Fashion meets flora: Kew’s Material World festival champions a greener future for fashion

This autumn, leading artists, award-winning designers and expert horticulturists will come together at Kew Gardens in London to stage a fashion revolution. As part of the brand new Material World festival, visitors will discover how plants and fungi are inspiring a new wave of sustainable design, with immersive installations, living gardens, community textile projects, and collections from some of the UK’s most exciting emerging designers.

Inspired by the rich resources which plants and fungi offer the clothing industry and bringing together global artists, award-winning designers and leading horticulturists, Material World is set to be London’s most innovative exploration of sustainable style. The festival aims to reshape perceptions of clothing and textiles, highlighting how everyday fashion choices impact biodiversity, climate, and the ecosystems that sustain life on earth.

Between Earth and Sky – Nnenna Okore
Suspended in the heart of the world’s largest surviving Victorian glasshouse, Between Earth and Sky comes from Australian-born Nigerian artist, educator and environmentalist, Nnenna Okore. A champion for the power of art in engaging people with ecological issues, Okore will create a bespoke commission formed from biodegradable materials including organic cotton, hessian and cheesecloth. Floating above Kew’s magnificent collection of rare and endangered plants, vast wing-like forms create an interactive spatial experience, inspiring reflection on ecological responsibility, and forging deeper connections between fashion, design, and the ecosystems that sustain us. 

London College of Fashion
In collaboration with London College of Fashion (part of University of the Arts London), a takeover by the next generation of fashion designers presents a forward-thinking showcase of fashion created from plants, fungi, and natural materials. This display explores how the plant world can help the fashion industry achieve sustainable style, with highlights including:

• A giant 3.5 metre t-shirt grown from mycelium by Jessie von Curry, a large-scale statement piece suspended from the glasshouse, acting as a statement on the fashion industry’s future.
• Six garments from five groundbreaking LCF alumni, including Beth Williams’ ‘growable yarn’, Silvia Acien’s new collection using pineapple fibre and nettle, Eirinn Hayhow’s naturally dyed nettle garments, and Jessie von Curry’s seaweed trousers.
• Plants used in the garments displayed alongside the designs, showing the direct relationship between flora and fashion.
• Interactive visitor activities, including a game, designed to inspire practical changes in how we consume clothing.

Global Threads – Lottie Delamain
Transforming an octagonal chamber of the glasshouse, a newly planted garden created by award-winning designer Lottie Delamain invites visitors to explore the plant material contained within their own clothing. Global Threads showcases the wealth of resources available in the natural world to create a more sustainable fashion industry, celebrating the plants that create dyes and fibres, and re-establishing an often-lost connections between what we wear and what we grow. Grouped according to their country of origin, with a special bed dedicated to hyper-local species, plants include Aloe vera, turmeric (Curcuma longa), Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa), Indigo (Indigofera tinctoria) and Cotton (Gossypium herbaceum). Each bed is bordered by ‘waste’ textiles from local charity shops, highlighting the detrimental impact of fast fashion.

Threads of the Canopy – a collaborative artwork 
More than 50 individuals at Kew’s Community Open Week, a free annual community festival held in May at Kew Gardens, have collaborated to create Threads of the Canopy. Artists Becca Smith, Carry Somers and Kate Turnbull, in collaboration with Kew’s Youth Forum, have helped create a large-scale textile dye map of Kew Gardens. This multimedia artwork employs embroidery, printing and various forms of mark-making on textile to bring the Gardens to life in a unique form and will be displayed as part of Lottie Delamain’s Global Threads garden installation.

Audio installations 
Elsewhere, an audio-installation by renowned writer, playwright, artist/curator and scholar Michael McMillan and Dubmorphology considers the complicated history and environmental impact of cotton, while the League of Artisans, co-founded by Carry Somers, will curate a dedicated exhibition space celebrating traditional plant-fibre artisans from around the globe. Through immersive audio (including artisans singing a traditional work song), photography, and storytelling, the installation highlights the artistry, heritage, and sustainable practices that modern fashion can learn from.

A series of accompanying events offer fun and interactive ways for fashion enthusiasts, sustainability advocates and green-fingered visitors to further uncover how plants and fungi can drive sustainable change. From vibrant After Hours events with DJs, poetry performances and costume performances, to talks on sustainable styling, hands-on workshops and demonstrations, Material World will reveal the stories within our wardrobes to inspire pioneering and positive change.

Paul Denton, Director of Creative Programming and Exhibitions at RBG Kew says: “We are thrilled to be launching Material World, a festival that explores the transformative potential of plants and fungi in fashion. This celebration of sustainability brings together art, design, and horticulture to engage visitors in rethinking how we approach our wardrobes, highlighting the connection between natural materials and fashion to inspire positive change in how we consume. At RBG Kew, we believe in the power of plants to shape a better future, and Material World invites everyone to discover the role they can play in driving a more sustainable fashion industry.”

Oliver Gregson, CEO, Wealth Management, Cazenove Capital, says: "Sustainability is one of the defining challenges—and opportunities—of our generation. As stewards of wealth, we carry not just a responsibility, but a real opportunity to help shape a more sustainable and equitable future. Material World brings to life the vital connection between nature, innovation, and the future of sustainable living. We are proud to support Kew Gardens and their leadership in addressing biodiversity loss and pioneering nature-based solutions to the interconnected climate and ecological crises. At Cazenove Capital, we believe our greatest impact comes from using our platform, partnerships, and purpose to help clients shape what they want to achieve - putting our expertise, capabilities, and collective knowledge at their disposal. Not just rooted in wealth, but with positive change."

At the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, we’re dedicated to harnessing the power of plants and fungi to end the extinction crisis and secure a future for all life on Earth. With our world-leading research, global partnerships and beloved gardens – home to the world’s most diverse collections of plants and fungi – we’re using our trusted voice to shape policy and practice worldwide. As a charity we rely on the critical support of our visitors, not only to sustain the gardens, but to protect global plant and fungal biodiversity for the benefit of our planet and humanity.

For more information, images, or to unsubscribe from this mailing list, please contact the Press Office at pr@kew.org.

Image credits: Nnenna Okore in the Temperate House © RBG Kew. The Global Threads Garden © Dave Watts. Threads of the Canopy being created as part of Community Open Week 2025. © RBG Kew.

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