The Future Fabrics Expo, the premier showcase for sustainable textiles in fashion, footwear, and interiors, is leaving London for Brussels. On June 24 and 25, the fair will unfurl at the Brussels Exhibition Centre, occupying 36,000 square feet with over 100 exhibitors and thousands of commercially available materials. For those of us who study how cloth touches the body, this migration feels significant: the shift mirrors lingerie's own journey from hidden structural support to visible, expressive craft.
Among the innovations on display, Nettle Circle - a Swiss firm transforming Himalayan nettles into stretchy fabrics - will present laces destined for corsets and shoes. This is a poetic return: nettle fibers were once used in European undergarments during wartime shortages, prized for their strength and breathability. YKK, the Japanese zipper giant that revolutionized the fastening of girdles and bras in the mid-20th century, will show hemp and organic cotton zips. Evoco offers plant-based textiles, while natural dyes derived from food waste, cochineal cactus, and Amazonian bacteria hint at a palette as old as the first dyed linen chemise.
The expo also introduces Swanstant, a climate-economic intelligence firm, to help brands benchmark decarbonization. Amanda Johnston, the expo's chief design officer, urges designers to "activate their collective power as agents of change." For lingerie historians, this echoes the early 20th-century corset reform movement, when makers sought less restrictive, more ethical materials. By moving to Brussels - alongside the Textiles Recycling Expo - the fair aims to amplify that message. Sustainability, like a well-cut brassiere, is about structure, fit, and the quiet revolution of what we choose to wear next to our skin.
Originally reported by WWD