The sustainability of tomorrow's fashion industry will be explored as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival's talks and exhibits line-up.
At the Festival weekend (29-30 June) more than 40 talks will be held in and around Exhibition Road at Imperial, the V&A, Royal College of Music, Natural History Museum, Royal Geographical Society, Royal Albert Hall and more.
The talks are grouped into five main series:
In each series, experts and practitioners from across the sciences and arts will come together to explore a diverse range of topics including mental wellbeing in the field from Antarctica to Mars, music and the brain, firefighting in smart buildings, and a tailored approach to a new space suit.
Smart fashion
One such session, Tomorrow's wardrobe, will delve into smart fashion – from its huge implications for everything from healthcare to sports science, as well as keeping us on trend.
On the panel will be:
- Audrey Gaulard, Teaching Fellow from our Dyson School of Design Engineering
- Dr Jess Wade from Imperial's Department of Physics
- And Bushra Burge, Founder and Creative Director of BB Studio, a consultancy whose recent projects have included working with wearable and fashion technology.
Ahead of the session on Saturday, Audrey and Bushra offered up their top predictions for the fashion of tomorrow. Both panelists focused on the need for greater sustainability and transparency in the fashion industry.
Audrey spoke of the need for sustainability and a circular economy:
"We need to rethink the way we consume fashion and really be honest with ourselves: 'do I really need those clothes?'
"Fashion has been fascinating population for centuries. Why? Because it makes you dream, takes you out of reality, makes you hope. But we can use that power to make things change. For me creativity is one of the powerful solution to target climate change."
Listen to Audrey's full response:
Bushra added that transparency will be key to our tackling the problem:
"For me, transparency is not actually constraining but very exciting because it will create new innovations, possibly from old craft; new ways of designing, new design tools like immersive technology, VR, AR, global, cross-cultural and diverse ways of designing."
Listen to Bushra's full response:
Tomorrow's wardrobe will be held at 12pm on Saturday 29 June at the V&A lecture theatre. This event is free but booking is available to guarantee a place.
Most sessions in the Great Exhibition Road Festival talks series are free to attend but to guarantee a place, visitors are invited to book a place on the Festival website.
