Debra Sparrow, co-founder of Salish Blanket Co (left), and Chief Janice George, master weaver and co-founder of L’hen Awtxw Weaving House, and a hereditary chief of the Squamish Nation (right). Photo: Textile Exchange Save Story Save this story Save Story Save this story “We’ve done a lot of talking. Now, it’s time for implementation.” That was the opening gambit from Textile Exchange conference host Samata Pattinson last week, kick-starting three days of programming that said a lot about the state of sustainable fashion, and the frustrations simmering below its surface.
In recent years, sustainable fashion conferences have been dogged by the same sense of frustration. Attendees often pay thousands of dollars to be in the room, only to lament the lack of representation and authenticity on-stage, and the lack of progress outside it. It often feels like the same people saying the same things they have said for the past decade, albeit varied slightly depending on the political zeitgeist.
Organizers have tried to wrangle this frustration into momentum, choosing conference themes like Ambition to Action ( Global Fashion Summit, 2023 ) and The Implementation Era (Textile Exchange, 2026). But sentiment is slow to change, and systems are even slower.
As Lululemon’s senior vice president of sustainability, Noel Kinder, noted in his keynote on day two, corporate sustainability has been through the ringer. The early 2000s were defined by a “reactionary” approach to workers’ rights, hinged on high-profile investigations and crises like the Rana Plaza factory collapse . The late 2010s saw sustainability boom, with values-driven companies like Reformation , Everlane and Allbirds ( now an AI company ) attracting huge amounts of investment; greenwashing exploded as brands sought to cash in on consumer awareness of the issue.
According to Lululemon’s Noel Kinder, it’s time for fashion to “roll up its sleeves” and highlight the co-benefits of sustainability that chime with other team’s targets. Photo: Textile Exchange Now, with political backlash against sustainability and widespread deregulation taking the wind out of corporate sustainability’s sails, the subject is undergoing another metamorphosis. At this year’s Textile Exchange conference, it became clear that the new sustainability buzzword is resilience .
“The reality of the world around us today warrants more discussions about risk and prevention,” says Patrik Frisk, CEO of textile-to-textile recycler Reju , which was the title sponsor of this year’s conference. “It’s all about regulation and geopolitical and environmental risks.”
Exactly what resilience looks like in fashion supply chains is up for debate. Textile Exchange structured the program around two main solutions: regenerative agriculture for natural fibers, and textile-to-textile recycling for synthetics. Both promise to boost supply chain resilience — be that against climate change or geopolitical unrest — but face significant barriers to scale. And many of the people who could unlock progress were not in the room, says Eileen Fisher’s senior director of materials and circularity Inka Apter: “There was a rather glaring absence of sourcing team leaders and CFOs in this space.”
For attendees, organizers attempted to serve up a heavy dose of reality, courtesy of professor Gail Whiteman, Hoffmann impact professor for accelerating action on nature and climate at the University of Exeter and founder of non-profit Arctic Basecamp. She r…