United Kingdom

Economic challenges and falling consumer confidence ensured that demand for leather continued to fall impacting performance of the UK leather industry.

New numbers released by environmental group WRAP on Tuesday show that the state of post-consumer textiles in the UK does not augur well for circularity, and the situation is compounded by concerns that the recycling and reuse sector is on the verge of collapse.

In what is being claimed as a tremendous breakthrough, a project is on to develop nanogenerator technology which can lead to wearable technology which picks up on a person’s natural movements to provide health data.

Earlier this month, the Textile Recycling Association (TRA) set alarm bells ringing in the UK when it warned of an imminent collapse of the textile recycling sector due to global market challenges. It's complicated, and TRA Chief Executive Officer Alan Wheeler helps disentangle the threads in this deep dive with texfash.com.

League of Artisans, a non-profit was formed to promote artisan skills as a vital response to global challenges, trusting in the transformational power of craft to create alternative futures. texfash.com talks to the globally-recognised activist-entrepreneur, Carry Somers, who is also Co-Founder of the decade-old Fashion Revolution.

Well, you now have a leather alternative that dyes itself! Researchers at the Imperial College London have created the sustainable, self-dyeing leather alternative by modifying the genes of a bacteria species that produces a strong, flexible and malleable material.

In a beginning of sorts after being pushed to the wall by the principal competition regulator in the UK, three major brands—ASOS, Boohoo and George at Asda—have inked formal agreements to use only accurate and clear green claims.

The Competition and Markets Authority has published the Green Claims Code that articulates how consumer protection law applies to environmental claims and provides a framework for businesses to make environmental claims that help consumers make informed choices. 

The death-knell of Somerset-based leather manufacturer, Pittards had been sounded much earlier but when it finally closed shop last September, the story of a worldwide brand known for producing gloves for the Royal Family, is one that has lessons for entrepreneurs of all hues.

Four decades after a piece of discovered tartan fabric was confirmed to be the oldest in the world, Scotland’s House of Edgar and a tartan historian have recreated it just as it was woven around 1500–1600.