this episode, Howard discusses why she founded the company and more about the services she and t...

To kick off 2022, Victoria Nickerson interviews Milon Hossein, a graduate research assistant at North Carolina State University (NC State) in the US. 

The last guest on this year’s The WTiN Podcast is Lisa Kennedy, vice president of strategic partnerships at Genomatica.  Founded in 2000 and based in San Diego (US), Genomatica develops commercial bio-based products and processes. Having started in the plastics and cosmetics industries, the company has since turned its attention to finding sustainable alternatives to nylon.   In this podcast, Kenn...