TOP STORY

Rana Plaza: The Moral Economy of Catastrophe and Who Collected Its Dividends

Thirteen years after Rana Plaza killed more than a thousand garment workers in Savar, the disaster is still generating money. The question survivors are now asking is where it goes. Recently, the Rana Plaza Survivors Association turned its demands away from brands and factory owners and toward the institutions that built campaigns, funding streams and organisational visibility around their suffering—and that, in survivors' view, have not been required to account to them for how those funds were used.

Other Top Stories
 
CIRCULARITY / RECYCLING / SECONDS / WASTE

Legislation Is Rewriting Rules for a System It Does Not Understand

The United States generates 17 million tonnes of textile waste annually, and the policy frameworks designed to address it are arriving faster than the infrastructure built to support them. California's SB 707 requires textile stewardship plans to be operational by 2030, yet the recovery network it depends on remains anchored in international reuse trade that the law was not designed to protect—and may inadvertently disrupt.

 
FLASHPOINT: CLIMATE
Decarbonisation / AII Benchmark

The Apparel Impact Institute (AII) has launched the Energy and Carbon Benchmark, a new tool designed to measure energy use and emissions across textile manufacturing processes. Developed with industry partners, it establishes process-level metrics to compare facilities, track performance over time, and guide collective decarbonisation efforts across the global fashion supply chain.

China Trends / Growth Story

China’s textile and apparel industry emissions were driven largely by household consumption and exports between 2000 and 2018, according to new modelling research. The study found that integrating renewable energy adoption with expanded clothing recycling could curb long-term emissions growth across interconnected supply chains while supporting continued industrial development.

 
 
 
FOCUS: COTTON

Mulberry Silk’s Triangular Fibre Structure Produces Its Signature Soft Lustre and Optical Glow, Scientific Report Shows

A scientific report has examined the microscopic structure and physicochemical properties of mulberry silk, explaining why the fibre displays distinctive lustre, smoothness and skin compatibility. Using microscopy and biomedical research, the analysis describes how silk’s natural microstructure influences optical reflection, friction behaviour, moisture absorption and potential applications in textiles, beauty and biomedical materials.

 
 
SPOTLIGHT EDITIONS: SELECT 4
 
 

"Quote Unquote"

Toby Moss
Toby Moss
Chief Commercial Officer
Worn Again Technologies
The Worn Again process has been designed from the start to process polycottons, which are a cornerstone fabric in modern clothes, but also some of the hardest to recycle. We also provide a unique solution to the market, which is the solvent based recycling approach. This approach is able to selectively target key materials, in this case polyester and cotton, in a way that other technologies are not.

"Quote Unquote"

Tanja Gotthardsen
Tanja Gotthardsen
Founder
Continual
And clearly, the Copenhagen Fashion Week case bears industry wide implications, considering how it is being adopted in other countries, and of course, it also affects consumers through the hundreds of influencers and media platforms invited to purvey its messages. Zalando, on the other hand, had 25.000 products tagged with their green coloured "sustainability” flag, while simultaneously asking brands to supply them with "sustainability information" which simply made it so much more difficult for brands to navigate what they were themselves allowed to communicate.
 
FOCUS: LEATHER

IILF 2026 Exposes Gap Between Boardroom Sustainability and Tannery Floor Reality

Chennai's IILF 2026 exposed contradictions shaping India's leather industry: innovative chemical systems alongside organisational failures, Trump tariffs suppressing demand yet prices holding firm, and sustainability frameworks that never reach tannery workers. The 'Leather Carnival' demonstrated both the sector's professionalisation and its struggle to reconcile traditional identity with market realities.