The next 10: material innovations

Self-healing material

A rubber-like material that can self-heal when gently pressed together.

Upcycling

A sustainable design approach to reusing waste, where the longevity of the original product is extended and value-added.

Why: While recycling can often lead to downcycling - where the quality of the reprocessed material becomes poorer - the upcycling method enhances the product through reassembly or embellishment, which adds value or emotional attachment and also helps reduce landfill waste.

Integrated technology

A smoother integration between technology and user, where the components are becoming simplified, softer, more flexible and washable.

Why: Looking towards a more self-powered future, particularly within areas of heating and energy, there is a move away from bulky electronics and towards polymers that respond to heat and light, nanotechnology, and more incorporated elements such as ultra-thin, flexible and even inkjet-printed solar cells that have the potential to be printed directly on to textiles.

Synthetics: the new eco

Synthetic fabrics are becoming an important contender within the environmental debate, driven by technological advancements.

Why: Synthetics have been found to be less damaging to the environment than some natural materials, but new technologies are enabling synthetics to emulate natural fabrics, while retaining high performance and easy-care properties such as less washing and ironing, and a longer life span.

Grow your own material

Biotechnology is inspiring new material developments that use biological organisms to grow seamless biosynthetic fabric.

Why: A radical concept where fabrics may be cultivated in a laboratory, while addressing ecological and sustainable issues by using food derivatives or by-products of fermentation processes to create cellulose microfibrils, which have a similar structure to cotton.

Ultra-lightweight

Technical innovations are pioneering the use of air to create materials that are dense yet ultra-lightweight.

Why: The need to reduce weight for transportation costs and the evolution of a more transseasonal climate is pushing for even greater weightlessness while keeping strength and volume, as seen in the NASA-developed Aerogel, made from 99.8% air and the lightest and lowest-density solid known to exist.

Digital jacquard

The latest computerised jacquard technology from Japan that creates photographic-quality images.

Why: Technically advanced Japanese technology is creating 100% silk jacquards with up to 166 colours using a six-colour warp and two-colour weft, allowing for a much more complex and intensified image with almost digital reproductions.

Responsive and sensory

Textiles designed with embedded interactive or tactile elements that develop an experiential relationship between user and product.

Why: The clean and often sanitised attributes of technology are creating a shift back towards emotive and tactile fabrics that engage with our senses, or communicate by mimicking, transforming or connecting with the wearer using motion- or temperature-responsive technologies and wearable displays.

Biofibres

Natural fibres that are sourced and processed using sustainable ethics and production methods.

Why: As companies take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products, a growing commitment to natural, ecological and fair trade production methods - overseen by organisations such as GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standards) - embraces eco-friendly fibres, natural dyestuffs and non-polluting practices, direct contact with farmers and product traceability.

Designing with waste

Developing new applications for waste materials that would otherwise end up in landfill.

Why: Innovative and resourceful design is offering up new solutions to waste material and reusing existing resources, which explore chemical and physical properties for diverse applications, such as the use of powdered animal bone for rapid prototyping, or as a sustainable alternative to ivory.