Textile artist wins UK craft award

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

A textile artist took the top contemporary craft prize for U.K.-based artists this spring out of 400 artists of varied disciplines, with the winning pieces joining the U.K. Craft Council’s national collection. The winning works will be on display this summer in London, England. 
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Researchers test heat-reactiveness of fabric

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

Research into reactive textiles goes on around the world. At Aalto University in Finland, researchers have developed textiles that change shape when they heat up, thanks to weaving in liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs). The work was done in collaboration with the University of Cambridge in England…
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Fair-trade products + blockchain = transparency

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

Supply-chain transparency, meet blockchain. Students at the London College of Fashion (LCF) have used the technology to follow the production of fair-trade textile products and create irrefutable provenance of each piece created. They call the process “the future of ethical and sustainable fashion…
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Process patented to adhere aerogel to nonwovens

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

Outlast Technologies GmbH in Munich, Germany, has patented the procedure to adhere aerogel to nonwovens, enabling materials as thin as 1–3 mm to be well insulated and still soft and flexible. The treated fabrics, sold under the name Aersulate®, can then be processed conventionally and made into c…
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Sock could evaluate fall risk

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

Researchers at the Nottingham School of Art and Design have designed a smart “over-sock” that predicts near falls. 
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Wearable dirt? Researcher turns soil into fabric

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

Penmai Chongtoua, an associate researcher in the Natural Materials Lab at Columbia University, working closely with the lab’s director, professor Lola Ben-Alon, has created fabric using at least 60% dirt. Although it is normal for the lab to be filled with buckets of earth and clay and fibers such…
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Zero Bag packaging dissolves and washes new clothes

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

Kyeongho Park and Yejin Heo, designers majoring in industrial design at Hanyang University’s ERICA campus in the Republic of Korea, have created new clothing packaging that not only dissolves in water but disperses washing detergents. After purchasing new clothes wrapped in a Zero Bag, the buyer c…
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MIT suit designed to educate about aging

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

Visitors to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) AgeLab in the Center for Transportation and Logistics are greeted by a striking image: a mannequin in a jumpsuit and red goggles. But it’s the accessories under the jumpsuit that are the point. Inside the suit are weights and bungie…
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Brain Biotech, AMSilk to develop bio-based protein fibers

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

German biotechnology companies BRAIN Biotech AG and AMSilk GmbH have announced that they will collaborate to develop high-performance, bio-based protein fibers for the textile industry.
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New spacesuit from Axiom is built for moonwalking

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

NASA selected Axiom Space to deliver a moonwalking system for the Artemis III mission, currently planned for 2025, which will land Americans on the surface of the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. Axiom participated in the reveal of the first prototype spacesuit March 15, 2023, during a…
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