Sustainability at Fashion Month: Five Trends Serving Up a Taste of the Future
- arthursbeth
- Oct 9
- 6 min read
Fashion month is over for another half year. Despite too many big fashion houses remaining stuck in old systems and textures, there were some pretty wild pivots, or holding big pivot potential at least.
Stories and science for the WIN. From plant-based feathers to denim that eats pollution, here’s what really moved me across shows for the SS26 season.
BIG LAB ENERGY
Plant-based and lab-derived fabrics hit the runway hard. It’s so important within the sustainability space for us not to be relying on soft activism, as effective as it can be. These developments bring about new supply chain routes and diversity in design elements available drives the choice and renewal designers and consumers need.
Stella McCartney launched FEVVERS, a plant-based feather alternative, in Paris. Cruelty free feathers have never existed before so this is the first time we’ve ever seen anything like this. So, so huge.
PURE.TECH Denim also debuted at Stella’s show - denim that absorbs air pollutants (CO₂, NOx) via photocatalysis & catalysis processes. In testing, small swatches eliminated 2245 ppm CO₂ in under 10 hours. Jeans that clean the air. This is sci-fi fashion, this is incredible, THIS is what the future of fashion is.
TômTex a material science company, also had its fashion week debut showing its most advanced biomaterial textile innovation in New York across two shows - Allina Liu and Gabe Gordon. TômTex has zero fossil carbon content, complete biodegradability and is super durable, so a really usable leather alternative ready to go.
Tammam x Caxacori Studio (LFW) showcased Shiringa bio-leather, which is rubber-based textile created from tree sap. It’s plant-based leather sustainably derived from the Amazon, with processes also supporting indigenous communities based there.
VIN + OMI reworked red-barked dogwood waste into a delicate textile (in collab with King Charles). Their third “first-ever” fabric innovation - very iconic.
HUGE TECH SLAY
Technology innovations designed to make systems cleaner and clearer were very real.
Gooddrop collaborated with Tammam to show the first ever garment made of vertically-farmed cotton at London Fashion Week, from plant to dress in four weeks, which usually takes between five and eight months using traditional growing systems. Not only could this localise cotton systems, it can save a serious amount of water (cotton is one of the most water-intensive fabrics around), support food security, along with being able to regenerate land.
At LFW Patrick McDowel incorporated Digital Product Passports into every single look. Collaborating with Certilogo, scan a garment and you see the origin, material makeup, production volume, even future updates. DPPs will be EU law soon, but it was so exciting to see them on the runway.
Anrealage at PFW debuted FOREARTH (Kyocera) printing: near-zero water, low energy, low carbon. Printing is one of fashion’s hidden pollution giants, if this can be rolled out at a wider level it could make the process so much more efficient and put a lot less stress on natural resources.
There's so much conversation right now about how technology is going to change the scope of existence, essentially. But we can definitely see it through a positive lens here.
VERY LIVE DEADSTOCK
It’s absolutely wild how many ‘leftovers’ circulate across fashion, luxury especially. But where materials are higher quality, there’s ever-evolving opportunity for creative reuse.
In New York Dauphinette collaborated with The RealReal (for the third fashion week running) on a new project where they turned 12 boxes of ‘unfit’ designer casts into couture via recutting, re-beading, rethinking.
Dreaming Eli renowned for upcycling, the LFW SS26 collection leaned hard into feminine deadstock, flow, drama, all from surplus. It’s a really important type of couture to see - the patchwork/restitched aesthetic cheapens the idea of sustainable fashion for some people, so this light reframes it in a way that elevates upcycling as luxury for the non-believers.
PROTOtypes sold Proto Packs / Proto Prints so you can upcycle at home, democratising deadstock. It’s pretty rare to see these kind of take-home packages at shows, but this extension of creativity from the show is an important psychological bridge, consumers are creators too. This drives a sense of collaboration, personalisation and connection which is massively important to engage people in circular fashion processes.
Kyle Ho launched a London debut built entirely with deadstock mainly sourcing from Nona Source (LVMH’s deadstock fabric platform - where anyone can purchase rolls of fabrics that various LVMH brands such as Celine, Loewe and more haven’t used. No new fabrics whatsoever, just curated excess. Similarly to Dreaming Eli, I personally believe it’s really important to have examples of elevated upcycling like this.
This is a huge signal shift towards circularity in luxury fashion, and with more collaboration happening across the industry and diversity in the way upcycling looks, there is way more opportunity for adoption that we’ve seen across previous fashion months.
NATURAL DYE ERA
Dying has long been one of fashion’s quietest crimes. The colouration process creates dangers through water pollution, microplastics, hazardous chemicals - they affect our health and ecosystems, so across fashion month it was hugely positive to see forward-thinking, circular, non-toxic alternatives.
In collaboration with very exciting bio-based materials company Planet of the Grapes, Tammam dyed with grape marc (that’s vineyard waste), turning wine leftovers into soft mauves and purples.
Also at LFW, Paolo Carzana handed us palettes from rose petal fibre, buckthorn berries, hibiscus, madder. Earthy, clean, compelling. Extremely almond mum. So here for it.
Brazil - based bio-textiles design house Natural Cotton Color showed full collections dyed in natural palettes at Milan. They do great social development work in regions around them, they’re a ready to wear brand so you can buy direct and designers can purchase their fabrics also.
Stella’s FEVVERS are honestly the bio-derived gift that keeps on giving, also naturally dyed! No disclosure yet on what with, but the shades are bold, so we need to know!
Natural dyes aren’t medieval nostalgia nor are they dull, they’re a reclamation of colour systems that don’t damage human or environmental health.
POP UP + POP OFF
The energy was ACTIVE - brands were well and truly out here collaborating throughout fashion month.
eBay’s Endless Runway hit New York and London fashion weeks returning their Endless Runway with Amelia Dimoldenberg, runway-meets-e-commerce hybrid, show included previous runway pieces to pre-loved staples, the entire show was streamed live on eBay, with every item instantly shoppable. 100% of proceeds went to the BFC Foundation to support up-and-coming British design talent
Dylon hosted a laundrette pop-up where people could book styling sessions and get on-the-spot repairs, along with learning how to keep clothes better for longer and all about the importance of caring for wardrobes. It’s the kind of IRL learning we all need. It was a really fun pop up, you could even get smoothies, there was a vending machine - it was entertaining in a lot of ways and didn’t feel ‘typical sustainability’ or preachy - that’s why this worked so well.
The Loom x FoundPop pop-up took place in London as part of the UK’s Sustainable Fashion Week featuring ten designers chosen for sustainability principles. Those attending could meet the designers and makers along with the ability to shop exclusive product drops. It’s so important to be connecting people with makers and have conversations about what goes into reworking and elevating in design, which is what Loom is essentially all about.
Milan Fashion Week saw Friend of the Earth holding their fourth edition of “Beyond the Claim” a project of the World Sustainability Organization (WSO). All the brands and designers that participated in this show offer products created sustainably in a wide range of ways, each signing up for regular auditing to demonstrate just how you uphold and diversify values. Designers shown were Alina Amaral, Ana de Jour, Celeste Esmée-e, House of Narma, ILKAN.KO, LBF, Las Gringas, Ludimila: Natural Cotton Color: Shirvanna: Villa Dharma: Zoe Klose - huge snaps to all involved.
These pop-ups and collaborations prove that sustainability doesn’t need to whisper. It can entertain, educate, and sell out simultaneously.
WHERE DOES FASHION MONTH SS26 LEAVE US?
There’s a lot wrong with the fashion week system, and with much of what gets platformed, but this season brought genuine signals of progress. Biobased couture and pollution-eating denim to vertical-farmed cotton and pop-ups that re-humanise the industry, we’re seeing sustainability mature into something very market-ready and exciting.
Some of these brands are still early-stage; others are megabrands using their reach to prototype what’s next. Both matter.
If you’re strategising how your sustainable fashion brand or tech innovation lands, or just want to talk about what these shifts mean for fashion’s future, let’s chat.
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