The Mills Fabrica celebrates 13,000 at Denim Futures
Innovations platform the Mills Fabrica has published its Impact Report for 2023, in which it highlights the progress of the companies it supported during the year, as well as the impact of its events and initiatives.
From October 2023 to March 2024, its London-based space hosted The Denim Futures exhibition, which featured 42 brands, including Advance Denim, AGI Denim, Circ, Crystal Group, Galy, Jeanologia, Levi’s, Lenzing, Natural Coatings, Nextevo and Unspun.
The exhibition attracted over 13,000 visitors and organisers hosted more than 60 private tours.
In the report, it highlighted progress of some of its member companies.
Circ, which recycles polycotton-blend textiles using a hydrothermal process, is engineering its first full-scale commercial facility. As of the end of 2023, Circ has recycled over 114,000kg of polycotton textile waste.
Colorifix uses DNA sequencing to create engineered microorganisms that produce colour pigments, and in 2023 earned Oeko-Tex Eco Passport certification.
Mango Materials turns methane into poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB) using microbes. The resulting pellets can be used in injection molding to create packaging, spun into fibres, or made into films. In 2023, it collaborated with footwear brand Allbirds to create a net-zero carbon shoe, M0.0NSHOT.
Also in the year, Unspun unveiled Vega, a 3D weaving machine that produces seamless 3D woven textiles.
The Mills Fabrica also highlighted its ‘happenings’; including industry events, roundtables, fireside chats, corporate training sessions, innovation discovery days and sustainability workshops in Hong Kong and London.
To date, it has hosted over 360 events, engaging over 45,000 individuals and covering topics including alternative materials, textile innovation, circularity in fashion and novel food production.
The Mills Fabrica originated from Hong Kong in 2018, when parent company Nan Fung Group transformed its former cotton mills into a destination for “heritage and innovation”. It describes itself as a “solutions platform for accelerating techstyle and agrifood tech innovations” and expanded into London in 2021.
