Future Fabrics Expo 2025: Highlights
Published 08 July 2025
With over 120 exhibitors – the largest roster to date – this year’s Future Fabrics Expo in London (June 24-25) was a showcase of sustainable progress, scalable solutions and promising innovations. From natural glitter finishes and easy-to-recycle trims to new standards for colouring denim, we highlight the key trends and notable launches.
- Disruptive Denim: Numerous innovations home in on denim, offering solutions for waste and the excessive resource consumption associated with its production.
Infinity Blue by UK-based designer Emily Gubbay is a circular colour system that recovers synthetic indigo pigment from denim waste. The non-toxic extraction method preserves fibre integrity, while the resulting indigo colour can be used for both dyeing and printing applications.
Meanwhile, US biotech start-up Lab Denim proposes an entirely new manufacturing standard with its indigo-free New Blue technology. Using a proprietary digital colourisation process, pattern pieces are printed onto white cotton twill in water-based inks (along with a micro algae-based colour enhancer). These authentic-looking denim pieces, complete with wear and ageing effects, can then be cut and sewn into garments.
Biological dyeing (i.e. using engineered microorganisms) continues to be explored as an alternative to synthetic indigo. For instance, London-based designer Lotte Plumb uses blue bacterial pigments to colour her handwoven bio-derived fabrics.
New Blue by Lab Denim
New Blue by Lab Denim
 New Blue by Lab Denim |  New Blue by Lab Denim |
New Blue by Lab Denim
New Blue by Lab Denim
Positive Materials
Lab to Loom by Lotte Plumb
Infinity Blue by Emily Gubbay
Infinity Blue by Emily Gubbay
 New Blue by Lab Denim |  New Blue by Lab Denim |  Positive Materials |  Lab to Loom by Lotte Plumb |  Infinity Blue by Emily Gubbay |  Infinity Blue by Emily Gubbay |
Lab to Loom by Lotte Plumb
Blue Becoming by Pei Chin Lin
 Lab to Loom by Lotte Plumb |  Blue Becoming by Pei Chin Lin |
- Sustainable Details: To help make apparel and accessories more sustainable overall, there’s a growing focus on improving the eco-credentials of fashion hardware and surface embellishments.
UK start-up Sparxell has partnered with Portuguese manufacturer Positive Materials to bring its plant-based structural colour pigments to market. Suitable for both screen- and rotary printing applications, the colour-shifting blue shimmer is biodegradable and completely plastic- and mica-free. It’s available in two finishes – smooth and glittered flakes.
Sparxell’s structural colour sequins were also on show, as part of a collaboration with British luxury fashion designer Patrick McDowell, alongside other decorative details including recycled PET sequins, chunky beads derived from leather scraps, and cellulose-based flocking made from textile waste.
Functional hardware is also being refined and improved. Italian manufacturer Lampo’s zipper portfolio includes natural and recycled tape qualities (like organic cotton, linen and recycled polyester), while metals are finished with eco-galvanic processes that omit the use of harmful chemicals. And German company Valupa’s bio-based buckles (developed from biogenic waste) are modular in design, making them easy to repair and replace.
Sparxell x Positive Materials
Flocc
 Sparxell x Positive Materials |  Flocc |
Sparxell x Patrick McDowell
Sparxell x Positive Materials
Flocc
The Sustainable Sequin Company
Authentic Material
Charle Berlin x Lenzing
Valupa
Valupa
Lampo
 Sparxell x Patrick McDowell |  Sparxell x Positive Materials |  Flocc |  The Sustainable Sequin Company |  Authentic Material |  Charle Berlin x Lenzing |  Valupa |  Valupa |  Lampo |
Valupa
Lampo
 Valupa |  Lampo |
- Nature-Based Solutions: Nature’s bountiful (but often overlooked) resources were spotlit for myriad applications, including dyestuffs, fibres and leather-like materials.
Positive Materials and global non-profit Parley for the Oceans’ joint installation demonstrated the colour capabilities of vegetable and mineral dyes. Their palette of earthy, vibrant and subtle tones was realised with fruits, roots, bark, ochre and iron oxide.
Elsewhere, bark cloth, kapok and cork-based textiles all featured on the show floor, and the expo’s interior showcase featured products derived from the likes of nettle, rice straw, wild grass and mycelium. Nigerian social enterprise MitiMeth, for instance, transforms invasive water hyacinth into handcrafted baskets and textiles.
Mycoworks
African Straw Enterprise
 Mycoworks |  African Straw Enterprise |
Cork on Linen
Bartex
Cloudwool
MitiMeth
Parali by Aarushi
Da Tribu
Positive Materials x Parley for the Oceans
Positive Materials x Parley for the Oceans
Green'ing
 Cork on Linen |  Bartex |  Cloudwool |  MitiMeth |  Parali by Aarushi |  Da Tribu |  Positive Materials x Parley for the Oceans |  Positive Materials x Parley for the Oceans |  Green'ing |