From Lab to Wardrobe: WestTech London showcases the future of sustainable fashion
Fashion leaders, investors and founders came together with eleven of the UK’s top innovators in White City Innovation District to explore how to move cutting‑edge fashion and textile research out of the lab and into wardrobes — and why long‑term investment and UK‑based scaling support is essential.
An expert industry panel — chaired by Imperial Vice Provost Mary Ryan and including fashion designer Genaro Rivas, fashion investor Irene Maffini, Julian Ellis-Brown (CEO of Ponda), and James MacDonald (CEO of Solena Materials) — spoke at a sustainable fashion showcase hosted at Imperial College London’s White City Campus.
Pioneering WestTech London start-up Radiant Matter also took part in the showcase, and Solena Materials – based at I-HUB – is due to be featured in a special ITV News report from the event.
White City Innovation District – a key cluster within the WestTech London ecosystem – is rapidly emerging as a hub for sustainable fashion innovation. Over the past five years, Imperial staff and students have launched 17 sustainable fashion startups and spinouts, many supported by Undaunted, the UK’s leading climate innovation community.
To support start-ups to stay and scale in the UK, Imperial last month launched a first‑of‑its‑kind pilot and demonstration facility – GraphtWorks – for advanced manufacturing. Part of the WestTech London innovation ecosystem, the new West London facility is supporting Solena Materials to develop novel materials using computational design, and will also soon be home to Epoch Biodesign – a start-up harnessing breakthrough AI-engineered enzyme technology to recycle previously unrecyclable nylon textiles.
