EVENTS

A passion for design, fashion and food dominates our culture and unites our diverse Australian identities – but the future of our lifestyle needs to become the centre of debate and values-driven action. We as brands and consumers have created a culture of dependency where we continuously take, make and waste materials for the production of our favourite products.

RawAssembly is Australasia’s leading sourcing event for responsible, regenerative and sustainable textiles. In May this year, T Australia is proud to team up with RawAssembly and BETA By STH BNK to deliver RAW TO A T, including the return of RawAssembly and their new circular fashion exhibition.

By bringing discussion, debate and action to the centre stage – with globally renowned speakers alongside pioneering growers, manufacturers, retailers and innovators – RAW TO A T will address the complex question of reducing waste and balancing consumption with sustainability. RawAssembly will showcase a globally diverse range of textiles, fashion and accessories as both exhibiting companies and installations, including innovators such as the regenerated silk, RESILK® by Mantero, which will mark the first time this material will be exhibited in Australia.

Liberty Fabric will be showcasing their new SeaCell™ range, and Lenzing will present their Tencel Luxe collection, used globally by designers such as Peet Dullaert, Osman Yousefzada and featured as part of the Red Carpet Green Dress awards. MycoWorks will be joining virtually from New York to introduce Reishi™, a luxury material made from Fine Mycelium™, which is finished to the highest standards for leather and is currently being used by Hermès, who brought the first Fine Mycelium product to the luxury sector.

Visitors will also be able to see and feel MIRUM, a high performance plant-based  material created by Natural Fibre Welding and used by Pangaia as an alternative to leather. Also on view will be Clarus®, a patented technology that allows natural materials such as cotton, hemp and wool to compete at the highest levels of performance apparel. Think of the utility of synthetics – but made from 100 percent natural sources and Good Earth Cotton, the world’s only carbon-positive, traceable cotton, using Fibretrace® technology.

RAW TO A T will also host a variety of workshops, film screenings and information sessions, including a reimagined maker’s experience, where artisans (as part of the BETA BY STH BNK Artisan in Residence program) design and create new products out of sustainable materials while working inside repurposed glass cubes, and an open studio tour of KitX’s Future From Waste Lab. The event will also include screenings of “Regenerating Australia” (from the director of “2040” and “That Sugar Film”, Damon Gameau), a short film based on a diverse group of Australians who shared their hopes and dreams for the country’s future. There will also be information about grants and funding hosted by Sustainability Victoria’s Circular Economy Business Innovation Centre and Planet Ark’s Australian Circular Economy Hub and a Circular Tee design workshop that introduces designers to circular fashion. 

This is the recipe for fashion’s future.

RawAssembly will curate a first-of-its-kind circular fashion exhibition – titled “Changing the ingredients; Fashion’s future recipe” – taking visitors on a journey from the industry’s current linear system to one that is circular. The exhibition will explore how natural, regenerative and lab-grown ingredients are becoming bold choices for leaders in the fashion, textile and interior industries.

Following the three-day immersive sourcing event, the exhibition will open to the public, allowing everyone to learn, be inspired and see what the future of fashion will look like. 

These discussions are gaining traction. From fashion to food, agriculture to construction, packaging to footwear. Innovators are finding lost value in our waste and imagining a future of clean materials fit for a circular economy. There is a need for new kinds of dialogue in planning for tomorrow, enriched by a greater diversity of voices; our current system needs redesigning for this century. Now is the time to think critically about what we want to preserve, so that we may rethink and create anew.

RAW TO A T will reflect the global need for the fashion and textile industries to build tomorrow together by adding responsibly-focused ambition, transparency and innovation to create a non-traditional sourcing journey.

Tickets are now on sale to purchase – to secure your three-day pass.

Together we hope that the seeds of thought, creative experiments and commercialised products at RAW TO A T can be harnessed across the industry and help inspire further public debate and drive action around a sustainable and climate safe future.