Jun 11, 2025 (MarketLine via COMTEX) --
Fashion's next-gen fibres and materials will eventually be borne out of necessity due to a scarcity of water and consequently natural resources, but the innovation within the sector is already on the cusp of a transformational shift.
During Global Fashion Summit's 'What is Next-Gen' panel discussion, the European Environment Agency's head of Sustainability Riyong Kim explains the future of cotton and all natural materials is based on our water restrictive future.
She says: "We have climate change and we're already seeing areas that are really suffering from drought and these are places that we have traditionally relied upon to produce some of our natural fibres."
Fashion For Good's managing director Katrin Ley adds that "materials really lie at the heart of the fashion industry, not only for the aesthetics, but also for the environmental footprint".
What's next for fashion's next-gen materials? She also believes "we're on the cusp of a transformational shift for next-gen materials".
Ley defines next-gen materials as materials or solutions that are in the early stages of commercialisation, are novel and innovative, but also still face challenges.
In some cases this could be pricing or costing challenges and in others it could be just not being fully rolled out yet.
She continues: "When we look at the current state of next-gen fibres, these innovative solutions represent less than 1% of the market. We did a whole analysis to get a glimpse of what the next couple of years might hold".
From this research she suggests that by 2030 next-gen solutions could represent up to 10%.
Ley's excitement comes from the shift from a linear to a regenerative value chain and bringing the different material worlds together.
She states: "If you look at regenerative agriculture, together with biosynthetic solutions, together with circular economy principles, and you think about biodegradable or bio synthetics that eventually can biodegrade. Or if you think about solutions that can then be recyclable."
Regulation expected to pave the way for investment Kim asserts the regulation of next-gen materials is important given all the changes that are happening because it sets standards and requirements for the industry to follow in order for you to push forward with sustainability and circular principles.
She explains: "It paves the way for investment to follow."
However, she also points out that you when it comes to innovation and the new innovations that Katrin was just talking about, I think one of the key issues here is that a lot of is happening in different corners.
"What we need now is innovation at scale. I think we've seen a lot of really good small and niche innovations. One might call them incremental, but of course, some can scale up and then be rolled out on a much wider level.
"But what we're talking about is this interface of the bio material, the circular economy and the climate impacts. This is really now about the transformative shift that we need to see.
"The different materials companies will find their niches in the next five to seven years. But then, how do we join these up so that they're not about creating markets of individual products, but they're connected to a paradigm shift of how we use materials in our clothing."
Kim reiterates that she comes from this point of view of regulating materials because there are other limits on the natural resources: "We realise that we've got raw materials and they're finite."
She also shares a study the European Environment Agency has conducted, which lists textiles fifth in raw material consumption.
Creating a connected regenerative value chain As a result, she says it's undeniable that the fashion industry is having a really massive impact on the environment and climate, so she says: "Now is the time for innovators to come together, connect and see how we can have a transformative shift."
Ley is keen to share there are challenges in the field of fashion material recycling as a space overall. But, she says that's where the secret sauce of her organisation Fashion For Good comes in.
She shares: "We've just finished the T Rex project, which was a European-wide project with multiple innovators and multiple brands looking at what it takes in Europe to scale textile-to-textile recycling.
"Post-consumer waste really is a new frontier. Post industrial, I think is manageable, but post-consumer waste is a space that is yet to be built, so policy is clearly an enabler.
"But we've identified three challenges from that study that I would assume mature players also face.
"One is high operating costs for a supply chain with collectors, pre-processes, sorters and an energy mix that is not necessarily affordable compared with Asia.
"The second challenge is feedstock and getting access to quality feedstock at affordable prices.
"The third challenge is that everybody operating in that space is facing a lack of infrastructure, because we're trying to create a circular waste supply chain that is currently non-existent."
From that perspective, Ley says the key question is how can we address those three challenges in that space?
She explains Fashion For Good aims to align all the different stakeholders in the supply chain and that's just one example based on post-consumer waste in Europe.
But, she says there are many other frontiers to be addressed in future.
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