No Ordinary Cloth: Intersection of textiles, emerging technology, craft and sustainability – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Special episode: No Ordinary Cloth x Fashion District

In this episode of the No Ordinary Cloth podcast, we chat with David Prior Hope (CTO) and Idan Gal-Shohet (CEO), founders of Fibe, a pioneering company converting potato harvest waste into sustainable cotton-like textile fibres. 

Fibe was born out of  a final year Masters project at Imperial College, London, aiming to turn agricultural waste into usable materials. Their innovative approach focuses on creating fibres from potato stems, which mimic cotton's feel and function while being more sustainable and cost-effective. 

Here, they share about collaborating with agricultural institutes and industry giants like Grimme and McCain, to build a promising startup in just two years that has secured funding from the likes of Patagonia’s Tin Shed Ventures, emphasising their impactful vision to develop a solution that can truly impact the textile industry. They enthusiastically share about their feedstock agnostic technology and the power of storytelling in building a startup.

It wasn't an easy journey, they reflect on their early days working out of a shipping container and how thrilled they were to get just GBP3000 to get their university project off the ground.

The conversation is inspiring and reflects their ambitions for the company to scale up by 2027, and integrate their fibres into existing textile manufacturing processes seamlessly. David and Idan encourage brands and stakeholders to support early-stage innovations, highlighting the transformative potential of such collaborations. 

Listen to them share about how they overcame challenges faced in finding funding to continue their R&D and scale their technology, their partnerships with potato farmers and fashion brands, the secret powers of being a student and how they manage a work-life balance while building an early stage startup.

Fibe is the winner of the Fashion District Manufacturing Futures Award for Innovation in 2024.

Get ready to gain a whole new level of respect for potatoes after this episode!

This is the second in a series of 6 episodes in collaboration with Fashion District, who are creating a hub for fashion innovation in east London. They connect fashion, technology, business and education to provide an ecosystem of support for fashion and textile startups that includes innovation networks, affordable space, business support and investment.

Connect with Fibe: website   I   Instagram   I   Linkedin

Connect with Fashion District: website   I   Instagram

Connect with Mili Tharakan:   website   I Instagram   I   Linkedin   I   Buy me a coffee

mili@militharakan.com

Podcast survey link

Cover art: Photo by Siora, Photography on Unsplash

Music: Inspired Ambient, Orchestraman

In this episode of the No Ordinary Cloth podcast, Beth Esponnette, the co-founder of Unspun, shares her groundbreaking innovation in 3D weaving technology that creates garments in a single, seamless piece, revolutionising fashion manufacturing and disrupting the current supply chain. Beth discusses her journey from an assistant professor to a pioneer and founder of Unspun, her challenges in scaling micro factories, and the leadership lessons she learned while captaining Cornell’s Nordic Ski team.

She emphasises the importance of transitioning from linear to circular life cycles to address sustainability, reduce overproduction, and the environmental impact of materials like polyester. Beth draws inspiration from influential thinkers and delves deep into the technical aspects, showcasing a visionary approach to rethinking the supply chain in the textile industry. Listen in to discover how creativity and cutting-edge technology can reshape fashion manufacturing for a more sustainable future.

Beth is fascinated by science and art, especially where they intersect: design. She earned her MFA in Design from Stanford University before serving as Assistant Professor of Product Design at the University of Oregon.

Beth has been recognised for her work by Vogue Business 100 Innovators, MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35, and Adweek Sustainability Stars. Unspun has been recognized by TIME with a Best Invention award twice.

Connect with Unspun

Unspun website   I   Shop for custom fit jeans   I   Instagram

Resources

Edward O Wilson   I   Books

Neri Oxman

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari

Connect with Mili Tharakan

mili@militharakan.com   I   LinkedIn   I   Instagram   I   Podcast survey link

Your support means the world to me! If you enjoyed this episode, consider buying me a coffee

Cover art: Photo by Siora, Photography on Unsplash

Music: Inspired Ambient, Orchestraman

Whether you are a textile designer, biologist, engineer, architect, fashion designer, material scientist or a curious maker - we all need to come together to innovate and solve challenges the world is facing today.

On this episode our guest speaker Anastasia Pistofidou has done just that - she has created an ecosystem that brings together diverse expertise to explore textiles and solve some of these challenges.

Trained as an architect, Anastasia meanders into the world of textiles through soft architecture, where she began to take knowledge and tools from her architectural background and apply them to the textile field to create new materials and ideas. She is a passionate educator and maker at heart. Anastasia's story is about the merging of creativity, sustainability, and technological advancement inspiring a new wave of textile education and industry practices.

With a mission to make science more accessible to everyone, she co-founded the open-source educational program, Fabricademy, where students from diverse walks of life (and aged anywhere between 16-65) come together to learn and innovate at the intersection of textiles, biology and digital fabrication. All are welcome to this program that fosters community engagement, promote peer-to-peer learning and collaborations worldwide. What you learn here is beyond conventional fashion education, it breeds new knowledge, equipping learners to challenge the fast-fashion industry's status quo.

Listen in as Anastasia highlights the 3 key skills she hopes her students would take away to drive an innovative and sustainable career, and sheds light on the future of education and what she would do if she had a magic wand.

Anastasia also discusses her views on AI, it’s role in creating and collaborating, as well as her current projects and provides a range of resources on emerging textiles for further learning and inspiration. Find the links below to some of these fabulous resources.

If you would like to get your hands messy and explore emerging textile fields such as e-textiles, bio-fabrication of materials, soft robotics, digital fabrication, wearables, skin electronics, check out  Fabricademy program and start exploring today.

Fabricademy website

Program - course info

Insta - @fabricademy

Resources:

Entangled Life book

Why Materials Matter book

Biofabrication: From Fungi to Fashion podcast

Next Generation Material podcast

Abstract: The Art of Design Netflix series

Life in Colour Netflix series

Ellen McArthur Foundation - Circular Economy

Connect with Mili Tharakan:

mili@militharakan.com

Insta: @noordinarycloth

Whether you love or hate mathematics, you are going to enjoy listening to this episode.

In this interview, Sophie Skach, a fashion designer and researcher, discusses her passion for interweaving the world of textiles with mathematics and technology, and her unique approach to creating catwalk collections and PhD research projects. She shares her journey on how she uses textiles as a medium to demystify mathematics and communicate complex mathematical concepts through her textile and fashion pieces.

Dive into Sophie’s world to learn about mathematical fashion and uncover the complex yet whimsical projects she shares with us. Get behind the scene insights about projects such as “No Input Textiles” (where textiles are used as musical interfaces), “Talking Jumpers” and “Whistling Jacket”.

Sophie explains the human-centric computing approach she adopted during her PhD, through the creation of sensor-equipped garments, and the relationship between fashion and social computing.

She challenges us, the listener, to embrace curiosity in a cross-disciplinary approach to design and learning. Listen in and find out how her curiosity about a mathematician, who shared the same birthday as her, influenced and shaped her career.

Resources:

Designing with Smart Textiles

Smart Textiles for Designers

Kobakant

Sixty Symbols: videos

Connect with Mili Tharakan:

mili@militharakan.com

https://instagram.com/noordinarycloth/

Connect with Sophie Skach:

Website: www.sophieskach.com

Youtube videos of No Input Textiles and other works

Instagram: @SophieSkach

Twitter: @SophieSkach

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wPQ5wvwAAAAJ

Who doesn’t love a beautiful leather jacket or bag. Sadly, the leather industry’s high water and chemical waste from the tanning process is extremely polluting. And faux leather is made from polyurethane and plastics. So can we ever use leather products without feeling guilty?

Join me as I find out from Daniela Rondinone, the Business and Operations Manager at Biophilica, all about alternative leather that is plastic free and recyclable. Learn about how autumn leaves are transformed into leather that seems to bring the best of both natural and faux leather industries together into one perfect solution.

Daniela also highlights the qualities and skills you need to be a textile researcher and innovator. 

Find out more here

TreeKind at Biophilica:

https://www.biophilica.co.uk/treekind

Daniela Rondinone:

https://daniela.rondinone.info/

daniela@rondinone.info

Connect with Mili Tharakan:

mili@militharakan.com

Insta: @noordinarycloth

Sara Robertson is a smart textile maker and researcher who has been exploring different ways to translate concepts of change and movement in nature through her beautiful textile creation over the last 20 years. 

Join me as I speak with Sara about her journey from a young artist to a leading smart textiles researcher. Learn about how she is making lace with light - these are absolutely exquisite textiles, and what has influenced her creative process. Find out her plans for the future and what it takes to be a researcher at the cutting edge of the industry.

Connect with Sara Robertson and check out her latest work:

www.smarttextile.design

Insta: @smarttextiledesign

Twitter: @saraplussarah

Connect with Mili Tharakan:

mili@militharakan.com

Insta: @noordinarycloth

The future of Textile awaits and we are stitching it together one episode at a time....

Join me in this podcast  series to learn and be inspired by all the incredible textiles that is radically changing the very landscape of fabrics as we know it. 

Whether you are an expert in the field or just curious about textiles and fashion, this podcast will capture your imagination and give you a glimpse into the future of Textiles.

Please subscribe to this podcast and listen in as I bring you the best and brightest minds from the industry and shed light into their world and works. 

Connect with Mili Tharakan:

mili@militharakan.com

Insta: @noordinarycloth

Special episode: No Ordinary Cloth x Fashion District

This is the first in a series of 6 episodes in collaboration with Fashion District, who are creating a hub for fashion innovation in east London. They connect fashion, technology, business and education to provide an ecosystem of support for fashion and textile startups that includes innovation networks, affordable space, business support and investment.

In this episode, Jim Ajioka (Colorifix), Helene Steiner (OpenCell), and Brooke Roberts-Islam (Techstyler) share their unique journeys and insights about navigating the intersections of science, fashion, and innovation. They discuss the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, the challenges of transitioning from different fields, the necessity of understanding your industry's demand, and the crucial role of marketing and customer discovery. The conversation also covers the significance of personal well-being for founders, highlighting self-care as a critical, yet often overlooked aspect of sustaining a startup. The episode wraps up with valuable insights into the resources and strategies that help startups thrive.

Brooke Roberts-Islam is the founder of Techstyler, a consultancy that focuses on providing intelligence to guide sustainability decision-making in the fashion and textile industries. She is also a senior sustainability contributor at Forbes, where she provides in-depth analysis and reporting on sustainable fashion initiatives. She is an award winning knitwear designer and has extensive experience in product development with various brands, including QASIMI, LVMH, and Solace London.

Helene Steiner is a design engineer that works at the intersection of technology and science. She co-founded Open Cell, providing affordable lab space for biotech startups. She has supported over 100 startups since 2018 and has a rich background in research at Microsoft and MIT Media Lab. She has received numerous awards and her work has been exhibited globally including at the Centre Pompidou, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna.

Jim Ajioka is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Cambridge and along with Orr Yarkoni co-founded Colorifix, a startup revolutionizing textile dyeing with sustainable processes. The use microbes to produce, deposit and fix pigments on fabrics, eliminating the need for harmful chemicals and reducing water usage during dyeing. Colorifix has collaborated with major fashion brands like H&M, Pangaia, and Stella McCartney. They have raised a Series B round and is moving towards scaling up their solution.

Mili Tharakan: Linkedin I Survey

Other resources: Fashion District I Fashion for Good I The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel Limited (HKRITA) I The Mills Fabrica I  Steve Blank’s resources

Your support means the world to me! If you enjoyed this episode, consider buying me a coffee

Cover art: Photo by Siora, Photography on Unsplash I Music: Inspired Ambient, Orchestraman

In this episode of the No Ordinary Cloth Podcast, we speak with Vibeke Vestby, the inventor of the first-ever digital jacquard handloom.

She share about her passion for weaving as a child, her impatience with traditional looms and a trip to Italy that was pivotal in reimagining the 200 year old jacquard loom. Vibeke recounts her early inspiration, the technical evolution of the loom, and the collaborative process with the engineering company Tronrud, to bring her vision to life. Her persistence and determination results in the remarkable TC2 Digital Jacquard handloom.

Join us as Vibeke goes from teaching prisoners weaving to wanting to weave clouds and peonies and  making a loom that will enable her and others to use the jacquard loom like a sketch book to quickly translate ideas and be a catalyst for creativity.

Vibeke also discusses her personal life, including how she became a trained pilot, and the importance of teamwork and curiosity in her groundbreaking work.

Tune in to learn how the TC2 digital loom, a symbol of potential, is revolutionising and democratising hand weaving, driving forward the ever-evolving ingenuity in textile weaving.

Connect with Vibeke Vestby and her team

Digital Weaving Norway

Insta:  @digitalweavingnorway

Connect with Mili Tharakan

mili@militharakan.com

Insta: @noordinarycloth

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjtharakan/

Cover art: Photo by Siora, Photography on Unsplash

Music: Inspired Ambient, Orchestraman

Podcast survey link

Timestamp:

00:00:04: Introduction to the episode

00:00:28: Introduction to the main topic - The Loom

00:00:59: Introduction of the guest - Vibeke Vestby

00:04:49: Vibeke's passion for weaving and her early career

00:10:08: Vibeke's teaching experience in Norway's only prison for females

00:11:26: Vibeke's career at the College of Art and Design

00:11:36: Development of the first Weave Planner programme

00:12:12: Vibeke's learnings and experience at Silk Art Foundation in Lisio, Florence

00:15:04: The history of the Jacquard loom and its evolution

00:19:12: How the Jacquard loom revolutionised weaving

00:22:42: Vibeke's journey to creating the digital Jacquard handloom

00:23:13: Initial Challenges and Realisation

00:24:33: Funding and the First Prototype

00:28:29: The Difficulties of Bringing the Loom to Market

00:31:15: The Loom and its Scaleability

00:33:56: Market Adaptation and Customer Response

00:44:42: The Loom as a Tool for Generating Ideas

00:46:27: Vibeke's Background

00:49:05: Discussion on Traditional Norwegian Costumes

00:52:04: Vibeke's Interest in Flying and Pilot Training

00:57:56: Outlook on the Future of Creative Weaving

00:59:00: Current Projects and Interests

01:03:01: Host's Reflections and Takeaways from the Conversation

Welcome to the No Ordinary Cloth podcast, where we stitch together a tapestry of textile innovations one episode at a time. Today, we're joined by Linda Worbin, a pioneer in Smart Textiles. Join us as we explore the past, present, and future of this dynamic industry.

Linda Worbin, a Material and Innovation Developer based in Sweden, brings a wealth of experience to our conversation. With her background as a former professor at the Swedish School of Textiles and a visionary in the industry, Linda's journey spans over two decades of exploration and development in Smart Textiles, and offers valuable insights into the evolution of Smart Textiles.

In this episode, Linda reflects on her journey from academia to industry, sharing insights that have shaped the field and inspired many to follow in her footsteps. From dynamic textile patterns to the importance of collaborations, Linda's perspective provides a roadmap for future advancements.

Smart textiles, or e-textiles, offer intriguing functionalities that vastly differ from conventional textiles. Imagine fabrics that respond to environmental changes, altering colour or texture in real-time, or clothing that monitors vital signs and alerts you to potential risks. These innovations not only redefine our wardrobes but also revolutionise our everyday lives.

Episode Highlights:

• Linda's journey from academia to industry.
• Insights into dynamic textile patterns and collaborations.
• Equipping the next generation of textile makers
• The mindset of a pioneer in Smart Textiles.
• Linda’s life and influences

Join us as we follow the footsteps of someone who envisions the future of fabrics —a future where innovation knows no bounds and an ordinary cloth becomes a canvas for extraordinary possibilities. This is the No Ordinary Cloth podcast.

Connect with Mili Tharakan

mili@militharakan.com

Insta: @noordinarycloth

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjtharakan/

Cover art: Photo by Siora, Photography on Unsplash

Music: Inspired Ambient, Orchestraman