Future Fashion Landscapes: Fostering biodiversity through collaborations between farmers, designers, and processors of native and rare breed wool

University of the Arts London

Fashion and agriculture are among the industries with the highest climate footprint – through over consumption of finite resources, aggregated CO2 emissions, widespread ecosystem pollution and resulting extensive biodiversity loss.

This design-led R&D partnership between researchers from Centre for Sustainable Fashion and South East England and South West England Fibreshed supports Fibreshed’s mission to revalue UK wool and create short, transparent bio-regional fibre and fashion supply networks with potential for replication. Wool is still produced in the UK in abundance, but it is chronically undervalued, underutilised and often destroyed through lack of markets.

The project addresses one of the key barriers for advancement of bio-regional fibre and textiles ecosystems and economies - the lack of links, common language and mutual understanding of requirements and production cycles between farmers, designers and processors.

Two branches of the Fibreshed UK organisation are partners in the Future Fashion Landscapes project: South East England Fibreshed (SEEF) and South West England Fibreshed (SWEF)  represented by their respective Directors Deborah Barker and Emma Hague. Fibreshed is a global grassroots organisation developing regional fibre systems that builds both ecosystem and community health.  It brings together farmers, manufacturers, practitioners and designers to reignite localised textile industries through regenerative practices and processes.

Project team


University of the Arts London

Academic Supervisor: Sandy Black

Research Associate: Mila Burcikova

Non-Academic Partner: Southeast and Southwest England Fibreshed

Sandy Black

Prof Sandy Black is a Research Professor at Centre for Sustainable Fashion based at London College of Fashion, UAL. Working at the intersections of fashion and textile practice, design for
 

Mila Burcikova

Dr Mila Burcikova is a researcher at Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion. Mila’s research investigates alternatives to the current fashion system. Her current projects focus on
 

Deborah Barker

Deborah Barker FRSA, works at the intersection of fashion, textiles and agriculture and is co-founder of the South East England Fibreshed, partner in the Future Fashion Landscapes project. From her
 

Emma Hague

Emma Hague is the Founder of South West England Fibreshed, Bristol Textile Quarter and co-founder of Bristol Cloth. With an academic background in political and economic anthropology and indigenous