EVENTS
Recent Events
Creatively Centred: Wear to Next?
Creativity Centred: a series of lively discussions and expert lectures by Creative Central NCL and friends
In partnership with Creative Central, we present Wear to next? Working together to shape the future for sustainable fashion
Sustainability acts as the antithesis to fast fashion, encouraging slow consumption, repair, upcycling and garment longevity. However, engaging in responsible care and mindful purchasing practices often requires careful consideration and a shift in everyday behaviours. We can all make a difference in reducing the environmental impact of fashion on the planet and communities by making simple changes in how we consume and care for our clothing and manage the content of our wardrobes.
Wear to next? is a masterclass introducing a range of sustainable fashion practices with critical debate and knowledge sharing from practitioners across the fashion sector:
- Dr Alana James and Professor Anne Peirson-Smith, leading academics from Northumbria University, will share research insights and key findings from the IMPACT+ project. The project explores how environmental impact is quantified in the manufacture, use, and disposal of garments.
- We will be joined by industry experts; David Reay, Founder at David Reay, Sustainability Consultant and writer Emma Slade Edmondson, Founder of concept pop up RE:BOURN, Sophie Cabourn, Tosin Trim, Chief Product Officer, DEPLOY and Gillian Ridley Whittle, Founder & CEO, Peachaus for a panel discussion + Q&A, exploring critical debates within sustainability and fashion, including how we drive collective action towards a more responsible future
- An opportunity to network with creatives, academics, industry practitioners and like-minded individuals over a drink and nibbles (included with ticket)
- Visit the Repair Hub. We will be joined by a team of experts from Northumbria University who will demonstrate various garment repair techniques (replacing buttons, zips, repairing torn linings, etc.). The team will be on hand to advise on minor repairs and answer any questions you might have about doing your own repairs. Please bring along any garments needing some TLC!
- Browse the rails at our pop-up charity shop curated by Cancer Research UK (cash purchases only, so please bring your wallets but everything on the rails will be £5 or less!)
- Experience the IMPACT+ Exhibition – showcasing the impact of pollutants from fashion and textiles in air, soil and water environments
Textile Exchange Field Trip
As part of the Textile Exchange conference the IMPACT+ team collaborated with The Microfibre Consortium to deliver activities aimed at increasing awareness of the environmental impact of natural and synthetic fibres. Hosted at Kings College London on Friday 27, 2023, the event included a demonstration of the TMC microfibre test method as wells as an examination of various textile and water samples under microscopes.
The Textile Institute Parliamentary Lunch
The IMPACT+ Team were invited to attend the Textile Institute’s Parliamentary Lunch at the House of Lords on the 8th of November.
Over 100 experts from the textile, clothing/fashion, footwear industries came together on to network and collaborate.
The event provided the IMPACT+ team with an ideal platform to raise awareness about our diverse projects and to form new connections with key industry and academic partners.
We heard from industry speakers Fiona Johnson, Senior Performance Innovation Consultant at UK Sports Institute, and Beatrice Russell, Owner of Flomotion Limited, who shared how cutting-edge innovation in performance apparel contributed to Team GB’s achievements in the 2024 Olympics.
Prof. Jess Power, Chair of the Council of the Textile Institute, closed with a powerful reminder of the vital role collaborations between universities, charities, and businesses play in addressing global sustainability challenges. Driving forward these partnerships is essential to creating impactful, real-world change.
The lunch was also a wonderful chance to reconnect with project partners and fellow network members. Special thanks to Dr. Max Kelly from Future Fibres Network and Dr. Dawn Ellams from Back to Baselines for your invaluable contributions. It’s inspiring to see sustainability gaining prominence across networks and industry conversations.
Looking ahead: Fibre to Future: Transforming Fashion and Textiles through Sustainability and Digitalisation will be the theme of next year’s Textile Institute World Conference, hosted by AQUITEX in Porto, Portugal, from October 7th to 10th, 2025.
SETAC Europe 34th Annual Meeting
The IMPACT+ team spent 5 days in Seville at the SETAC 34th Annual Conference.
The conference, running from 5th-10th May, was an opportunity for the team to present various papers and posters on individual and joint research. Dr. Chimdia presented her poster ‘Investigating the case of microfibre pollution in air: which fibres are guilty?’ – exploring the importance of microfibre fragmentation during the use-phase of the product lifecycle. Dr Thomas Stanton displayed his poster entitled ‘Teams to transects – local knowledge challenges our understanding of beach litter’ – which explored coastal pollution on the Isle of Skye, 50 years after a seminal publication. He also presented his paper ‘Unnatural ‘Naturals’: Sources, Pathways, and Impacts of Textile’s Plastic Alternatives’. Dr Miranda Pendergast-Miller exhibited her poster ‘Understanding Stakeholder Perspectives to Overcome Barriers in Tackling Textile Fibre Pollution’. Finally, the IMPACT+ team displayed a poster titled: ‘Beyond Lifecycle Assesment: cross-disciplinary methodologies to address challenges with environmental impact measures’.
The IMPACT+ Team spent the week engaging in diverse discussions with industry and academic delegates, we also progressed team conversations exploring how our cross-disciplinary collaboration can begin to contribute and catalyse action.
IMPACT+ Symposium
On January 23, 2024 the IMPACT+ team hosted our inaugural symposium at Northumbria University.
The event assembled academic and industry representatives to understand real-world challenges with assessing environmental impact across the fashion and textile industries. The primary goal was to co-create collaborative efforts to address identified issues and shortcomings in current metrics, measurements and assessment methodologies. The outcomes of discussions will begin to direct future network activities and inform the focus of the flexi-fund projects developed and distributed to the academic community in 2024.
The symposium featured a number of activities including: keynote speeches from Carry Somers, founder of Fashion Revolution and Catherine Salvidge from WRAP. In addition to breakout session, a guest panel discussion facilitated by Professor Anne Peirson-Smith (Fashion) and Professor Anil Namdeo (Air-Quality Management); We were also be joined by a team from Lim who live-illustrated themes and prominent topics from conversations through out the day (picture above).
Project Partner Kick-Off
The IMPACT+ team welcomed their Network project partners to a kick-off event on Friday 13, 2023, at Northumbria design school. During the event project partners and the Newcastle Leadership Team discussed their plans and ambitions for the project.
