Textination Newsline

Developed by the Self-Assembly Lab, the 4D Knit Dress uses several technologies to create a custom design and a custom fit, while addressing sustainability concerns.

Until recently, bespoke tailoring — clothing made to a customer’s individual specifications — was the only way to have garments that provided the perfect fit for your physique. For most people, the cost of custom tailoring is prohibitive. But the invention of active fibers and innovative knitting processes is changing the textile industry.

“We all wear clothes and shoes,” says Sasha MicKinlay MArch ’23, a recent graduate of the MIT Department of Architecture. “It’s a human need. But there’s also the human need to express oneself. I like the idea of customizing clothes in a sustainable way. This dress promises to be more sustainable than traditional fashion to both the consumer and the producer.”

McKinlay is a textile designer and researcher at the Self-Assembly Lab who designed the 4D Knit Dress with Ministry of Supply, a fashion company specializing in high-tech apparel. The dress combines several technologies to create personalized fit and style. Heat-activated yarns, computerized knitting, and robotic activation around each garment generates the sculpted fit. A team at Ministry of Supply led the decisions on the stable yarns, color, original size, and overall design.

“Everyone’s body is different,” says Skylar Tibbits, associate professor in the Department of Architecture and founder of the Self-Assembly Lab. “Even if you wear the same size as another person, you're not actually the same.”

Active textiles
Students in the Self-Assembly Lab have been working with dynamic textiles for several years. The yarns they create can change shape, change property, change insulation, or become breathable. Previous applications to tailor garments include making sweaters and face masks. Tibbits says the 4D Knit Dress is a culmination of everything the students have learned from working with active textiles.

McKinlay helped produce the active yarns, created the concept design, developed the knitting technique, and programmed the lab’s industrial knitting machine. Once the garment design is programmed into the machine, it can quickly produce multiple dresses. Where the active yarns are placed in the design allows for the dress to take on a variety of styles such as pintucks, pleats, an empire waist, or a cinched waist.

“The styling is important,” McKinlay says. “Most people focus on the size, but I think styling is what sets clothes apart. We’re all evolving as people, and I think our style evolves as well. After fit, people focus on personal expression.”

Danny Griffin MArch ’22, a current graduate student in architectural design, doesn’t have a background in garment making or the fashion industry. Tibbits asked Griffin to join the team due to his experience with robotics projects in construction. Griffin translated the heat activation process into a programmable robotic procedure that would precisely control its application.

“When we apply heat, the fibers shorten, causing the textile to bunch up in a specific zone, effectively tightening the shape as if we’re tailoring the garment,” says Griffin. “There was a lot of trial and error to figure out how to orient the robot and the heat gun. The heat needs to be applied in precise locations to activate the fibers on each garment. Another challenge was setting the temperature and the timing for the heat to be applied.”

“We couldn’t use a commercial heat gun — which is like a handheld hair dryer — because they’re too large,” says Griffin. “We needed a more compact design. Once we figured it out, it was a lot of fun to write the script for the robot to follow.”

A dress can begin with one design — pintucks across the chest, for example — and be worn for months before having heat re-applied to alter its look. Subsequent applications of heat can tailor the dress further.

Beyond fit and fashion
Efficiently producing garments is a “big challenge” in the fashion industry, according to Gihan Amarasiriwardena ’11, the co-founder and president of Ministry of Supply.

“A lot of times you'll be guessing what a season's style is,” he says. “Sometimes the style doesn't do well, or some sizes don’t sell out. They may get discounted very heavily or eventually they end up going to a landfill.”

“Fast fashion” is a term that describes clothes that are inexpensive, trendy, and easily disposed of by the consumer. They are designed and produced quickly to keep pace with current trends. The 4D Knit Dress, says Tibbits, is the opposite of fast fashion. Unlike the traditional “cut-and-sew” process in the fashion industry, the 4D Knit Dress is made entirely in one piece, which virtually eliminates waste.

“From a global standpoint, you don’t have tons of excess inventory because the dress is customized to your size,” says Tibbits.

McKinlay says she hopes use of this new technology will reduce the amount of waste in inventory that retailers usually have at the end of each season.

“The dress could be tailored in order to adapt to these changes in styles and tastes,” she says. “It may also be able to absorb some of the size variations that retailers need to stock. Instead of extra-small, small, medium, large, and extra-large sizes, retailers may be able to have one dress for the smaller sizes and one for the larger sizes. Of course, these are the same sustainability points that would benefit the consumer.”

The Self-Assembly Lab has collaborated with Ministry of Supply on projects with active textiles for several years. Late last year, the team debuted the 4D Knit Dress at the company’s flagship store in Boston, complete with a robotic arm working its way around a dress as customers watched. For Amarasiriwardena, it was an opportunity to gauge interest and receive feedback from customers interested in trying the dress on.

“If the demand is there, this is something we can create quickly” unlike the usual design and manufacturing process, which can take years, says Amarasiriwardena.

Griffin and McKinlay were on hand for the demonstration and pleased with the results. For Griffin, with the “technical barriers” overcome, he sees many different avenues for the project.

“This experience leaves me wanting to try more,” he says.

McKinlay too would love to work on more styles.

“I hope this research project helps people rethink or reevaluate their relationship with clothes,” says McKinlay. “Right now when people purchase a piece of clothing it has only one ‘look.’ But, how exciting would it be to purchase one garment and reinvent it to change and evolve as you change or as the seasons or styles change? I'm hoping that's the takeaway that people will have.”

Skin injuries caused by prolonged pressure often occur in people who are unable to change their position independently – such as sick newborns in hospitals or elderly people. Thanks to successful partnerships with industry and research, Empa scientists are now launching two smart solutions for pressure sores.

If too much pressure is applied to our skin over a long period of time, it becomes damaged. Populations at high risk of such pressure injuries include people in wheelchairs, newborns in intensive care units and the elderly. The consequences are wounds, infections and pain.

Treatment is complex and expensive: Healthcare costs of around 300 million Swiss francs are incurred every year. "In addition, existing illnesses can be exacerbated by such pressure injuries," says Empa researcher Simon Annaheim from the Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles laboratory in St. Gallen. According to Annaheim, it would be more sustainable to prevent tissue damage from occurring in the first place. Two current research projects involving Empa researchers are now advancing solutions: A pressure-equalizing mattress for newborns in intensive care units and a textile sensor system for paraplegics and bedridden people are being developed.

Optimally nestled at the start of life
The demands of our skin are completely different depending on age: In adults, the friction of the skin on the lying surface, physical shear forces in the tissue and the lack of breathability of textiles are the main risk factors. In contrast, the skin of newborns receiving intensive care is extremely sensitive per se, and any loss of fluid and heat through the skin can become a problem. "While these particularly vulnerable babies are being nursed back to health, the lying situation should not cause any additional complications," says Annaheim. He thinks conventional mattresses are not appropriate for newborns with very different weights and various illnesses. Annaheim's team is therefore working with researchers from ETH Zurich, the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and the University Children's Hospital Zurich to find an optimal lying surface for babies' delicate skin. This mattress should be able to adapt individually to the body in order to help children with a difficult start in life.

In order to do this, the researchers first determined the pressure conditions in the various regions of the newborn's body. "Our pressure sensors showed that the head, shoulders and lower spine are the areas with the greatest risk of pressure sores," says Annaheim. These findings were incorporated into the development of a special kind of air-filled mattress: With the help of pressure sensors and a microprocessor, its three chambers can be filled precisely via an electronic pump so that the pressure in the respective areas is minimized. An infrared laser process developed at Empa made it possible to produce the mattress from a flexible, multi-layered polymer membrane that is gentle on the skin and has no irritating seams.

After a multi-stage development process in the laboratory, the first small patients were allowed to lie on the prototype mattress. The effect was immediately noticeable when the researchers filled the mattress with air to varying degrees depending on the individual needs of the babies: Compared to a conventional foam mattress, the prototype reduced the pressure on the vulnerable parts of the body by up to 40 percent.

Following this successful pilot study, the prototype is now being optimized in the Empa labs. Simon Annaheim and doctoral student Tino Jucker will soon be starting a larger-scale study with the new mattress with the Department of Intensive Care Medicine & Neonatology at University Children's Hospital Zurich.

Intelligent sensors prevent injuries
In another project, Empa researchers are working on preventing so-called pressure ulcer tissue damage in adults. This involves converting the risk factors of pressure and circulatory disorders into helpful warning signals.

If you lie in the same position for a long time, pressure and circulatory problems lead to an undersupply of oxygen to the tissue. While the lack of oxygen triggers a reflex to move in healthy people, this neurological feedback loop can be disrupted in people with paraplegia or coma patients, for example. Here, smart sensors can help to provide early warning of the risk of tissue damage.

In the ProTex project, a team of researchers from Empa, the University of Bern, the OST University of Applied Sciences and Bischoff Textil AG in St. Gallen has developed a sensor system made of smart textiles with associated data analysis in real time. "The skin-compatible textile sensors contain two different functional polymer fibers," says Luciano Boesel from Empa's Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles laboratory in St. Gallen. In addition to pressure-sensitive fibers, the researchers integrated light-conducting polymer fibers (POFs), which are used to measure oxygen. "As soon as the oxygen content in the skin drops, the highly sensitive sensor system signals an increasing risk of tissue damage," explains Boesel. The data is then transmitted directly to the patient or to the nursing staff. This means, for instance, that a lying person can be repositioned in good time before the tissue is damaged.

Patented technology
The technology behind this also includes a novel microfluidic wet spinning process developed at Empa for the production of POFs. It allows precise control of the polymer components in the micrometer range and smoother, more environmentally friendly processing of the fibers. The microfluidic process is one of three patents that have emerged from the ProTex project to date.

Another product is a breathable textile sensor that is worn directly on the skin. The spin-off Sensawear in Bern, which emerged from the project in 2023, is currently pushing ahead with the market launch. Empa researcher Boesel is also convinced: "The findings and technologies from ProTex will enable further applications in the field of wearable sensor technology and smart clothing in the future."

Freezing is one of the most common and debilitating symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects more than 9 million people worldwide. When individuals with Parkinson’s disease freeze, they suddenly lose the ability to move their feet, often mid-stride, resulting in a series of staccato stutter steps that get shorter until the person stops altogether. These episodes are one of the biggest contributors to falls among people living with Parkinson’s disease.

Today, freezing is treated with a range of pharmacological, surgical or behavioral therapies, none of which are particularly effective. What if there was a way to stop freezing altogether?

Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Boston University Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences have used a soft, wearable robot to help a person living with Parkinson’s walk without freezing. The robotic garment, worn around the hips and thighs, gives a gentle push to the hips as the leg swings, helping the patient achieve a longer stride.

The device completely eliminated the participant’s freezing while walking indoors, allowing them to walk faster and further than they could without the garment’s help.

“We found that just a small amount of mechanical assistance from our soft robotic apparel delivered instan-taneous effects and consistently improved walking across a range of conditions for the individual in our study,” said Conor Walsh, the Paul A. Maeder Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SEAS and co-corresponding author of the study.

The research demonstrates the potential of soft robotics to treat this frustrating and potentially dangerous symptom of Parkinson’s disease and could allow people living with the disease to regain not only their mobility but their independence.

For over a decade, Walsh’s Biodesign Lab at SEAS has been developing assistive and rehabilitative robotic technologies to improve mobility for individuals’ post-stroke and those living with ALS or other diseases that impact mobility. Some of that technology, specifically an exosuit for post-stroke gait retraining, received support from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and Harvard’s Office of Technology Development coordinated a license agreement with ReWalk Robotics to commercialize the technology.

In 2022, SEAS and Sargent College received a grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to support the development and translation of next-generation robotics and wearable technologies. The research is centered at the Move Lab, whose mission is to support advances in human performance enhancement with the collaborative space, funding, R&D infrastructure, and experience necessary to turn promising research into mature technologies that can be translated through collaboration with industry partners. This research emerged from that partnership.

“Leveraging soft wearable robots to prevent freezing of gait in patients with Parkinson’s required a collaboration between engineers, rehabilitation scientists, physical therapists, biomechanists and apparel designers,” said Walsh, whose team collaborated closely with that of Terry Ellis,  Professor and Physical Therapy Department Chair and Director of the Center for Neurorehabilitation at Boston University.

Leveraging soft wearable robots to prevent freezing of gait in patients with Parkinson’s required a collaboration between engineers, rehabilitation scientists, physical therapists, biomechanists and apparel designers.

The team spent six months working with a 73-year-old man with Parkinson’s disease, who — despite using both surgical and pharmacologic treatments — endured substantial and incapacitating freezing episodes more than 10 times a day, causing him to fall frequently. These episodes prevented him from walking around his community and forced him to rely on a scooter to get around outside.

In previous research, Walsh and his team leveraged human-in-the-loop optimization to demonstrate that a soft, wearable device could be used to augment hip flexion and assist in swinging the leg forward to provide an efficient approach to reduce energy expenditure during walking in healthy individuals.

Here, the researchers used the same approach but to address freezing. The wearable device uses cable-driven actuators and sensors worn around the waist and thighs. Using motion data collected by the sensors, algorithms estimate the phase of the gait and generate assistive forces in tandem with muscle movement.

The effect was instantaneous. Without any special training, the patient was able to walk without any freezing indoors and with only occasional episodes outdoors. He was also able to walk and talk without freezing, a rarity without the device.

“Our team was really excited to see the impact of the technology on the participant’s walking,” said Jinsoo Kim, former PhD student at SEAS and co-lead author on the study.

During the study visits, the participant told researchers: “The suit helps me take longer steps and when it is not active, I notice I drag my feet much more. It has really helped me, and I feel it is a positive step forward. It could help me to walk longer and maintain the quality of my life.”

“Our study participants who volunteer their time are real partners,” said Walsh. “Because mobility is difficult, it was a real challenge for this individual to even come into the lab, but we benefited so much from his perspective and feedback.”

The device could also be used to better understand the mechanisms of gait freezing, which is poorly understood.

“Because we don’t really understand freezing, we don’t really know why this approach works so well,” said Ellis. “But this work suggests the potential benefits of a ’bottom-up’ rather than ’top-down’ solution to treating gait freezing. We see that restoring almost-normal biomechanics alters the peripheral dynamics of gait and may influence the central processing of gait control.”

The research was co-authored by Jinsoo Kim, Franchino Porciuncula, Hee Doo Yang, Nicholas Wendel, Teresa Baker and Andrew Chin. Asa Eckert-Erdheim and Dorothy Orzel also contributed to the design of the technology, as well as Ada Huang, and Sarah Sullivan managed the clinical research. It was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant CMMI-1925085; the National Institutes of Health under grant NIH U01 TR002775; and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Collaborative Research and Development Matching Grant.

Challa Kumar has developed methods to create novel plastic-like materials using proteins and fabric.

Every year, 400 million tons of plastic waste are generated worldwide. Between 19 and 23 million tons of that plastic waste makes its way into aquatic ecosystems, and the remaining goes into the ground. An additional 92 million tons of cloth waste is generated annually.

Challa Kumar, professor emeritus of chemistry, “fed up” with the tremendous amount of toxic waste people continually pump into the environment, felt compelled to do something. As a chemist, doing something meant using his expertise to develop new, sustainable materials.

“Everyone should think about replacing fossil fuel-based materials with natural materials anywhere they can to help our civilization to survive,” Kumar says. “The house is on fire, we can’t wait. If the house is on fire and you start digging a well – that is not going to work. It’s time to start pouring water on the house.”

Kumar has developed two technologies that use proteins and cloth, respectively, to create new materials. UConn’s Technology Commercialization Services (TCS) has filed provisional patents for both technologies.

Inspired by nature’s ability to construct a diverse array of functional materials, Kumar and his team developed a method to produce continuously tunable non-toxic materials.

“Chemistry is the only thing standing in our way,” Kumar says. “If we understand protein chemistry, we can make protein materials as strong as a diamond or as soft as a feather.”

The first innovation is a process to transform naturally occurring proteins into plastic-like materials. Kumar’s student, Ankarao Kalluri ’23 Ph.D., worked on this project.

Proteins have “reactor groups” on their surfaces which can react with substances with which they come into contact. Using his knowledge of how these groups work, Kumar and his team used a chemical link to bind protein molecules together.

This process creates a dimer – a molecule composed to two proteins. From there, the dimer is joined with another dimer to create tetramer, and so on until it becomes a large 3D molecule. This 3D aspect of the technology is unique, since most synthetic polymers are linear chains.

This novel 3D structure allows the new polymer to behave like a plastic. Just like the proteins of which it is made, the material can stretch, change shape, and fold. Thus, the material can be tailored via chemistry for a variety of specific applications.

Unlike synthetic polymers, because Kumar’s material is made of proteins and a bio-linking chemical, it can biodegrade, just like plant and animal proteins do naturally.

“Nature degrades proteins by ripping apart the amide bonds that are in them,” Kumar says. “It has enzymes to handle that sort of chemistry. We have the same amide linkages in our materials. So, the same enzymes that work in biology should also work on this material and biodegrade it naturally.”

In the lab, the team found that the material degrades within a few days in acidic solution. Now, they are investigating what happens if they bury this material in the ground, which is the fate of many post-consumer plastics.

They have demonstrated that the protein-based material can form a variety of plastic-like products, including coffee cup lids and thin transparent films. It could also be used to make fire-resistant roof tiles, or higher-end materials like, car doors, rocket cone tips, or heart valves.

The next steps for this technology are to continue testing their mechanical properties, like strength or flexibility, as well as toxicity.

“I think we need to have social consciousness that we cannot put out materials into the environment that are toxic,” Kumar says. “We just cannot. We have to stop doing that. And we cannot use materials derived from fossil fuels either.”

Kumar’s second technology uses a similar principle, but instead of just proteins, uses proteins reinforced with natural fibers, specifically cotton.

“We are creating a lot of textile waste each year due to the fast-changing fashion industry” Kumar says. “So why not use that waste to create useful materials – convert waste to wealth.”

Just like the plastic-like protein materials (called “Proteios,” derived from original Greek words), Kumar expects composite materials made from proteins and natural fibers will biodegrade without producing toxic waste.

In the lab, Kumar’s former student, doctoral candidate Adekeye Damilola, created many objects with protein-fabric composites, which include small shoes, desks, flowers, and chairs. This material contains textile fibers which serve as the linking agent with the proteins, rather than the cross-linking chemical Kumar uses for the protein-based plastics.

The crosslinking provides the novel material with the strength to withstand the weight that would be put on something like a chair or a table. The natural affinity between fibers and proteins is why it’s so hard to get food stains out of clothing. This same attraction makes strong protein-fabric materials.

While Kumar’s team has only worked with cotton so far, they expect other fiber materials, like hemp fibers or jute, would behave similarly due to their inherent but common chemical properties with cotton.

“The protein naturally adheres to the surface of the protein,” Kumar says. “We used that understanding to say ‘Hey, if it binds so tightly to cotton, why don’t we make a material out of it.’ And it works, it works amazingly.”

With the support of TCS, Professor Kumar is currently seeking industry partners to bring these technologies to market. For more information contact Michael Invernale at michael.invernale@uconn.edu.

Business leaders, product developers, and technology scouts convened at the RISE® (Research, Innovation & Science for Engineered Fabrics) Conference, Sept. 26-27, Raleigh, NC for two days of valuable insights in material science, process and sustainability innovations. RISE is co-organized by INDA and The Nonwovens Institute, North Carolina State University.

Industry, academic, and government experts shared their expertise in these key areas:

• The future of nonwoven manufacturing
• Real-world applications and advances in filter media
• rPolymers and sustainability
• Innovative strategies and circular solutions
• Advancements in sustainable nonwoven applications
• Market statistics and data trends

A highlight of RISE was a poster presentation of fundamental nonwovens research by The Nonwovens Institute’s graduate students. As an added value, The Nonwovens Institute offered RISE participants a tour of its world-class facilities located on the Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University, featuring the most extensive set of lab- and pilot-scale equipment found anywhere including all the nonwovens platform and testing technologies.

RISE® Innovation Award Winner
TiHive won the 2023 RISE Innovation Award for their SAPMonit technology. TiHive’s innovation, SAPMonit – a technology breakthrough, inspects millions of diapers weekly. SAPMonit delivers lightning-speed inline inspection of superabsorbents’ weight and distribution, optimizes resources, detects flaws, and accelerates R&D. SAPMonit utilizes advanced see-through cameras, high-speed vision algorithms, and secure cloud integration, revolutionizing industry norms. SAPMonit has great potential for sustainability, cost reduction, and enhanced customer satisfaction as it avoids hundreds of tons of plastic waste per year per machine.

The RISE Innovation Award finalists included Curt. G. Joa, Inc. for their ESC-8 – The JOA® Electronic Size Change, Fiberpartner Aps for their BicoBio Fiber, and Reifenhäuser REICOFIL GmbH & Co. KG for their Reifenhäuser Reicofil RF5 XHL.  Together, these finalists’ innovations have the potential to reduce plastic waste by millions of kgs.

DiaperRecycle won the 2022 RISE® Innovation Award for its innovative technology to recycle used diapers into absorbent and flushable cat litter. By diverting used diapers from households and institutions, and separating the plastic and fiber, DiaperRecycle strives to decrease the climate-changing emissions of diapers from landfills.

2023 INDA Lifetime Technical Achievement Award
Ed Thomas, President, Nonwoven Technology Associates, LLC, received the 2023 INDA Lifetime Technical Achievement Award for his decades of nonwoven contributions to the growth and success of the nonwoven industry.

RISE 2024 will be held October 1-2, 2024 at the James B. Hunt Jr. Library at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC.

Under the theme "New Sensitivity", textile transformation is the focus of Heimtextil Trends 24/25. Three approaches show ways to a more sensitive world of textiles: the plant-based production of textiles, the support of textile cycles by technology and the bioengineered use of natural ingredients. In addition, Future Materials curates regenerative materials and designs.
 
After last year's focus on circular solutions, Heimtextil Trends 24/25 will once again shed light on transformative textile innovations.
Under the title "New Sensitivity," the focus is on innovations and changes in the composition of textiles, in addition to aesthetic aspects. "In this context, sensitivity means considering the impact on the environment when making a decision or creating a product. Understanding how natural ecosystems work and prioritising balance as the default are key," says Anja Bisgaard Gaede, Founder of SPOTT trends & business.

How does New Sensitivity translate into something concrete in the lifestyle industry, and what does having a sensitive approach to design and products mean? Also the adoption of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is transforming current times. AGI has the potential to bring innovative solutions and help tackle significant challenges, also in the textile industry. However, AGI can have the opposite effect on society. AGI needs the mindset of New Sensitivity that helps simplify complexity, expand creativity, and find unseen solutions, also within the world of textiles.
     
"With Heimtextil Trends 24/25: New Sensitivity, we encourage the textile industry to approach the future with thoughtfulness and consideration. Specifically, we see this change in three different trends for a more sensitive world of textiles: biotechnical, plant-based and technological," Bisgaard Gaede continues.

Plant-based: textiles made from plant crops or plant by-products
Plant-based textiles mean that the fibres are derived from something that grows rather than being synthetically produced. The sustainable advantage of plant-based textiles is that their origin is natural and, therefore, more able to recirculate in existing ecosystems. They can be divided into two groups. The first group of textiles are made from plant crops. New resilient crops like cactus, hemp, abaca, seaweed, and rubber offer new sustainable textile solutions. Because of mechanical extraction, they can grow despite climate changes and require fewer chemicals in their development. The second group consists of textiles made of plant by-products which are leftover raw materials from production such as banana, olive, persimmon and hemp.

Technological: technology and technical solutions transforming textiles
Technology can support the transformation of textiles through the use of different methods: upcycling and recycling of textiles, textile construction, and textile design. Due to decades of production, textiles are now a material available in abundance. Developing technologies for recycling textile waste and methods for upcycling textiles increases the circular usage of existing textiles. Furthermore, old textile construction techniques also offer pathways to sustainable solutions: For instance, using knitting technology for furniture upholstery produces less fabric waste; alternatively, weaving technique allows the creation of several colours using only a few coloured yarns. Textile Design Thinking is another method that addresses critical issues such as energy usage and durability of natural fibres and enhances these through technological textile advancement.

Bio-engineered: engineered to enhance bio-degrading
To a certain degree, bio-engineered textiles represent a fusion of plant-based and technological textiles. Bio-engineering bridges nature and technology and transforms the way textiles are made. They can be divided into two directions: fully bio-engineered and bio-degradable textiles. In the production of fully bio-engineered textiles nature-inspired strategies are adopted. Instead of growing plants and extracting their fibres, textiles are made from the protein, carbohydrates, or bacteria in corn, grass, and cane sugar. Manufacturing involves a bio-molecular process that creates filaments which are made into yarn. The sustainable advantage of bio-engineered textiles is that they can have some of the same functionalities as synthetically produced textiles, while still being biodegradable because of their natural origin. Biodegradable fibres can be added to conventional textiles like polyester to enhance the conventional textiles’ ability to revert to materials found in nature and hence biodegrade in natural environments such as water or soil. Although not biodegrading completely, these bio-enhanced textiles will biodegrade up to 93 % compared to conventional textiles.

Heimtextil Trends 24/25: new colourways
A sensitive approach to colouring methods is expressed by a dynamic yet subtle colour palette created through natural pigments deriving from the earth, as traditional colouring processes are brought to the next level through innovative bioengineering technology. In pursuit of creating colours that evoke emotions in our senses while at the same time respecting our values in protecting the environment, we see colour bacteria growing pigments generating hues with great richness and depth.
               
This New Sensitivity includes acceptance of natural colour flows, as colours may fade with time or morph into new colourways. The colourways for Heimtextil Trends 24/25 were inspired by natural colours deriving from avocado seeds, algae, living bacteria, antique pigments such as raw sienna, and bio-engineered indigo and cochineal. The high black component in most colours allows for widespread application and a greater variety of combinations. The punchy saturated accents enhance our senses as they lift our spirits. In contrast, the grounding neutrals in different shades of grey, terra and even dark purple allow for calmness and tranquillity.

Future Materials: regenerative design
How are regenerative textiles and materials defined? Regenerative design is dedicated to developing holistic creative practices that restore or renew resources, have a positive impact on the environment, and encourage communities to thrive. For Heimtextil 2024, design futures consultancy FranklinTill is curating a global showcase of cutting-edge textiles and materials to illustrate the principles of regenerative design and recognize pioneering designers, producers and manufacturers who are at the forefront of regenerative design.
The Trend Space at Heimtextil in Frankfurt, Germany, January 9-12, 2023, will showcase these pioneering solutions in an inspiring way. In addition, Heimtextil Trends will offer visitors orientation and insights into the future of home and contract textiles in the form of workshops, lectures and other interactive formats.

Focusing on short-term profit isn’t sustainable. So what can we do to move in the right direction: favour resilience over efficiency in all industries.

We buy cheap products knowing we’ll need to replace them soon. We throw out used items rather than repairing or re-using them. Our employers plan in terms of financial quarters despite hoping to remain relevant and resilient longer-term. Even countries prioritise short-term economic output, focusing on gross domestic product (GDP) above any other indicator.

But does this way of living, working and weighing decisions make sense in the 21st century?

Our global obsession with economic short-term efficiency – and how to transform it – is a conundrum that Professor of Sustainability Management Minna Halme has been thinking about for most of her career. Even as a business school student, she felt flummoxed by how focused her classes were on short-term goals.

'It was about selling more, about maximising shareholder profits, about economic growth – but not really asking, Why? What's the purpose of all this?'

Halme says. 'Even 20-year-old me somehow just felt that this was strange.

'What are we trying to do here? Are we trying to create a better economy for all, or most, people? Whose lives are we trying to improve when we are selling more differently-packaged types of yoghurt or clothes that quickly become obsolete?'

Halme has devoted her career to studying these questions. Today, she is a thought leader in innovative business practices, with recognitions including serving on Finland's National Expert Panel for Sustainable Development and on the United Nation's Panel on Global Sustainability.

Her ultimate goal? Pioneering, researching and advocating for alternative ways of thinking that prioritise values like long-term economic sustainability and resilience – alternatives that she and other experts believe would provide more lasting, widespread benefit to all.

How traditional indicators have failed
One way in which our preference for economic efficiency shapes how we measure a country's overall well-being or status is GDP. This isn't the fault of the originator of the modern concept of GDP, who specifically warned against using it in this way in the 1930s.

'GDP was never meant to tell us about the wellbeing of the citizens of a country,' Halme says. Seventy-five years ago, however, it was easy to conflate the two. Many countries were more committed to redistributing their wealth among their citizens, and population surveys show that until the 1970s, GDP often correlated with general wellbeing.

But with the rise of increasingly heedless free-market capitalism, this became less the case – and GDP's shortcomings became all the more apparent. 'We are in a situation where the wealth distribution is more and more trickling up to those who already have capital. Those who don't have it are in declining economic positions,' Halme says. In fact, the richest 1% of the global population now own nearly half of the world's wealth.

Some governments, such as Finland's, do take indicators of environmental and social progress into account. 'But none is considered as important for decision-making as GDP,' Halme says – and GDP is also considered the arbiter of a government's success. It is that attitude that, through her work advising the Finnish government on sustainability practises as well as in her own research, Halme is trying to shift.

Where industries have failed
Our often-exclusive focus on the economy – and, in particular, on making profits as quickly and efficiently as possible – doesn’t provide a clear picture of how everyone in a society is faring. Worse yet, it has encouraged industries to act with a short-term view that makes for longer-term problems.

Fast fashion is one example. At the moment, supply chains for clothing – as for most other goods – are linear. Raw materials come from one place and are transformed step by step, usually at different factories around the world, using materials, energy and transport that are “cheap” because their high environmental costs aren’t included. They are ultimately purchased by a consumer, who wears the product temporarily before discarding it. To expand profit margins, the industry pushes fast-changing trends. A shocking amount of this clothing ends up in landfill – some of it before it's even been worn.

As the COVID lockdowns showed, this kind of linear supply system isn't resilient. Nor is it sustainable.

Currently, fashion is estimated to be the world's second most polluting industry, accounting for up to 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Aalto University researchers have reported that the industry produces more than 92 million tonnes of landfill waste per year. By 2030, that is expected to rise to 134 million tonnes.

Cutting fashion's carbon footprint isn't just good for the environment; it will help the longer-term prospects of the industry itself. 'With this kind of wrong thinking about efficiency, you're eroding the basis of our long-term resilience both for ecology and for society,' Halme says.

Getting out of this trap, she and other researchers say, requires a complete paradigm shift. 'It's really difficult to just tweak around the edges,' she says.

Towards resilience
For several years, Halme researched and studied ecological efficiency, looking at ways that businesses could make more products with a smaller environmental impact. But gradually she realised this wasn't the answer. Although businesses could innovate to have more efficient products and technologies, their absolute use of natural resource use kept growing.

'I began to think, "If not efficiency, then what?"' Halme says. She realised the answer was resilience: fostering ways for systems, including the environment, to continue and even regenerate in the future, rather than continuing to degrade them in the present.

The solution isn’t more of anything, even ‘sustainable’ materials. It’s less.

'The only way to fix fast fashion is to end it,' Halme and her co-authors write. This means designing clothes to last, business models that make reuse and repair more accessible, and prioritising upcycling. Recycling systems also need to be overhauled for when an item really is at the end of its life – particularly regarding blended synthetic fibres, which are difficult to separate and break down.

This would upend the current focus on short-term revenue above all else. And, says Halme, it is one more example of how we need better ways to measure the success of these industries, taking into account factors like resilience and sustainability – rather than just short-term profits.

And while individuals can make an impact, these changes ultimately have to be industry-led.

'Textiles are a good example, because if they break quickly, and if you don't have repair services nearby, or if the fabrics are of such lousy quality that it doesn't make any sense to repair them, then it's too much trouble for most people,' Halme says. 'So most solutions should come from the business side. And the attempt should be to make it both fashionable and easy for consumers to make ecologically and socially sustainable choices.'

What will it take?
The ultimate challenge, says Lauri Saarinen, Assistant Professor at the Aalto University Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, is how to shift towards a more sustainable model while keeping companies competitive. But he believes there are ways.

One option is to keep production local. 'If we compete with low-cost, offshore manufacturing by doing things more locally, and in a closed loop, then we get the double benefit of actually providing some local work and moving towards a more sustainable supply chain,' Saarinen says. For example, if clothing were produced closer to consumers, it would be easier to send garments back for repair or for brands to take back used items and resell them.

Local production is yet another example of the need to rethink how we measure societal success. After all, outsourcing and offshoring in favour of cheaper production may appear to cut costs in short term, but this is done at the expense of what Halme and other experts argue really matters – longer-term economic viability, resilience and sustainability.

Shifting towards this kind of thinking isn't easy. Still, Saarinen and Halme have seen promising signs.

In Finland, for example, Halme points to the start-up Menddie, which makes it easy and convenient to send items away for repairs or alterations. She also highlights the clothing and lifestyle brand Marimekko, which re-sells its used items in an online secondhand shop, and the Anna Ruohonen label, a made-to-measurecollection and customer on-demand concept which creates no excess garments.

It's these kinds of projects that Halme finds interesting – and that, through her work, she hopes to both advocate for and pioneer.

At the moment, she says, these changes haven't yet added up to a true transformation. On a global scale, we remain far from a genuine shift towards longer-term resilience. But as she points out, that can change quickly. After all, it has in the past. Just look at what got us here.

'The pursuit of economic growth became such a dominant focus in a relatively short time – only about seven decades,' she says. 'The shift toward longer-term resilience is certainly possible. Scientists and decision-makers just need to change their main goal to long-term resilience. The key question is, are our most powerful economic players wise enough to do so?'

As part of her research, Halme has led projects pioneering the kinds of changes that the fashion industry could adapt. For example, along with her Aalto colleague Linda Turunen, she recently developed a measurement that the fashion industry could use to classify how sustainable a product really is – measuring things like its durability, how easily it can be recycled, and whether its production uses hazardous chemicals – which could help consumers to decide whether to buy. Her colleagues curated a recent exhibition that showcased what we might be wearing in a sustainable future, such as a leather alternative made from discarded flower cuttings, or modular designs to get multiple uses from the same garment – turning a skirt into a shirt, for example.
 
Because all of this requires longer-term thinking, innovation and investment, industry is reticent to make these shifts, Halme says. One way to encourage industries to change more quickly is with regulation. In the European Union, for example, an updated set of directives now requires companies with more than 500 employees to report on a number of corporate responsibility factors, ranging from environmental impact to the treatment of employees. These rules won't just help inform consumers, investors and other stakeholders about a company's role in global challenges. They’ll also help assess investment risks – weighing whether a company is taking the actions necessary to be financially resilient in the long-term.

During pregnancy, regular medical check-ups provide information about the health and development of the pregnant person and the child. However, these examinations only provide snapshots of their state, which can be dangerous, especially in high-risk cases. To enable convenient and continuous monitoring during this sensitive phase, an international research consortium is planning to further develop the technology of smart textiles. A patch equipped with highly sensitive electronics is meant to collect and evaluate vital data. In addition, the sensors will be integrated into baby clothing in order to improve the future of medical monitoring for newborns with the highest level of data security.

The beginning of a pregnancy is accompanied by a period of intensive health monitoring of the baby and the pregnant person. Conventional prenatal examinations with ultrasound devices, however, only capture snapshots of the respective condition and require frequent visits to doctors, especially in high-risk pregnancies. With the help of novel wearables and smart textiles, researchers in the EU-funded project Newlife aim to enable continuous obstetric monitoring in everyday life.

One goal of the consortium, consisting of 25 partners, is the development of a biocompatible, stretchable, and flexible patch to monitor the progress of the pregnancy and the embryo. Similar to a band-aid, the patch will be applied to the pregnant person’s skin, continuously recording vital data using miniaturized sensors (e.g., ultrasound) and transmitting it via Bluetooth.

For some time now, modern medical technology has been relying on smart textiles and intelligent wearables to offer patients convenient, continuous monitoring at home instead of stationary surveillance. At the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microelectronics IZM, a team led by Christine Kallmayer is bringing this technology to application-oriented implementation, benefitting from the Fraunhofer IZM’s years of experience with integrating technologies into flexible materials. For the integrated patch, the researchers are using thermoplastic polyurethane as base materials, in which electronics and sensors are embedded. This ensures that the wearing experience is similar to that of a regular band-aid instead of a rigid film.

To ensure that the obstetric monitoring is imperceptible and comfortable for both pregnant individuals and the unborn child, the project consortium plans to integrate innovative MEMS-based ultrasound sensors directly into the PU material. The miniaturized sensors are meant to record data through direct skin contact. Stretchable conductors made of TPU material tracks will then transmit the information to the electronic evaluation unit and finally to a wireless interface, allowing doctors and midwives to view all relevant data in an app. In addition to ultrasound, the researchers are planning to integrate additional sensors such as microphones, temperature sensors, and electrodes.

Even after birth, the new integration technology can be of great benefit to medical technology: With further demonstrators, the Newlife team plans to enable the monitoring of newborns. Sensors for continuous ECG, respiration monitoring, and infrared spectroscopy to observe brain activity will be integrated into the soft textile of a baby bodysuit and a cap. "Especially for premature infants and newborns with health risks, remote monitoring is a useful alternative to hospitalization and wired monitoring. For this purpose, we must guarantee an unprecedented level of comfort provided by the ultra-thin smart textiles: no electronics should be noticeable. Additionally, the entire module has to be extremely reliable, as the smart textiles should easily withstand washing cycles," explains Christine Kallmayer, project manager at Fraunhofer IZM.

For external monitoring of the baby's well-being, the project is also researching ways to use camera data and sensor technology in the baby's bed. Once the hardware basis of the patch, the textile electronics, and the sensor bed is built and tested, the project partners will take another step forward. Through cloud-based solutions, AI and machine learning will be used to simplify the implementation for medical staff and ensure the highest level of data security.

The Newlife project is coordinated by Philips Electronics Nederland B.V. and will run until the end of 2025. It is funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe program as part of Key Digital Technologies Joint Undertaking under grant number 101095792 with a total of 18.7 million euros.

• With fast fashion, the quantity of clothes produced and thrown away has boomed.

Fast fashion is the constant provision of new styles at very low prices. To tackle the impact on the environment, the EU wants to reduce textile waste and increase the life cycle and recycling of textiles. This is part of the plan to achieve a circular economy by 2050.

Overconsumption of natural resources
It takes a lot of water to produce textile, plus land to grow cotton and other fibres. It is estimated that the global textile and clothing industry used 79 billion cubic metres of water in 2015, while the needs of the EU's whole economy amounted to 266 billion cubic metres in 2017.

To make a single cotton t-shirt, 2,700 litres of fresh water are required according to estimates, enough to meet one person’s drinking needs for 2.5 years.

The textile sector was the third largest source of water degradation and land use in 2020. In that year, it took on average nine cubic metres of water, 400 square metres of land and 391 kilogrammes (kg) of raw materials to provide clothes and shoes for each EU citizen.

Water pollution
Textile production is estimated to be responsible for about 20% of global clean water pollution from dyeing and finishing products.

Laundering synthetic clothes accounts for 35% of primary microplastics released into the environment. A single laundry load of polyester clothes can discharge 700,000 microplastic fibres that can end up in the food chain.

The majority of microplastics from textiles are released during the first few washes. Fast fashion is based on mass production, low prices and high sales volumes that promotes many first washes.

Washing synthetic products has caused more than 14 million tonnes of microplastics to accumulate on the bottom of the oceans. In addition to this global problem, the pollution generated by garment production has a devastating impact on the health of local people, animals and ecosystems where the factories are located.

Greenhouse gas emissions
The fashion industry is estimated to be responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions – more than international flights and maritime shipping combined.

According to the European Environment Agency, textile purchases in the EU in 2020 generated about 270 kg of CO2 emissions per person. That means textile products consumed in the EU generated greenhouse gas emissions of 121 million tonnes.

Textile waste in landfills and low recycling rates
The way people get rid of unwanted clothes has also changed, with items being thrown away rather than donated. Less than half of used clothes are collected for reuse or recycling, and only 1% of used clothes are recycled into new clothes, since technologies that would enable clothes to be recycled into virgin fibres are only now starting to emerge.

Between 2000 and 2015, clothing production doubled, while the average use of an item of clothing has decreased.

Europeans use nearly 26 kilos of textiles and discard about 11 kilos of them every year. Used clothes can be exported outside the EU, but are mostly (87%) incinerated or landfilled.

The rise of fast fashion has been crucial in the increase in consumption, driven partly by social media and the industry bringing fashion trends to more consumers at a faster pace than in the past.

The new strategies to tackle this issue include developing new business models for clothing rental, designing products in a way that would make re-use and recycling easier (circular fashion), convincing consumers to buy fewer clothes of better quality (slow fashion) and generally steering consumer behaviour towards more sustainable options.

Work in progress: the EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles
As part of the circular economy action plan, the European Commission presented in March 2022 a new strategy to make textiles more durable, repairable, reusable and recyclable, tackle fast fashion and stimulate innovation within the sector.

The new strategy includes new ecodesign requirements for textiles, clearer information, a Digital Product Passport and calls companies to take responsibility and act to minimise their carbon and environmental footprints

On 1 June 2023, MEPs set out proposals for tougher EU measures to halt the excessive production and consumption of textiles. Parliament’s report calls for textiles to be produced respecting human, social and labour rights, as well as the environment and animal welfare.

Existing EU measures to tackle textile waste
Under the waste directive approved by the Parliament in 2018, EU countries are obliged to collect textiles separately by 2025. The new Commission strategy also includes measures to, tackle the presence of hazardous chemicals, calls producers have to take responsibility for their products along the value chain, including when they become wasteand help consumers to choose sustainable textiles.

The EU has an EU Ecolabel that producers respecting ecological criteria can apply to items, ensuring a limited use of harmful substances and reduced water and air pollution.

The EU has also introduced some measures to mitigate the impact of textile waste on the environment. Horizon 2020 funds Resyntex, a project using chemical recycling, which could provide a circular economy business model for the textile industry.

A more sustainable model of textile production also has the potential to boost the economy. "Europe finds itself in an unprecedented health and economic crisis, revealing the fragility of our global supply chains," said lead MEP Huitema. "Stimulating new innovative business models will in turn create new economic growth and the job opportunities Europe will need to recover."

For the third time, the nova-Institut awarded the "Cellulose Fibre Innovation of the Year" prize at the "Cellulose Fibres Conference 2023" in Cologne, 8-9 March 2023.

The yearly conference is a unique meeting point of the global cellulose fibres industry. 42 speakers from twelve countries highlighted the innovation potential of cellulosic fibres and presented the latest market insights and trends to more than 220 participants from 30 countries.

Leading international experts introduced new technologies for recycling of cellulose rich raw materials and practices for circular economy in textiles, packing and hygiene, which were discussed in seven panel discussion with active audience participation.    

Prior to the conference, the conference advisory board had nominated six remarkable innovations. The winners were elected in an exciting head-to-head live-voting by the conference audience on the first day of the event.

The collaboration between Nanollose (AU) and Birla Cellulose (IN) with tree-free lyocell from bacterial cellulose called Nullarbor™ is the winning cellulose fibre innovation 2023, followed by Renewcell (SE) cellulose fibres made from 100 % textile waste, while Vybrana – the new generation banana fibre from Gencrest Bio Products (IN) won third place.
    
Winner: Nullarbor™ – Nanollose and Birla Cellulose (AU/IN)
In 2020, Nanollose and Birla Cellulose started a journey to develop and commercialize treefree lyocell from bacterial cellulose, called Nullarbor™. The name derives from the Latin “nulla arbor” which means “no trees”. Initial lab research at both ends led to the joint patent application “production of high-tenacity lyocell fibres made from bacterial cellulose”.
Nullarbor is significantly stronger than lyocell made from wood-based pulp; even adding small amounts of bacterial cellulose to wood pulp increases the fibre toughness. In 2022, the first pilot batch of 260 kg was produced with 20 % bacterial pulp share. Several high-quality fabrics and garments were produced with this fibre. The collaboration between Nanollose and Birla Cellulose now focuses on increasing the production scale and amount of bacterial pulp in the fibre.  

Second place: Circulose® – makes fashion circular – Renewcell (SE)
Circulose® made by Renewcell is a branded dissolving pulp made from 100 % textile waste, like worn-out clothes and production scraps. It provides a unique material for fashion that is 100 % recycled, recyclable, biodegradable, and of virgin-equivalent quality. It is used by fibre producers to make staple fibre or filaments like viscose, lyocell, modal, acetate or other types of man-made cellulosic fibres. In 2022, Renewcell, opened the world’s first textile-to-textile     
chemical recycling plant in Sundsvall, Sweden – Renewcell 1. The plant is expected to reach an annual capacity of 120,000 tonnes.

Third place: Vybrana – The new generation banana fibre – Gencrest Bio Products (IN)
Vybrana is a Gencrest’s Sustainable Cellulosic Fibre upcycled from agrowaste. Raw fibres are extracted from the banana stem at the end of the plant lifecycle. The biomass waste is then treated by the Gencrest patented Fiberzyme technology. Here, cocktail enzyme formulations remove the high lignin content and other impurities and help fibre fibrillation. The company's proprietary cottonisation process provides fine, spinnable cellulose staple fibres suitable for blending with other staple fibres and can be spun on any conventional spinning systems giving yarns sustainable apparel. Vybrana is produced without the use of heavy chemicals and minimized water consumption and in a waste-free process where balance biomass is converted to bio stimulants Agrosatva and bio-based fertilizers and organic manure.